Completed Event: Cross Country at Cowboy Preview on August 29, 2025 , , 2nd - M/3rd - W
Final
Cross Country
at Cowboy Preview
University of Oklahoma Athletics
XC Women to Louisville and Men to Wisconsin
October 14, 2015 | Cross Country
NORMAN - The Oklahoma men and women's cross country teams return to the trails this weekend after a three-week break from competition. The teams will compete in separate meets for the first and only time this season as the men head to Madison, Wis., to run in the Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Friday and the women to Louisville, Ky. for the Pre Nationals Invitational Saturday.
"It has been a few weeks since we competed and we've been putting in really good training," said Jason Dunn, associate head coach of cross country. "It was a nice mid-season block of training before we go into this stretch of competing basically every other weekend all the way through (the remainder of the season)."
In Wisconsin, the men's championship 8K is slated for an 11:45 a.m. (CDT) start time with the 8K "B" race to begin at 1:10 p.m. In Louisville, the women's 6K Red Race is schedule to start at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, followed by the open 6K at 11:45 a.m.
The Sooners have not competed since their trip to the Virginia Panorama Farms Invitational on Sept. 26 where the men finished second and the women placed fifth. Dunn, who is excited for both teams to race one final time before the Big 12 Championship on Oct. 31, will be on a plane for a large part of the weekend to travel to both competitions.
The Sooner men alongside other harriers at the Virginia Panorama Farms Invitational on Sept. 26 in Charlottesville where they earned a second-place team finish.
"I haven't done it this way before so it'll be a little different," Dunn said. "I think at this point in the season both teams are individually focused on their goals and what they're trying to do."
Despite a tight travel schedule for the coach, he hopes the teams get the experience of running against the kind of fields they will likely face at nationals.
"They're large fields and it's something that they have to get used to if we're going to be at the national meet like we want to," Dunn said. "They need to understand what it's like to compete in a large and very competitive field. Outside of nationals, these are the two closest races you can get to that kind of environment."
The 21st-ranked Sooner men will send 10 entries to compete in the 8K race on Friday -- seven will compete in the championship race and three will compete in the "B" race. The Sooners will face runners from 35 schools -- 15 are also nationally ranked. That includes host Wisconsin, ranked 11th, and six teams ranked in the top 10.
The Sooner entries include Eric Alldritt, Allen Eke, Dylan Blankenbaker, Hunter Heaton, Will Hogston, Alonzo Chavez, Liam Meirow, Brandon Doughty, and Zac Randall. Doughty was the top finisher for the Sooner men at the Panorama Farms meet placing third, just ahead of teammate Jacob Burcham, who will round out OU's entries in Madison.
The women's field will also be challenging as they face top-ranked competition in Louisville, the site for the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Of the 44 total teams at the Pre National Invitational, eight are nationally ranked with five of the eight holding positions in the top 10 of the latest poll. Those teams include No. 2 Colorado, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 Michigan, No. 7 Georgetown, and No. 8 Stanford.
Cross country associate head coach Jason Dunn spoke with the women's team before the 5K race at the Virginia Panorama Farms Invitational.
The Sooner women will have nine runners compete - seven in the seeded 6K and two in the open 6K. OU runners include Elena Arriaza, Bryce Perry, Grace Barber, Sarah Scott, Sophia Fernald, Brittany Tretbar, Morgan Long, Belle Wallace, and Abbey Mace.
"It's a good opportunity to preview the (national) course for the women and I certainly hope we can come back and see it again in five weeks," Dunn said. "I think this weekend is something that can certainly help our season, but it won't, in and of itself, define our season. Nothing is as important as Big 12 and the regional meets in terms of getting ready for nationals.
"These meets can have some influence on our potential to make it to the nationals," he continued. "I'm mostly concerned with them as another step in our racing schedule to get ready for the championship season."
Results of the Wisconsin adidas Invitational will be available at http://www.harriersolutions.com/xclive/ while results for the Pre Nationals Invitational will be available www.pttiming.com. A full recap of both competitions will be available on SoonerSports.com.
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