OSU Track and Field Heads to Lubbock for Big 12 Championships

OSU Track and Field Heads to Lubbock for Big 12 Championships

February 19, 2019 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

Meet Information
• Events – Big 12 Indoor Championships
• Times – Friday: 10 a.m.; Saturday: 11 a.m.
• Facilities – Sports Performance Center
Meet Notes

The Basics
            The Oklahoma State track and field team heads to the Big 12 Indoor Championships, looking to improve on their 2018 finishes. Last year, the Cowboys finished seventh and the Cowgirls finished eighth.
            OSU only claimed two individual Big 12 titles a year ago, but are primed to clinch several individual titles. The Cowboys and Cowgirls have a combined 11 top-five performances in the conference this season.
            The action takes place Friday and Saturday at the Sports Performance Center in Lubbock, Texas.

Follow the Meet
           Fans can follow the action live on Twitter by following @run4okstate for updates. Final results will be published on www.okstate.com, along with a recap of OSU's day on the track.
Fans can also watch the meet on FloTrack with a premium subscription to the site.

Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Dave Smith on the Meet
On which group he is looking forward to
"All of them. They're all  going to do really well. There is a lot of excitement in the sprints group. The men's and women's 4X400-meter relay is something to look for. The multis and the relays are areas we haven't scored in in the past, but we're getting better at them quickly. I think coach McDonnell and coach Langley have done a good job developing those kids. I'm really excited to watch Ashton Hicks in the 400 meters and Aaliyah Birmingham in the 60 meters. They're getting better every single week. Our heart and soul has been the middle distances, so those kids will also have to carry a big load."

On favorite parts of the Indoor Championships
"Well, the weather's always great. I love indoor track because everything is so close together. All of the athletes and fans and coaches are much closer to the action and that creates an atmosphere with some electricity and some enthusiasm. The racing has more tactics and strategy because the track is smaller and everything is more compact. This is the first time teams are really gunning for it and going for huge marks and athletes are doubling and tripling to do what "

OSU on the Conference Level
            The Cowboys and Cowgirls have proven to be at the top of their game, owning 11 top-five conference marks and 32 top-10 conference marks.
            Sinclaire Johnson owns two No.1 performances and another top-three time in the conference. She has run the best 1,000 meter and Mile times this season. She also has run the third-fastest 3,000 meter time in the conference.
            The 3,000 meters is where OSU excels. It has six combined top-10 times in those events with three Cowboys in the top 10 and three Cowgirls in the top 10.
            Aaliyah Birmingham and Ashton Hicks both have top-five times in their respective events. Aaliyah Birmingham's school-record time of 7.33 is No. 3 in the Big 12 and Hicks' school record 400-meter time of 46.31 is No. 4 in the conference.
            Jacob Fincham-Dukes is No. 3 in the conference's performance list for the long jump. His mark of 7.87m/25-10 set the school record and put him in qualifying position for the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
            Isai Rodriguez has two top-10 times on his resumé. He is No. 6 in the Big 12 in the Mile and No. 4 in the conference in the 3,000 meters.
            The OSU mutli athletes are also in scoring position. Mace Metcalf and Cole Verble are in the top-eight in the heptathlon and Bailey Golden is No. 6 in the pentathlon.
            Ryan Roane has two top-20 marks in the jumping events. She is ranked No. 8 in the triple jump and No. 16 in the long jump.
            The Cowboys and Cowgirls are ready to score bunches of points in Lubbock.

Rewriting the Record Books
            Six school records have been rewritten so far this season for the Oklahoma State track and field teams.
            The Cowgirl distance medley relay squad of Molly Sughroue, Nicolette Dixon, Kaylee Dodd
and Sinclaire Johnson ran a time of 10:55.93 at the UW Invitational. The time was not only the school record, but also the meet record. They broke the school record by almost six seconds and broke the meet record by almost seven seconds. The previous record was set in 2016.
            Bailey Golden broke the school record in the pentathlon with a score of 3,564 at the
Razorback Invitational. She broke Melody Vaughn's record of 3,498 points which was set back
in 1998.
            Aaliyah Birmingham, a transfer athlete coming in from the University of Tulsa, broke the
school record at the Arkansas Invitational in the 60 meters in her first race as a Cowgirl. Her
new school-best time of 7.42 surpassed Kira White's previous record of 7.54, set back in 2017. She has broken her own record twice. The current record stands at 7.33, which came at the Arkansas Qualifier last week.
            Jacob Fincham-Dukes, who is also the indoor and outdoor long jump record holder, set the
school record in the 60-meter hurdles. He ran an 8.32 at the Arkansas Invitational. Fincham-Dukes also bested his own record in the long jump. He jumped 7.87m/25-10 at the Don Kirby Elite to beat his old record by one centimeter.
            Ashton Hicks is only a freshman, but put himself at the top of the 400-meters performance list, running a 46.31 to set the school record in that event. He topped Timmy Thomas' 28-year-old record. Nobody on OSU's roster was born when Thomas set that record in 1991.
            With the national and conference meets remaining, OSU's current records are still at risk of being broken.