Blankenbaker to Finish Season at Nationals

For the last time, fifth-year senior Dylan Blankenbaker will be lining up at the starting line in a cross country race with the name Oklahoma printed across his chest on Saturday morning. But what better way to end his cross country career as a Sooner than at the NCAA Cross Country Championship in Terre Haute, Ind.

“I think it's a great honor for him,” says associate coach Kevin Ondrasek regarding Blankenbaker making it to nationals. “He's coming off a really good track season and to step up to the next level on the cross country course and make nationals is huge. I think it's also a really good indicator of what's to come in the near future for him."

Working in the San Diego, Calif., native's favor is his recent success in the past two races. Since his team leading 34^th-place finish at the Indiana State University course in the Pre-National Invitational in October, notable as it's where the championship race will be held, Blankenbaker has racked up consecutive top-10 finishes. His sixth-place finishes in the Big 12 Championship and the Midwest Regional earned him All-Big 12 and All-Midwest Region honors and established momentum going into Saturday's contest.

“At Big 12, he got to practice being in position when moves happened and in the regional meet he grinded,” Ondrasek explained. “Somewhere in between the two, you have to think that he's ready for anything that comes to him at the national meet.”

"It's going to take the toughest race of his life to do what he wants to do out there."
— Associate Coach Kevin Ondrasek

What makes this race different is that he will be competing as an individual and not as a member on a team. Even though the number of Sooners in the race may change, the strategy doesn't in terms of how he needs to approach the race.

As Ondrasek explains, “The strategy doesn't change with an individual or a team. In this meet, everyone gets out so hard and there is such a quality field that it's pretty much every man for himself out there as it is.”

However, Ondrasek recognizes that there may be a disadvantage in that “you're missing that team atmosphere of serving a bigger purpose than yourself. You know you're running for your teammates, but in this situation they're just not there.”

Regardless of who else is competing, Ondrasek realizes that at the end of the day Blankenbaker's success will be determined by his own actions and his own desire.

“To be competitive, Dylan will need to find himself in a position through the first 2K and he'll have to move up the last 5K. Basically there are two laps and he needs to be in position when the second lap starts, and close. It's going to take the toughest race of his life to do what he wants to do out there.”

The 10K race will be held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course and is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. CT.

Blankenbaker will be starting out of box 16 along with a trio of other individual runners. He will be competing against a total of 31 teams and 37 other individual runners.

The top-15 finishers will receive an NCAA award, and the top-40 finishers will receive a USTFCCCA All-America award.

A recap, along with results, will be posted at the conclusion of the race on Soonersports.com. Live tracking will be available at http://rt.timerhub.com/xc . For FloTrack subscribers, the race can be viewed through this link. As always, the Sooners can be followed on Facebook (Oklahoma Sooners Track & Field and Cross Country), Twitter (@OU__Track) and Instagram (OU__Track). Article