OU Men Finish Fifth at Roy Griak

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The University of Oklahoma men's cross country team finished fifth at the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday.

The top finisher for the Sooners was Abbabiya Simbassa who finished fifth overall in just his second appearance in an Oklahoma uniform. Simbassa finished the 8k course with a time of 24:32.

“(Simbassa) looked really good,” said OU Associate Head Coach Jason Dunn. “I have been anxious to see what he could do. I thought that he was capable of running close to the front of the field and he did that.”

The second runner for OU to cross the finish line was Brandon Doughty who finished 13th (24:43). After Doughty was Patrick Gomez who finished 31st (25:01) followed by Dan Schubert at 42nd (25:11), Eric Graf at 61st (25:23), Kyle Polman at 72nd (25:32), Dylan Blankenbaker at 110th (25:57), Daniel Aldaba at 166th (26:20) and Will Hogston finished at 181st (26:32) out of the event's 240-plus participants.

“This was definitely a solid meet for us,” Dunn said. “Now these guys have a few weeks to prepare and train for the pre-national meet.”

No. 4 nationally-ranked BYU won the event and was led by senior Tylor Thatcher who was the top finisher overall (24:26).

The next appearance for Oklahoma cross country will fall on Oct. 5 in Fayetteville, Ark., where the women will compete in the Chile Pepper Invitational.

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Players Mentioned

Dylan Blankenbaker

Brandon Doughty

Patrick Gomez

Eric Graf

Will Hogston

Abbabiya Simbassa

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics