Sooner Men's & Women's Cross Country Teams Open 2024 Fri- Aug 30

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Men's and Women's Cross Country Teams open their season on Friday, Nov 30th at the OSU Cowboy Preview in Stillwater. The Men's race starts at 8:15 AM with the Women's race starting at 8:45 PM.

The Men's Team had three Top 5 finishes in the first three meets in 2023 and had an 8th place finish in the Big 12 Championships and a 19th place finish in the NCAA Midwest Regional.

The Women's Team had two Top 5 finishes in two early meets in 2023 and a 12th place finish in the Big 12 Championships and a 31st place finsih in the NCAA Midwest Regional.

For the 2024 season, both teams have picked up some new faces to run for the Sooners.

For the Men, the Sooners have picked up two transfers. Daniel Nickel Jr (Grad) from OSU and Jack Vincent (Grad) from Kansas State. The team returns, Colin Caso (SR), Joshua Cherry (SO), Peter Makuei (JR), Fernando Morales (GRAD), and Logan Seger (JR) who all ran for the Sooners in 2023. Sam Boyer (SO) is on the team but did not run in 2023. I also found a new freshman for the Sooners, Thobias Cheruiyot, from Kenya.

For times, I will cite the 8K times for the runners. Using their best times per their bios on the Roster they would rank in this order: 1) Caso, 2) Morales, 3) Seger, 4) Makuel, 5) Nickell Jr., 6) Cherry and 7) Nickell Jr. Their times range from 24:15.1 to 25:09.7 as a group. The Sooners need a top runner or two to emerge as the Sooners had only one Top 10 individual finish in 2023 (Caso in 9th). The men have good depth, but need a couple of top runners to separate themselves from the pack of Sooners with lower times.

The Sooner Women have 17 runners on the roster:

The Sooners return 8 runner from 2023; Gabi Barrera (SR), Nicole Clifford (JR), Grace Hansen (SO), Lily Horvath (SO), Kailynn Jackson (JR), Kel McDavid (JR), Erin O'Brien (JR), Grace Williamson (SR).
They have added 5 transfers; Sophia Coughlin (GRAD) from Connecticut, Chloe Ezell (R-FR) transfer from Missouri State, Megan Johnson (GRAD) from Central College, Peyton McQuillian (GRAD) from TCU, Kiera Snyder (GRAD) from Tennessee State.
The Sooners have added four freshman; Peyton Benson (Frisco, TX), Savannah Hull (Edmond, OK), Mia McGlade (Allen, TX) and Mary Van Dyke (Kingwood, TX).

In terms of 5K runs, the returning Sooners rank in this way; O'Brien (1), Barrera (2), Clifford (3), Hanson (4), Horvath (5), Williamson (6). Transfers McQuillian has times that would place her along side O'Brien, but her times are on the track and not across country. Transfer Snyder would fall into 3rd place for the Sooners. Four freshman have strong times and results that indicate some aded depth and perhaps help for the Sooners immediately; Benson has been on 3 State Champ teams and a Top 25 finish. Ezell had strong 800 meter results in Oklahoma. Hull was on the podium from her 4 x 800 relay teams. Van Dyke was a 2-time State Qualifier in Cross Country in Texas.

Much like the men, the Sooner Women need a top 10 runner or two to emerge to move the Sooners into contention. The bottom half of the team also needs to pick up their times to help. I hope the added depth from transfers and the freshman can give the Sooners some added speed and perhaps move the Sooners into real contention in 2024 as they move into the 2024 season.

Here is a link to the Cross Country Schedule:

https://soonersports.com/sports/cross-country/schedule

Good luck to the Sooner Men and Women this season and tomorrow in Stillwater.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the preview article for the OSU Cowboy Premier in Stillwater on Friday morning.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/8/28 ... oy-preview

Lineup for the Sooners in their first meet of the season:

5K: OU Men Competing: Colin Caso, Joshua Cherry, Thobias Cheruiyot (FR), Peter Makuei, Fernando Morales, Logan Seger, Jack Vincent (Transfer)

3K: OU Women Competing: Gabi Barrera, Peyton Benson (FR), Nicole Clifford, Megan Johnson (Transfer), Kel McDavid, Erin O'Brien, Kiera Snyder, Mary Van Dyke (FR)

[OUBeliever56A]

For the Sooner Men's Cross Country Team, Oklahoma Freshman, Thobias Cheruiyot, made a tremendous first impression for the Sooners as he won the first 5K Cross Country event of the season. He outran the top runners for the other three teams from OSU, Tulsa and Texas A&M. That is a tremendous result for the freshman runner from Kenya. Congratulations to him. Cheruiyot's time was 14:57.115 in the 5K event. the

But the Sooner Men still finished fourth out of the four teams in the match. the remaining four 'counted' Sooner runners finished in 23rd, 24th, 27th and 28th. The two remaining Sooners finished in 34th and 35th. Fernando Morales was the 2nd Sooner to finish in 15:38.665. New transfer, Jack Vincent was 3rd for the Sooners a split-second behind Morales in 15:38.665. Peter Makuei and Colin Caso were the last two 'counted' runners with times of 15:50.775 and 15:53.475. Logan Seger and John Cherry finished in 16:10.565 and 16:22.445.

Morales, Makuei and Cherry all ran personal best in the 5K race today for the Sooners!

The Sooner Team total for the event was 103 (1, 23, 24, 27, 28).

Tulsa won the event with a Team Score of 26 (2, 4, 5, 7, 8) with a slowest time that counted was 15:12.885. Texas A&M finished in 2nd with a Team Score of 59 (3, 6, 12 17, 21). The 5th best time was 15:37.995. Arkansas finished 3rd with a Team Score of 85 (11, 13, 14, 16, 31) with their 5th time of 15:15:39.335. Oklahoma State finished 4th with a Team Score of 97 (15, 18, 19, 20, 25) with a 5th time of 15:42.775.

Congrats to Thobias Cheruiyot for his tremendous first race for the Sooners! The Sooners simply need to move a couple more runners up into the Top 12 runners to begin to compete in the events.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Sooner Women's Cross Country Team also added one new standout runner as Megan Johnson (GRAD) from Central College (DIII) as she finished in 2nd place individually to lead the Sooners. Johnson's time was 10:37.378 in the 3K event. Johnson was 7 seconds behind the leader and 3.5 seconds ahead of the 3rd place runner.

Finishing behind Johnson were two strong runners from last season in Gabbi Barrera (SR) and Erin O'Brien (SO). Barrera finished in 10th with a time of 10.50.778 and O'Brien finished in 22nd in 11:07.408. Kiera Snyder (GRAD) a transfer from Tennessee State finished 4th for the Sooners in 11:14.308 and Freshman Peyton Benson had the final 'counting' score in 5th at 11.20.008.

Nicole Clifford (JR), Mary Van Dyke (FR) and Kel McDavid (JR) completed the Sooners women running with times of 11:23.848, 11.39.688 and 12:07.008.

The Sooners finished in 4th out of the four teams in the meet. The Team Score for the Sooners was 80.

Texas A&M won the meet with a Team Score of 39 (1, 5, 8, 12, 13). Oklahoma State finished in 2nd with a Team Score of 46 (3, 4, 9, 14, 16). Tulsa finished in 3rd with a team score of 60 (6, 7, 11, 15, 21).

Megan Johnson's strong race and 2nd Place finish will help the Sooners this season if she can continue that pace and finish among the top runners. Barrera and O'Brien can add a strong 2nd and 3rd finish as well for the Sooners and the team will benefit from finishes in the Top 15 from both of them. Barrera broke her personal best today by almost 40 seconds! O'Brien bested her personal best by about 17 seconds also! Snyder and Benson turned in solid times under 11:30 also. Nicole Clifford bested her personal best by almost 1 min 50 seconds today. Kel McDavid also bested her personal best today by 38 seconds.

The Sooners really performed well today compared to their history. That is always a good thing.

Congrats to Megan Johnson and all of the Sooners for the improved times this morning.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

[OUBeliever56A]

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the post-meet article about the OSU Cowboy Preview Men's and Women's Cross Country meet.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/8/30 ... oy-preview

All 15 Sooners posted career-best times, including seasoned OU runners. This is a very good indication that the Sooner Cross Country is on the right path. The 1st place and 2nd place finishes by runners individually is also a great thing for the Sooners.

This is a very good start for the Sooners in 2024.

Boomer Sooner!