Sooners Wrap Up Regular Season

MADISON, Wis. – Senior Abbabiya Simbassa finished ninth in a talent-rich field at the sixth annual Wisconsin adidas Invitational to lead the Sooner men to a 17^th-place finish in the Collegiate Men's race in Madison, Wis. Friday. The field featured 36 teams including six of the country's top 10 and 18 of the top 25 in the United States Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association's latest ranking.

Easily the toughest field the Sooners have faced this season, the 20^th-ranked OU men finished ahead of 19 teams in the 8k race including No. 27 Minnesota (20), No. 19 Eastern Kentucky in (21) and No. 25 Princeton in (23).

"It wasn't the team performance we were looking for, a few of our guys were just a little off," said associate head coach Jason Dunn. "But I was definitely very pleased with Biya. He did a really nice job."

Brandon Doughty finished in 40^th/39^th (24:15), followed by Jacob Burcham in 112^th/108^th (24:43); Eric Alldritt in 124^th/120^th (24:47), and Eric Graf in 147^th/143^rd (24:57). The team score finish is the second number. Kyle Polman finished the course in 25:10 and Alex Deir came in at 25:54 but neither of their finishes counted toward OU's team total.

In the men's open race, the Sooners were represented by Will Hogston, who finished 18^th with a time of 25:09, and Allen Eke, who was 70^th with a time of 26:39. Team scores were not kept in the open division.

For the OU women, Brittany Tretbar and Elena Arriaza earned a pair of top-10 finishes placing sixth (21:09) and ninth (21:15) in the women's 6k open division, respectively.

Team scores were not recorded in the women's open race either. Joining Tretbar and Arriaza in the 111-runner field were Belle Wallace, 52^nd/31^st (14:49); Bryce Perry in 55^th/32^nd (22:18); Abbey Mace in 81^st/46^th (23:02), and Kelsey McKee in 94^th/55^th (23:15).

Dunn was pleased with their effort and the experience that the highly-competitive environment provided.

"I think we made some progress and the women certainly improved from this experience," said Dunn. "It will definitely pay off for us down the road."

In the two championship races, No. 6 Syracuse captured the title in the men's race with Stanford's Maxim Korolev taking the individual crown in a time of 23:43. Second ranked Michigan State won the women's team title with Iowa State's Crystal Nelson finishing first with a time of 19:35.

In the women's open race, Stanford's Vanessa Fraser finished first with a time of 20:56 while Syracuse's Joel Hubbard took the men's open race title with a time of 24:24.

OU returns to competition in two weeks, traveling to Lawrence, Kan., for the Big 12 Championships on Nov. 1.

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Players Mentioned

Eric Alldritt

Elena Arriaza

Jacob Burcham

Jacob Burcham

Alex Deir

Brandon Doughty

Allen Eke

Eric Graf

Will Hogston

Abbey Mace

Kelsey McKee

Bryce Perry

Abbabiya Simbassa

Brittany Tretbar

Belle Wallace

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