Sooner XC: The final wrap

NORMAN – The University of Oklahoma men's and women's cross country teams capped off a season that included individual and team achievements.

The Sooners entered the 2014 season with a veteran men's team and a young women's team under Associate Head Coach Jason Dunn in his second season with the program.

Despite falling short of qualifying for an NCAA National Championships bid at the Midwest Regional Championships, the Oklahoma men recorded plenty of strong performances and a second-place finish at the Big 12 Championships for the highest team finish in the race since 2011.

“I felt like the men really ran well at Big 12s and we were able to act really well on the experience we gained throughout the season,” said Associate Head Coach Jason Dunn. “I was very much expecting to carry things through to regionals and nationals and we just fell a little short, unfortunately.”

The Oklahoma women's season was highlighted by improvement with a program-best fifth-place team finish at the Big 12 Championships and a return to the Midwest Regional Championships, earning a ninth-place team finish.

“It was a huge step forward for the women compared to last year,” said Dunn. “We are still extremely young but it is exciting watching some of the women gain experience and get excited to take things to a new level.”

Brittany Tretbar, a Wingate University transfer in her first season at Oklahoma, was a factor in helping the OU women reach new heights. The sophomore finished first for Sooners in each race of the season, including four top-10 finishes.

“I was really pleased with a couple of the women individually – especially Brittany,” Said Dunn. “Not having her last fall and adding her this year was great for us. She had a great season.”

Individual accolades were tallied on both teams with a total of five Sooners – three men and two women – earning a spot on the All-Big 12 team. The honorees included senior Abbabiya Simbassa, junior Brandon Doughty, sophomore Jacob Burcham, sophomore Elena Arriaza and Tretbar. Of those Sooners, Simbassa, Doughty and Tretbar also earned All-Midwest Region honors alongside sophomore Eric Graf.

Simbassa also collected two Big 12 Runner of the Week honors for performances at the Washington Invitational and Wisconsin adidas Invitational.

Aditionally, eight runners received Academic All-Big 12 honors including Doughty, Arriaza, Burcham, Graf, Kelsey McKee, Alex Deir, Bryce Perry and Kyle Polman.

Hurricane Cross Country Festival

The Sooners traveled to Tulsa, Okla. for their first race of the season, where the duel format resulted in a 2-1-1 finish for the women in the two-mile race and a 3-2 finish for the men.

The women were lead by three top-eight finishes from Tretbar (2nd; 11:13), Arriaza (4th; 11:14) and McKee (8th; 11:21) to help lift the Sooners above Oklahoma State and Wichita State and record a tie with Tulsa.

The men were led by Will Hogston and Polman with identical times of 11:20 for eighth and ninth place finishes, respectively, to help the OU men record wins over Tulsa, Wichita State and Louisiana- Monroe.

Missouri Souther Stampede

Next up, the teams traveled to Joplin, Mo., where the OU men captured first and the OU women placed third.

Four finishers in the top ten helped the men to its second-straight title in the meet including Burcham (24:49.96) finishing third, Hogston (24:52.92) in fourth, Graf (25:19.28) in seventh and Allen Eke (25:25.71) in 10th.

For the women, two top-10 finishes contributed to the team finish as Tretbar (17:05.83) led the way again for a fourth-place finish and Arriaza (17:07.27) earned a fifth-place finish.

Washington Invitational

The competition elevated quickly as the Sooners traveled to Seattle for the Washington invitational. The men shared the field with seven of the nation's top-25 teams while the women's field included four of the nation's top-25 teams.

Simbassa and Doughty entered the field for their first race of the season and lead with a pair of top-10 finishes. Simbassa (23:22) finished third and Doughty (24:15) finished seventh to help the OU men finish ahead of six teams in the 8,000-meter race, including three of the nation's then-top 10 teams – No. 5 Portland, No. 7 Indiana and No. 9 Villanova.

Tretbar (20:54) finished first for the women with an 18th-place finish overall in the 6,000-meter race to highlight the team's 11th-place finish.

Wisconsin adidas Invitational

In the final test of the regular season, the teams headed to Madison, Wis., to take on even tougher competition.

The men competed in the 8,000-meter race, which featured 18 of the nation's top 25 teams while the women competed in the 6,000-meter “open” race – an individual competition with no team score recorded.

Additionally, Hogston and Eke represented the Sooners in the men's “open” race.

The men's team finished 17th out of 36 teams and ahead of three then-top 25 teams – No. 27 Minnesota, No. 19 Eastern Kentucky and No. 25 Princeton. To highlight the finish, Simbassa finished first for the Sooners and ninth overall (23:56).

In the women's “open” race, Tretbar and Arriaza earned a pair of top-10 finishes placing sixth (21:09) and ninth (21:15), respectively.

The Big 12 Championship

The Big 12 Championships provided a strong showing for the Sooners in the 8,000-meter race as Simbassa lead the way for the men in a third-straight meet, finishing second overall (24:11.2) and helping the team to a second-place finish – its highest since 2011.

For the women in the 6,000-meter race, Tretbar (10th; 20:49.7) and Arriaza (15th; 20:58.3) led the team to a record-setting fifth place finish in the meet. It was second time the women have finished in the top half of the meet in Big 12 history.

The meet also paved the way for five Sooners to nab All-Big 12 honors with top-15 finishes – Simbassa (2nd; 24:11.2), Doughty (8th; 24:25), Burcham (13th; 24:34.4) for the men and Tretbar (10th; 20:49.7) and Arriaza (15th; 20:58.3) for the women.

The honor served as Simbassa and Doughty's second and a first for Burcham, Tretbar and Arriaza.

NCAA Midwest Regional

The Sooner men entered the Regional Championships in Peoria, Ill., ranked fourth in the region, but fell short of a bid to the NCAA National Championships with a sixth-place finish in the 10,000-meter race.

They were led by three All-Midwest Region honorees earned by top 25 finishes in the race. The trio included Doughty (30:18.7) in ninth, Simbassa (30:28.9) in 15th and Graf (30:43.4) in 25th. The honor was Simbassa's second and a first for Doughty and Graf.

The women's team returned to the Midwest Regional Championships in 2014 after not competing as a team in the race in 2013. The team finished ninth overall, which would not qualify the team for the NCAA Championships.

For the sixth straight meet, the women were led by Tretbar with a time of 20:45.7 and a 19th place finish to collect All-Region Honors.

“A lot of progress was made this fall,” said Dunn. “We return most of our teams for next year and I know that we will continue to keep training and look forward to a great track season.”

Players Mentioned

Elena Arriaza

Jacob Burcham

Alex Deir

Brandon Doughty

Allen Eke

Eric Graf

Will Hogston

Bryce Perry

Abbabiya Simbassa

Brittany Tretbar

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics