Oklahoma State Wins Sixth National Championship With Three Runners In The Top Six

By David Woods for DyeStat

Kylie Graham Photos

COLUMBIA, Mo. – An astute cross country runner can inspect terrain with the observational skill of a military scout. So it was with Rocky Hansen, who noticed an uphill on the Gans Creek Course about one mile from the finish.

“I was thinking, ‘That might be a spot where like the championship move was made,’ "Hansen said. “Let that slip. That’s on me."

Habtom Samuel was thinking what Hansen was thinking.

At that very spot, Samuel put on a race-changing burst that propelled him to the men’s title at the NCAA Championships on Saturday.

Samuel, a 21-year-old Eritrean representing New Mexico, was first after finishing second in 2024 and 2023. His time for 10,000 meters was 28:33.9, ninth-fastest in meet history despite the soggy course and slippery footing.

“This means a lot to me,” he said.

Hansen, a Wake Forest junior, was second in 28:38.0. Washington State sophomore Solomon Kipchoge was third in 28:40.1.

The trio of Brian Masau, Fouad Messaoudi and Denis Kipngetich finished 4-5-6 to lead No. 1 Oklahoma State to a second team championship in three years. It was the Cowboys’ sixth overall under coach Dave Smith.

Virginia’s Gary Martin, a 3:48 miler, finished seventh.

There were eight foreign runners in the top 10, compared with a high of nine in 1981 and 2012. There were 17 foreigners in the top 20, 25 (20 Kenyans) in the top 30.

There was a large pack deep into the race. As late as 8K, there were 23 runners within two seconds of the lead.

BYU’s Tayvon Kitchen, a freshman from Central Point, Ore. (Crater), surprisingly led at 5K in 14:25.3. Samuel was 19th in 14:26.7, so he ran the second 5K in 14:07.2.

Samuel ran more than half of last year’s race with one shoe. He ran this one wearing a baseball cap backward, and he celebrated by spreading his arms like airplane wings as he approached the finish.

“Just comes to my mind. When I was looking back, Rocky was pretty far,” Samuel said. “ ‘OK, I have time to celebrate.' "

Before that, he was exulting over the move he made at the location Hansen identified. In less than 100 meters, he extended his lead to 10 meters or more . . . and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

Samuel said he didn’t want to leave it to the last 400 meters, explaining he might be outkicked by the milers.

“I even said to my coach, ‘I’m going to surprise you guys today,’ “ Samuel said.

He did.

Hansen was the only one to give chase. Earlier, Hansen looked around for Samuel, who was content to let others set the pace.

“OK, he’s biding his time. I gotta watch him,” Hansen told himself. “Then I just forgot about him.”

Hansen took solace in the fact he was 100th at NCAAs last November. He was then coming off an 18-day span in which he was not allowed to run as he recovered from heat stroke.

“This is the healthiest and the fittest I’ve ever been. So I knew that I could win today, Hansen said. “I just needed to execute properly. Overall, I think I executed pretty well.

“That last bit killed me. That’s something that will haunt me.”

Oklahoma State was haunted by the specter of last year’s eighth-place finish. Smith blamed himself for running the Cowboys too hard too late into the season, but there was no such meltdown at Missouri.

Over the past 20 years, the only score lower than the Cowboys’ 57 points were their 49 points in 2023.

New Mexico was second with 82, Iowa State third with 158 and Syracuse fourth with 212.

Oregon was fifth with 239. Defending champion BYU was 11th with 336.

Smith was relieved to be here with his Cowboys. He was released from a hospital Sunday after delaying treatment for what turned out to be a collapsed lung.

“I’m especially excited for Fouad Messaoudi, who’s been one of the most loyal, humble OSU people I’ve ever met in my life. He’s up there in tears, coming off the line crying,” Smith said.

At that point, the coach himself was a bit misty. He turned away from reporters in the interview area before composing  himself.

Astoundingly, Messaoudi finished 217 places higher than last year’s 222nd. He has been better on the track – he’s a 3:34 1,500-meter runner – than on the grass.

“Now, you’re not a 1,500 guy. It’s a team,” the 24-year-old Moroccan said. “Coming here and trying to do something for the team, it’s really awesome. I love running 10Ks on the course.”

The Cowboys’ other scorers were Adisu Guadia of Israel in 12th and Ryan Schoppe of La Porte, Texas, in 34th. Schoppe moved up 11 spots in the closing kilometer and “saved our butts,” Smith said.

Besides Martin and Messaoudi, another notable finish by a middle-distance runner was 16th by Colin Sahlman of Northern Arizona. Sahlman, the No. 3 American, has run  800 meters in 1:45.63 and 1,500 in 3:33.96.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.