Tulsa World: OSU to host cross country regional meet

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OSU to host cross country regional meet

By MATT DOYLE World Sports Writer
Published: 11/14/2008 2:13 AM
Last Modified: 11/14/2008 2:27 AM

Being at home does provide an advantage. Oklahoma State men's cross country coach Dave Smith will take the home-course advantage this weekend.

Smith, though, wants to save his team's biggest advantage for the Cowboys' biggest meet.

The Cowboys, ranked second in the latest national rankings, are hosting the NCAA Midwest Regional on Saturday in Stillwater. OSU enters the meet as the highest-ranked team with No. 14 Minnesota, No. 15 Tulsa and No. 21 Iowa State also in the 28-team field.

But Smith's top priority Saturday is to conserve enough energy, yet perform well enough to position itself for the Nov. 24 NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.

"It's a tough setup. Running 10,000 meters at both regionals and nationals in a 10-day span is tough on the body," Smith said. "That's the hardest part of cross country."

Smith's strategy is to have his team run as a pack and not attempt to win the individual title. Quality of depth should help OSU attain a top-two team finish to earn an automatic berth to nationals. Freshman standout German Fernandez won the Big 12 meet two weeks ago, while junior Josh Kosgei and senior Ryan Vail were third and fourth, respectively.

TU's men are hoping to finish first or second to automatically advance. If not, the Golden Hurricane hopes its performance will be good enough to earn one of the 13 at-large berths for nationals decided on Sunday.

"This is as good of competition as you will see in the country," TU coach Steve Gulley said. "It is inspiring to run against them, and we have to go in and give it our all. I know it sounds strange, but I think it's easier to run against this level because we know we have to run well to move onto nationals."

TU is led by junior John Beattie, who won the Conference USA championship on Nov. 1.

Summit League champion Jonah Lagat is one of three ORU men heading to regionals.

The regional also has a 31-team women's field. OSU will field a full team while TU and OU will have selected individuals competing. TU senior Alex Becker finished 15th at last year's national meet.

Matt Doyle 581-8316
matt.doyle@tulsaworld.com By MATT DOYLE World Sports Writer

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