Cowboy Jamboree Preview: How Good Are The Oklahoma State Men?
Cowboy Jamboree Preview: How Good Are The Oklahoma State Men?
FloTrack will be on site providing archived races from Saturday's Cowboy Jamboree, which Oklahoma State says is the oldest cross country meet in the nation.
FloTrack will be on site providing archived races from Saturday's Cowboy Jamboree, which Oklahoma State says is the oldest cross country meet in the nation. Next year will mark its 80th anniversary of the first race.
The day starts with "college" races at 8:00 (women) and 8:35 (men) Central on Saturday morning. These races won't feature any athletes who are big names right now--the schools in those races are mostly community colleges from Oklahoma and Kansas. But future NCAA studs to watch could be in there. Last year, then-Iowa Western athlete Sylvester Barus won the men's college race in the same time that Josh Thompson ran for eighth place in the university race.
University Women's 5K
When: Saturday morning, 9:15 AM Central
The juice: No. 7 Oklahoma State
Kaela Edwards likely won't race--she took her track season into July and the Olympic Trials despite struggling with injuries through the outdoor season. But the Cowgirls could have two potential All-Americans toeing the line on Saturday. Natalie Baker was 41st at NCAA cross last fall after not even making it the year before. And Aurora Dybedokken lowered her 5K PR from 17:03 to 16:00 en route to finishing second at in the NCAA outdoor 5K in June. That's a potentially powerful 1-2 punch; on Saturday, we'll start to see how much power is in that potential.
The Jamboree course is extremely difficult and slow. The past two champions, Cally Macumber and Monika Juodeskaite, both have top-25 national XC finishes on their résumés. And neither broke 17:15 on the course in Stillwater.
The OSU women have won six straight Jamborees, which is already the longest women's winning streak in event history. They'll extend it to seven. The men have also won six straight; if they win No. 7, that will put them one behind Arkansas's 1975-82 streak.
University Men's 8K
When: Saturday morning, 9:45 AM Central
The juice: No. 22 Oklahoma State, No. 28 Tulsa, No. 23 individual Luke Traynor
2015 was the first year the OK State men finished outside of the top 10 at NCAAs since 2004. If they get back into single-digit or even podium territory this year, then three guys made a huge improvement: Sylvester Barus, Josh Thompson, and Hassan Abdi. Barus and Abdi have unexceptional track times--roughly 14:30 5Ks and 30:00 10Ks--but they were second and fifth, respectively, at the NJCAA cross country championship last fall. In that race, Barus beat Andrew Ronoh and Abdi finished one place behind Ronoh. After that race, Ronoh transferred to Arkansas in the middle of the school year and ran 14:15 and 28:30. He could be a legitimate top-25 guy in Terre Haute in November.
Saturday will be the first test of if Barus and/or Abdi can be as well. A dark horse to join those two as elite low sticks is Josh Thompson. Thompson went from a 4:27 high school miler to 4:17 after two years of junior college, and 4:17 to 3:58 in one year running under coach Dave Smith. It's not a stretch to think a second year of Smith's training could allow Thompson to make a similarly drastic leap in longer distances. I filmed a future Workout Wednesday in Stillwater last weekend, and Thompson was clearly the fittest man in the workout. But he, Barus, and Abdi are all unproven. They could show something on Saturday.
Behind them, the rest of Oklahoma State's top five is unclear. Cerake Geberkidane didn't run at the Cowboy Duals, but that could mean very little. We'll see if he makes his season debut with the rest of the Cowboys. If a fully fit and healthy Barus, Thompson, Abdi, and Geberkidane are on, this could be a top-10 team, though it's unlikely we'll see all of them guns-blazing this weekend.
All four of those men are ranked behind Tulsa's Luke Traynor, though, who was 34th at cross country nationals last fall and 13th in the NCAA 10K this spring. If Thompson or Abdi beats Traynor, that'll give us a decent sense of how good they are. The Tulsa men are ranked No. 28, but they're in a tough position at this meet--they're clearly the second-best team coming to Stillwater. They could turn in any range of performances from really good to slightly off, and they would still probably end up second.
The day starts with "college" races at 8:00 (women) and 8:35 (men) Central on Saturday morning. These races won't feature any athletes who are big names right now--the schools in those races are mostly community colleges from Oklahoma and Kansas. But future NCAA studs to watch could be in there. Last year, then-Iowa Western athlete Sylvester Barus won the men's college race in the same time that Josh Thompson ran for eighth place in the university race.
University Women's 5K
When: Saturday morning, 9:15 AM Central The juice: No. 7 Oklahoma State
Kaela Edwards likely won't race--she took her track season into July and the Olympic Trials despite struggling with injuries through the outdoor season. But the Cowgirls could have two potential All-Americans toeing the line on Saturday. Natalie Baker was 41st at NCAA cross last fall after not even making it the year before. And Aurora Dybedokken lowered her 5K PR from 17:03 to 16:00 en route to finishing second at in the NCAA outdoor 5K in June. That's a potentially powerful 1-2 punch; on Saturday, we'll start to see how much power is in that potential.
The Jamboree course is extremely difficult and slow. The past two champions, Cally Macumber and Monika Juodeskaite, both have top-25 national XC finishes on their résumés. And neither broke 17:15 on the course in Stillwater.
The OSU women have won six straight Jamborees, which is already the longest women's winning streak in event history. They'll extend it to seven. The men have also won six straight; if they win No. 7, that will put them one behind Arkansas's 1975-82 streak.
University Men's 8K
When: Saturday morning, 9:45 AM Central The juice: No. 22 Oklahoma State, No. 28 Tulsa, No. 23 individual Luke Traynor
2015 was the first year the OK State men finished outside of the top 10 at NCAAs since 2004. If they get back into single-digit or even podium territory this year, then three guys made a huge improvement: Sylvester Barus, Josh Thompson, and Hassan Abdi. Barus and Abdi have unexceptional track times--roughly 14:30 5Ks and 30:00 10Ks--but they were second and fifth, respectively, at the NJCAA cross country championship last fall. In that race, Barus beat Andrew Ronoh and Abdi finished one place behind Ronoh. After that race, Ronoh transferred to Arkansas in the middle of the school year and ran 14:15 and 28:30. He could be a legitimate top-25 guy in Terre Haute in November.
Saturday will be the first test of if Barus and/or Abdi can be as well. A dark horse to join those two as elite low sticks is Josh Thompson. Thompson went from a 4:27 high school miler to 4:17 after two years of junior college, and 4:17 to 3:58 in one year running under coach Dave Smith. It's not a stretch to think a second year of Smith's training could allow Thompson to make a similarly drastic leap in longer distances. I filmed a future Workout Wednesday in Stillwater last weekend, and Thompson was clearly the fittest man in the workout. But he, Barus, and Abdi are all unproven. They could show something on Saturday.
Behind them, the rest of Oklahoma State's top five is unclear. Cerake Geberkidane didn't run at the Cowboy Duals, but that could mean very little. We'll see if he makes his season debut with the rest of the Cowboys. If a fully fit and healthy Barus, Thompson, Abdi, and Geberkidane are on, this could be a top-10 team, though it's unlikely we'll see all of them guns-blazing this weekend.
All four of those men are ranked behind Tulsa's Luke Traynor, though, who was 34th at cross country nationals last fall and 13th in the NCAA 10K this spring. If Thompson or Abdi beats Traynor, that'll give us a decent sense of how good they are. The Tulsa men are ranked No. 28, but they're in a tough position at this meet--they're clearly the second-best team coming to Stillwater. They could turn in any range of performances from really good to slightly off, and they would still probably end up second.