Sooner XC to Compete at Big 12 Meet

NORMAN - After a season of training and competing, the postseason has arrived for the University of Oklahoma cross country teams who head to Stillwater for the 20th annual Big 12 Championship. Oklahoma State is the defending men's champion and Iowa State is the defending women's champion.

The meet will be run on the OSU Cross Country course, located just beyond the intersection of Garfield and McElroy. This marks the third time for OSU to host the meet and the first time since 2010.

The men's 8K is slated for a 10 a.m. (CDT) start and the women's 6K race will follow at 11 a.m. OU will travel a combined group of 20 runners to the meet. In addition to the team and individual championships to be determined, the top 15 in each race will earn all-conference honors.

On the men's side, four of the nine conference teams (West Virginia doesn't sponsor cross country) have held spots in the Top 30 poll throughout the season - including OU whose highest ranking was No. 21. While OU, Iowa State, and Texas fell from the rankings this week, host school OSU remains at No. 6.

(From left) Allen Eke, Will Hogston, Brandon Doughty, and Eric Alldritt are all set to compete this weekend at the Big 12 Championships.

"We're excited for the weekend and our goal all season long has been to try to improve our finishes for both the men and the women over last year," said Jason Dunn, associate head coach for cross country. "With the men being second, there's obviously only one place to go.

"We think Oklahoma State is a very strong team, they're on their home course, and they've got a very long streak so they'll certainly be tough to beat," he continued. "We'd like to give ourselves a chance. We also respect the competitiveness of Iowa State and Texas - they have some good strong teams as well - so we expect it to be a competitive environment."

While the Sooner men fell short of the team's goal in the previous meet, finishing 22nd at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Oct. 16, they still have confidence heading into the weekend after several strong individual performances during the season.

Redshirt freshman Matt Bradford will compete in his first Big 12 Championship meet on Halloween.

Junior Jacob Burcham is the reigning Big 12 Men's Cross Country Runner of the Week after he earned 11th place in Madison two weeks ago. He and Brandon Doughty, the top-two finishers for the Sooner men in the last two meets, will compete this weekend.

The Sooner men hope to improve on their second-place finish from last season and return three of five scorers from last season including junior Eric Alldritt as well as Burcham and Doughty. Doughty finished eighth at the 2014 Big 12 with a time of 24:25.4 and Burcham placed 13th with a time of 24:34.9. Alldritt finished 25th overall, 23rd in team placing, with a time of 24:54.4.

Dylan Blankenbaker, Liam Meirow, Alonzo Chavez, Will Hogston, the only other Sooner entry who competed in the conference meet last season, Hunter Heaton, Allen Eke and Matt Brafford will round out OU's men entries.

"We're ready to go," Dunn said. "We've had some good individual performances this season, but haven't had a meet where we've really strung together all five of our scorers to have good days. We hope to have that on Saturday."

The women Sooners are looking to finish ahead of their program-best fifth-place performance at the Big 12 Championships in 2014.

The women also have something to prove heading into the conference championship. As has been the tone since Dunn arrived two seasons ago, the women have made continued and notable improvements. Their fifth-place finish at conference last season was a program best and the women now hope to beat last year's performance. The women will also face a competitive field against No. 11 Iowa State, No. 23 Oklahoma State and a Texas team that recently fell from the rankings.

"The women would like to see if they can move up from last year. We were pleased with the fifth-place finish last year, but feel we can move up," Dunn said. "Again it's the same story as with the men, having five people run well on the same day. We'd like to think we can move up at least a spot in the conference this year.

"It's competitive up front with a few teams that are very strong," he added. "I think we've come around really well and have some people who are ready to compete at a high level."

The women have also had some individual success this season, but look to bring it all together with a strong team performance on Saturday. Brittany Tretbar has been the front runner for the Sooners in every race she's competed in since last season. She is coming off a 32nd-place performance in a 311-runner field at the Pre Nationals Invitational in Louisville - also the host-site for the national championship.

The OU women warmup at the OSU course for the opening meet on Sept. 1, 2015.

Tretbar will compete at the Big 12 along with Elena Arriaza, Bryce Perry, Sophia Fernald, Belle Wallace, Morgan Long, Alexandria Arndorfer and Abbey Mace. The conference meet will be just the second of the season for Arriaza who missed time because of injuries. Underclassmen Grace Barber, a freshman, and sophomore Sarah Scott have had significant performances this season. While Barber rounded out the scoring for the Sooner women at the last meet, Scott earned recognition as the conference's Runner of the Week early in the season.

All five of the Sooner women scorers from last season - Tretbar (10th, 20:49.7), Arriaza (15th, 20:58.3), Wallace (31st/ 21:31.4), Perry (51st/48th, 21:59.1), and Scott (54th/50th, 22:02.0) - will return to the conference meet Saturday.

"Our teams are healthy and we have everybody together now that we would want to have and we seem ready to go," Dunn said.

Live results will be available at http://big12.us/2015XCChamp with a full recap on SoonerSports.com.

Players Mentioned

Eric Alldritt

Eric Alldritt

Alexandria Arndorfer

Elena Arriaza

Grace Barber

Dylan Blankenbaker

Matt Brafford

Jacob Burcham

Alonzo Chavez

Brandon Doughty

Brandon Doughty

Allen Eke

Allen Eke

Sophia Fernald

Hunter Heaton

Will Hogston

Will Hogston

Morgan Long

Abbey Mace

Liam Meirow

Bryce Perry

Sarah Scott

Brittany Tretbar

Belle Wallace

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