No. 1 Oklahoma State Men Face No. 3 Arkansas, No. 28 Tulsa on Friday; No. 15 OSU Women Face Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Tulsa

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

John Nepolitan photos

The collegiate cross country season gets underway this week with four preseason ranked teams hitting the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course this Friday in Stillwater, Oklahoma for the Cowboy Preview, including the defending NCAA Division 1 men’s champions Oklahoma State Cowboys.

The Cowboys enter the 2024 season as the unanimous No. 1 in the USTFCCCA men’s preseason national coaches poll following a historic fall where the program won it’s fifth national title in cross country after defeating top-ranked Northern Arizona 49-71 in Charlottesville, Virginia. It’s the third time in program history the Pokes are ranked No. 1 to begin the year.

“It was obviously a great year,” Oklahoma State head coach David Smith said. 

“Think not only in cross country, but kind of continued into indoor and outdoor track. We had one of, if not, the best year in our program’s history, so that was obviously exciting.”

Four of the five All-Americans from last year’s championship team return this season in Denis Kipngetich, Brian Musau, Fouad Messaoudi and Victor Shitsama, but won’t be expected to race on Friday in the season opener. 

Instead, the Cowboys will send Jacob Deacon, Aiden Grenados, Hamish Hart and Matt Thomas out to the starting line to lead the Oklahoma State charge for the men’s 5-kilometer race, set to go off at 8 a.m. CT.

“I really want to see what they did in the spring has continued over the summer,” Smith said. “They’re even better now than they were in the spring.”

The Pokes will have an early test against another pair of nationally ranked teams in No. 3 Arkansas and No. 28 Tulsa. 

The Razorback men return All-Americans Patrick Kiprop and Kirami Yego as well as Ben Shearer, who finished two spots away from All-American position. Those three, along with Tennessee transfer Yaseen Abdalla and Akron transfer Timothy Chesondin, are expected to be on the start line for the Arkansas men.

The Golden Hurricanes will feature three All-Midwest Region performers in its line-up in Charlie Krasnoff, Malte Propp and Chris McLeod.

Texas A&M and Oklahoma are another pair of Southeastern Conference schools to round out the list of teams competing. This will be Oklahoma’s first race as an SEC school following its departure from the Big 12 Conference.

On the women’s side, the Oklahoma State Cowgirls begin their 2024 campaign ranked 15th in the national poll following a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Four of the seven women from last year’s team are returning this fall, including All-American Billah Jepkirui, who will not open her season on the 3-kilometer course on Friday.

The three other returners, Cayden Dawson, Sivan Auerbach and Payton Hinkle, are listed in coach Smith’s line-up, along with Lauren and Grace Ping to lead the Cowgirls against Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Tulsa.

“We’ll probably run women who are in our 5 to 15 range on what we think our lineup is now and then hold the ones who might contribute later on in the year,” Smith said. 

Texas A&M, who finished 30th at the NCAA Championships last year, begin the season ranked No. 2 in the South Central Region, with Maddie Livingston, Emma Little and Kennady Fontenot returning from last year’s squad.

Oklahoma and Tulsa are ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, in the Midwest Region.