Kissack And Webb Lead Cross Country Teams To Big 12

Oct. 25, 2000

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NORMAN, Okla. - OU will travel to Boulder, Colo., for the fifth annual Big XII Cross Country Championship Saturday. Host Colorado is ranked first in the country in the latest men's Division I poll while the CU women are ranked fifth, the highest ranking Big XII team in the Division I women's poll.

The men will run an 8,000-meter race and it will start at 10 a.m. (MT). The women will run 6,000 meters and their race will begin at 11 a.m. Both races are being run at Buffalo Ranch on the CU South Campus. This year marks the first time for the women to run the 6,000-meter event while the men have run an 8,000-meter race in three of the four previous conference championships.

Other conference teams ranked in the Division I poll include Oklahoma State (11th in the men's poll), Nebraska (23rd in the men's), Kansas State (ninth in the women's poll), and Texas A&M (21st in the women's).

Last Time Out
Brandon Kissack ran a 31:36 for the 10K race to finish 36th and lead the Sooner men to a 10th-place finish in the Arkansas Chile Pepper Invitational on Oct. 14. The Sooner women, led by Stephanie Webb for the third consecutive week, finished 16th out of a field of 25. Webb finished 41st with a time of 23:10.

OU welcomed Sam Stalcup back to the lineup. Sam Stalcup finished 44th with a time of 32:01. Other Sooner results included Joey McNair (59th 32:27), Cecil Rose (88th 33:22), Darren Hutchens (99th 33:45), Jarod Kelly (117th 34:21), Forrest Walker (119th 34:28), Jeremiah Smith (34:33), Jason Brown (35:10), Marco Torres (35:45) and Trevor Gillum (35:53).Four Sooner runners finished among the top half of the field and four Sooners with previous 10K experience, Kissack, Rose, Stalcup and Brown, lowered their career best times. Since it was the first 10K race of the season, it also marked career bests for freshmen McNair and Hutchens.

The Sooner women welcomed back senior Corrie Hussar who had missed two meets while recovering from pneumonia. Hussar finished in the top half of the field with a time 23:54. For the OU runners, all times posted were career bests because this is the first year for NCAA Division I women to have a 6K event. Other Sooner finishers included Aisha Stringer (23:54-75th), Corrie Hussar (23:54-76th), 88. Sinead Holt (24:10-88th), Amanda Luksetich (24:35-98th), Alaina Dearman, (24:45-107th), Abby Nutter (25:33-126th), and Kim Thomas (25:54-144th).

Coach Maycumber Says
"We are looking forward to this competition. Our student-athletes have worked hard since August to be ready for the Big XII meet and they are beginning to see the results of that hard work. For the most part, our times have dropped every time we have competed and we are making up ground. We have had great training runs over the last two weeks and I think we will improve on last year's finish.

"It will be interesting for our younger runners to compete in a conference meet. Colorado has a superb program in cross country and we expect this to be a great meet. Our conference is one of the best in cross country in the country and we are about to see that this weekend."

Webb, Hussar and Kelly Lead Sooners on Big 12 Academic Team
Stephanie Webb, Corrie Hussar and Jarod Kelly led the nine Sooners named to the Big 12 All-Academic cross country team. Webb, a senior from Bartlesville, has maintained a 4.0 grade point average in mechanical engineering throughout her collegiate career.

Kelly, a sophomore from Portage, Mich., had a 4.0 grade point average last spring in mechanical engineering. Hussar, a senior from Mustang, had a 4.0 in the fall of 1999 and the spring of 2000 in economics.

First-team members had a 3.20 grade point average or better while second-team honorees had a 3.00 to 3.19 grade point average. To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a 3.0 grade point average or higher cumulative or for the previous two semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of their teams' competitions. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence and senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of participation are eligible.

Other Sooners named to the first team included Alaina Dearman, a sophomore zoology major from Dallas, Texas, Sinead Holt, a senior sociology major from Dublin, Ireland, Jason Brown, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Meridian, Idaho, and Sam Stalcup, a senior zoologly major from Ponca City.

Named to the second team were Cecil Rose, a junior accounting major from Missouri City, Texas, and Forrest Walker, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Jenks, Okla.

The Sooners trailed only Colorado with 11, Iowa State with 10, Oklahoma State with eight in first-team selections with seven. Texas A&M also had seven student-athletes named to the first team. A total of 105 student-athletes were honored by the conference with 81 first-team honorees and 24 second-team honorees. A total of 15 student-athletes had posted a 4.0 cumulative or in the previous semester. OU and Nebraska led that list with three nominees each with 4.0 grade point averages.

Past Results
Colorado has won all four Big XII men's titles and has won three of the four women's titles. Kansas State beat CU in 1998.

Kansas State finished second last year in the women's event. The top four finishers from last year's meet return for the 2000 race. They include 1999 winner Kara Wheeler of Colorado, runner-up Leigh Daniel of Texas Tech, and Korene Hinds and Amy Mortimer of KSU.

Oklahoma State has finished second to CU the last two years in the men's race. The top returnees from last year's race include Colorado's brother duo of Jorge, who was second, and Ed Torres, who was eighth. Mike Friedberg, who finished third for CU in 1998, is also back in 2000.

Last Year for the Sooners
Four members of the 2000 Sooner women's travel roster and five from the OU men's roster competed in the Big XII Championship in 1999. Those participants and their times included Corrie Hussar,18:57 (64th), Stephanie Webb, 19:35 (79th), Sinead Holt, 19:53 (85th), Aisha Stringer (20:14 (90th), Brandon Kissack, 26:50 (59th), Sam Stalcup, 28:01 (82nd), Cecil Rose, 28:15 (83rd), Forrest Walker, 28:56 (90th), and Jason Brown, 29:14 (93rd). The men ran an 8K race last year while the women's race in 1999 was a 5K.

Next Up
The conference's teams will divide into three regionals for the NCAA Regional Cross Country Championships to be held on Saturday, Nov. 11. OU will head north to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the Midwest Regional. Joining the Sooners in Iowa will be Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri. Colorado's teams will head to the Mountain Region Championships in Salt Lake City while Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor will head to the South Central Regional meet in Denton.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Kissack And Webb Lead Cross Country Teams To Big 12

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