Cowboy Cross Country Repeats as NCAA Champions

Monday, November 22

Terre Haute, Ind.

12:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

NCAA Championships

November 22, 2010 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track

Nov. 22, 2010

Quotes

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Oklahoma State men's cross country program repeated as national champions Monday at the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championships, winning its third overall and second consecutive national title as three Cowboys finished in the top 10 to seal the team championship.

“It was awesome. I'm just really proud of the guys,” Coach Dave Smith said. “They've worked extremely hard since last year. They didn't just rest on winning one championship. They were focused to win this one. It was 364 days of preparation to win and it all came together very nicely today.”

The Cowboys dominated the field in the 10,000-meter race and scored just 73 team points, 120 better than runner-up Florida State. Wisconsin was third with 223 points, Stanford was fourth with 237 points and Oklahoma was fifth with 281 points. Oklahoma State's margin of victory is the fourth-largest in the history of the NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships.

“I did not expect that,” Smith said of Oklahoma State's wide margin of victory at the meet. “I thought it might be 30 or 40 points between first and fourth. I say this all the time – you've got to be a little bit lucky on race day. You've got to be fit, you've got to be prepared, you've got to have talented kids, but you've got to be a little bit lucky, too. There were some teams out there that dealt with some bad luck today. We didn't. We were extremely fortunate all year because we didn't deal with many injury problems. We didn't deal with any major illnesses. We came into the race with our guns fully loaded. That was probably the difference between being a tight race and winning it like how we did. The scores didn't reflect how tough some of those teams were out there. If we ran that race again, the score would not look like that. It would be much closer. We just had luck on our side today.”

As they have done all year, the trio of Girma Mecheso, German Fernandez and Colby Lowe anchored the Cowboys' win, finishing seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. Tom Farrell was 29^th overall and Johnathan Stublaski was 36^th overall to round out the Oklahoma State scoring five. At the NCAA Championships, the top 40 finishers are recognized as All-Americans, meaning that OSU's entire scoring five performed at an All-America level.

“We knew we had three guys that I thought were as good as any top three in the country. I wanted those guys to go out and run and to put themselves into position to beat whoever the top third man was. They did that very well,” Smith said. “They ran with Stanford's top two and Tom Farrell, who I thought going in was the best fourth man in the country, I wanted him to play it safe and not run with our top three even though he had been doing that all year. I wanted him to play it a little more conservatively and sit back and finish well. He did that to perfection. The three guys who really came through biggest for us were John Stublaski, Joe Manilafasha and Ryan Prentice. All three ran outstanding races. Stubs and Joe were big. Stubs made All-American. We asked him to go out in the 80-to-100 range and move up and he did that extremely well and Joe was not far behind. Ryan Prentice lost his shoe in the first 1,000 meters and had to run the next 9,000 meters with one shoe on and one shoe off. Having to go through that and still focus is tough, but he did a great job.”

The Cowboys buried their competition throughout the 2010 season. The Cowboys won the individual title in every meet they competed in this season, with the exception of the NCAA Championships, where defending individual champion and meet-record holder Samuel Chelanga of Liberty won another title.

“The race went just how we wanted it to go. Girma, Colby and me went out and ran in the top 30 group and settled down until 2K to go, and we just let it rip,” Fernandez said. “It went to our plan and we felt good for that last 2K. Still, there was one moment where I got kind of panicked when Colby got tripped with 1K to go, but he caught up to the group in two seconds so he really showed how great he is right there. I can't even explain it, how happy I was when we finished because I saw Stublaski and Tom Farrell finish in the top 30 and I knew right then that we won. It was a great feeling because everyone did their jobs and we won back-to-back NCAA Championships and I don't think there are a lot of teams that can do that.”

OSU also won the team title in every meet it competed in this year, with the exception of the NCAA Midwest Regional where the Cowboys cruised to a second place finish in an effective effort to reserve energy for the national meet.

“This is very special because it's very hard to win back-to-back championships. You have to be on and you have to have some kind of luck along the way,” Fernandez said. “Not only did we beat teams, but we destroyed them. That really sends a message that we're one of the top-ranked teams in the nation.”

Lowe echoed a similar sentiment.

“It's something we've been working for after last year's win. We went back to the drawing board and looked at what we needed to get better at to win again,” Lowe said. “At the beginning of the season, that was our goal and we kept working hard and kept pushing through it all. It led to the victory and to what we wanted to accomplish. It's an unbelievable feeling. Winning back-to-back NCAA Championships and getting the 50^th national title for OSU is very special to share with these guys.”

2010 NCAA Cross Country Championships

Men's Team Results (Top 5)

1. Oklahoma State – 73

2. Florida State – 193

3. Wisconsin – 223

4. Stanford – 237

5. Oklahoma – 281

Men's OSU Results

7. Girma Mecheso - 29:47.5

8. German Fernandez - 29:49.3

9. Colby Lowe - 29:57.6

29. Tom Farrell - 30:21.3