Oklahoma State Named Men's Cross Country Scholar Team Of The Year

The Oklahoma State Cowboys are the USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Men's Scholar Team of the Year for the 2012 cross country season as announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Oklahoma State won the NCAA Cross Country Championship title this fall – its third in four years.

Scholar Teams of the year are determined from among those who earned All-Academic status and placed highest as a team at the most recent NCAA Championships.

The Cowboys, coached by Bill Dellinger National DI Men's Coach of the Year Dave Smith, have earned a 3.203 cumulative grade point average through the 2012 fall semester.

After sharing the Midwest Regional crown with in-state Rival Oklahoma, the Cowboys stormed back for one of the more dominant NCAA Championship performances in recent memory, taking their third NCAA title in four years with a trim 72 points – the fewest since Wisconsin's 37 in 2005 – in a 63-point victory over runner-up and defending champion Wisconsin.

Senior Girma Mecheso led the Cowboys with a fifth-place individual finish as one of Oklahoma State's national-best four All-Americans. Junior Tom Farrell (ninth), junior Shadrack Kipchirchir (18th) and junior Joseph Manilafasha (24th) also earned All-America honors from the USTFCCCA.

This is the second time in four years the OSU men have won the award, with the last coming in 2009.