Nov. 1, 2008

The Texas Tech women and Oklahoma State men were crowned the 2008 Big 12 Cross Country Champions - the first for both programs. OSU ended the 12-year win streak held by Colorado, becoming the second men's team to win a Big 12 Cross Country team title. Meanwhile, TTU is the third womens squad to win the event.

The league championship came full circle this weekend as runners gathered at the Iowa State Cross Country Course in Ames, Iowa - Ames being the original site of the inaugural 1996. Tech's womens team walked away with the championship scoring 44 points, followed by Baylor (71), Nebraska (102), Texas (117) and Colorado (145). In the mens race, Oklahoma State took four top-five finishes and totaled 26 team points for the win. The second and third place finishes were separated by one point as Colorado (66) finished ahead of Iowa State (67), followed by Texas A&M (95) and Missouri (155).

Tech's Kipyego had a record-breaking performance as she led the women's field for the third consecutive year. She ran an ISU course record time of 19:45.0 in the 6K, finishing over 50 seconds ahead of teammate Lillian Badaru who came in second with a time of 20:36.8. Kipyego now owns eight individual titles all-time, and is the first women's cross country runner to win three consecutive Big 12 individual titles.

In a close race from start to finish on the men's side, it was freshman Fernandez (OSU) who pulled ahead of the pack clocking a 23:47.4 in the 8K race. Texas A&M's Shadrack Songok came in second (23:53.1), followed by three additional Cowboys rounding out the top-five - John Kosgei (24:01.0), Ryan Vail (24.01.6) and Colby Lowe (24.05.9).