The Oklahoma State men’s cross country team finished third at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., today with junior Ryan Vail taking eighth place and sophomore David Chirchir finishing 15th to both earn All-America honors.
“First of all, I am thrilled with the way our guys ran today,” Coach Dave Smith said. “Basically, our top five guys all ran close to a perfect race at the most important time of the year. We had talked about being a top-four team coming in and this is now the third year in a row that we have finished in the top 10 at NCAAs, which is one of the things we wanted to do when we came here. The next step was to get into the top four and get on the awards stand at the end, and now we have done that. Now the next step for us is to win the whole thing.”
The Cowboys’ third-place finish this year matches their third-place finish in 1995 for the best finish in school history since OSU won the 1954 NCAA crown. Oklahoma State finished fourth in 1996.
The 2007 season has been one of the best in Oklahoma State cross country history, with the Cowboys winning the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships, Dave Smith being recognized as NCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year, six Cowboys earning NCAA all-region honors, OSU placing second at the Big 12 Championships and placing five of its runners on the all-Big 12 team.
Vail led the way for OSU by running the 10,000-meter race in 29:58 to finish eighth. Vail was a top-10 finisher in every race in which he competed this season and is on his way to stamping his name among the greats at Oklahoma State.
“I’ve known all along that he was a very talented kid,” Smith said of Vail. “I remember back to when we were recruiting him and some of the high school coaches in the area were saying that this kid was really good and could end up being one of the best ever at OSU. The thing with him is that he’s a guy who started running late. He was into wrestling and other things and he is still making the adjustment from high school to college. It’s really exciting to see it all coming together for him.”
Smith said part of the Cowboys’ strategy at NCAAs was to have sophomore David Chirchir, the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and an all-NCAA Midwest Region honoree, run a conservative race early then make a move as the race went on. The strategy proved beneficial, as Chirchir surged his way through the field to a 15th-place finish.
“Chirchir is another guy who is new to running and is just now learning how to race and run. He didn’t run much before and he is still figuring out how to pace himself,” Smith said. “We asked him to stay back for the first 5K of the race and be ready to make a move as the race went on. If I had let him loose, he probably could have finished even higher, but he did exactly what we asked of him and it worked out well.”
Smith said that Vail and Chirchir’s respective finishes put the Cowboys in good position at the top of the lineup, but the performances of Daniel Watts, Matt Barnes-Smith and David Jankowski ended up being the difference in OSU finishing as high as it did. Watts took 42nd overall with a time of 30:43, with Barnes-Smith finishing 48th with a time of 30:45 and Jankowski clocking a 31:05 to take 67th.
“Vail and Chirchir both did great, but we beat most teams with how Watts, Barnes-Smith and Jankowski did,” Smith said. “Teams like Northern Arizona, Wisconsin and Colorado, we matched them up front but hurt them with depth throughout the lineup. We only finished 10 points ahead of the fourth-place team so if those three guys didn’t do as well as they did, we could have easily dropped to fourth overall.
“I’m really happy for guys like Jankowski and Brian Ehlis, who came year five years ago really taking a gamble on OSU at a time when we were struggling a little bit and didn’t go to NCAAs,” Smith said. “They came here and worked hard their entire career and were great ambassadors for the program in recruiting and now it’s their fifth year and they get to enjoy a day like today.”
Smith said a lack of respect played a factor is OSU’s third-place finish at NCAAs.
“We kind of ran with a chip on our shoulder because we didn’t get a whole lot of recognition from the national running media and in cross country circles,” Smith said. “Nobody thought we could do this, but our kids believed in themselves and now they are excited about what they have done, but are still very businesslike in how they are approaching it. The next step is to win the whole thing and they want to win badly.”
“First of all, I am thrilled with the way our guys ran today,” Coach Dave Smith said. “Basically, our top five guys all ran close to a perfect race at the most important time of the year. We had talked about being a top-four team coming in and this is now the third year in a row that we have finished in the top 10 at NCAAs, which is one of the things we wanted to do when we came here. The next step was to get into the top four and get on the awards stand at the end, and now we have done that. Now the next step for us is to win the whole thing.”
The Cowboys’ third-place finish this year matches their third-place finish in 1995 for the best finish in school history since OSU won the 1954 NCAA crown. Oklahoma State finished fourth in 1996.
The 2007 season has been one of the best in Oklahoma State cross country history, with the Cowboys winning the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships, Dave Smith being recognized as NCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year, six Cowboys earning NCAA all-region honors, OSU placing second at the Big 12 Championships and placing five of its runners on the all-Big 12 team.
Vail led the way for OSU by running the 10,000-meter race in 29:58 to finish eighth. Vail was a top-10 finisher in every race in which he competed this season and is on his way to stamping his name among the greats at Oklahoma State.
“I’ve known all along that he was a very talented kid,” Smith said of Vail. “I remember back to when we were recruiting him and some of the high school coaches in the area were saying that this kid was really good and could end up being one of the best ever at OSU. The thing with him is that he’s a guy who started running late. He was into wrestling and other things and he is still making the adjustment from high school to college. It’s really exciting to see it all coming together for him.”
Smith said part of the Cowboys’ strategy at NCAAs was to have sophomore David Chirchir, the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and an all-NCAA Midwest Region honoree, run a conservative race early then make a move as the race went on. The strategy proved beneficial, as Chirchir surged his way through the field to a 15th-place finish.
“Chirchir is another guy who is new to running and is just now learning how to race and run. He didn’t run much before and he is still figuring out how to pace himself,” Smith said. “We asked him to stay back for the first 5K of the race and be ready to make a move as the race went on. If I had let him loose, he probably could have finished even higher, but he did exactly what we asked of him and it worked out well.”
Smith said that Vail and Chirchir’s respective finishes put the Cowboys in good position at the top of the lineup, but the performances of Daniel Watts, Matt Barnes-Smith and David Jankowski ended up being the difference in OSU finishing as high as it did. Watts took 42nd overall with a time of 30:43, with Barnes-Smith finishing 48th with a time of 30:45 and Jankowski clocking a 31:05 to take 67th.
“Vail and Chirchir both did great, but we beat most teams with how Watts, Barnes-Smith and Jankowski did,” Smith said. “Teams like Northern Arizona, Wisconsin and Colorado, we matched them up front but hurt them with depth throughout the lineup. We only finished 10 points ahead of the fourth-place team so if those three guys didn’t do as well as they did, we could have easily dropped to fourth overall.
“I’m really happy for guys like Jankowski and Brian Ehlis, who came year five years ago really taking a gamble on OSU at a time when we were struggling a little bit and didn’t go to NCAAs,” Smith said. “They came here and worked hard their entire career and were great ambassadors for the program in recruiting and now it’s their fifth year and they get to enjoy a day like today.”
Smith said a lack of respect played a factor is OSU’s third-place finish at NCAAs.
“We kind of ran with a chip on our shoulder because we didn’t get a whole lot of recognition from the national running media and in cross country circles,” Smith said. “Nobody thought we could do this, but our kids believed in themselves and now they are excited about what they have done, but are still very businesslike in how they are approaching it. The next step is to win the whole thing and they want to win badly.”