2013 NCAA D1 Indoor Track and Field Championships

Oklahoma State and the Unlucky 3000m Cowboys

Mar 12, 2013 by Mitch Kastoff

Some things just don’t go well together. Sand and Gu packets. Starting blocks and a 10k. Spikes and a marathon

Oklahoma State and the men's 3000m.

In an unfortunate turn events for two parties, the men’s 3000m at NCAA Indoors ended in a flurry of questions. The first being, “Why was Northeastern’s Eric Jenkins disqualified?”

But rather than defend the accused, what about the bystander? In the court of law that is track and field protests, someone has to claim that they were negatively impacted.

The prosecution, Oklahoma State’s Kirubel Erassa (represented by Dave Smith, Esquire), is seeking damages of one NCAA indoor title. Maybe.

At the bell lap, Erassa was right on Arizona’s Lawi Lalang shoulder and he looked like he’d be the one to challenge for the win. He had run a tactically sound race and just as he approached the 2800m mark, everything was going according to plan.

In a quick three seconds, Erassa was tripped up and was out of contention. 7:49.17 was good for fourth, or rather third, but his last was not as speedy as he had prepared to run.

Last 200m
Lawi Lalang - 26.60
Eric Jenkins - 26.69
Kemoy Campbell - 27.38
Kirubel Erassa - 29.80

Erassa comes away a new personal best and placed higher than what some people projected, but the secondary story is one of “what ifs?”

Oklahoma State head coach Dave Smith told Flotrack, “I tell my athletes all the time, ‘When you’re in position, you’re fit, you’re in the race, and you have a shot to win, you may never be there again.' Things happen. You’re here now, this is the opportunity, and if that opportunity is lost for whatever reason, it’s hard to think about what could have been.”

For Erassa, it's a tough pill to swallow. Everyone was already running 26.x for the last 200m, which means that with the trip (loss of half a second or so), Erassa would have to had run 25.x to beat Lalang. Not to mention the impact on an athlete’s mentality when they’re in it for one second and then out of it the next.

This isn’t the first time that Oklahoma State has had “bad luck” in the men’s 3000m. We call it luck, but it’s really a string of unfortunate events.

In the last five years, only three of five Cowboys have finished the race. If you want to be specific, that’s one Did Not Finish (DNF) and one False Start (FS).

False start? Seriously? In a 3k? Don’t they just stand everyone back up? Not always.

Back in 2008, Oklahoma State’s John Kosgei was the eighth seed in the men’s 3000m (7:55.95). Buried in the warehouse of old race footage, we found the video. Kosgei simply jumps the gun by a second and takes a step over the line.

There was no command to, “Stand up.” Instead, an official walked over and told Kosgei that he’d been disqualified. For a false start. In a 3k.

What do you tell an athlete who had a championship taken from him?

“The initial reaction is that you feel bad for the athlete,” Smith said. “You feel bad for the opportunity lost. You can always say that there’s next year, but some guys like John Kosgei, there isn’t next year.”

He’s not the only Poke that lost a shot at a national championship. There’s the unfortunate case of German Fernandez and the lost shoe.

In 2011, Fernandez had run 7:53.82, which was the fourteenth fastest time in the NCAA. With Indiana’s Andy Bayer’s leading time being only 7:48.35, it wasn’t out of the question that Fernandez could mark his return from injury by winning a second overdue NCAA individual crown.

But it wasn’t to be. Not only did Fernandez not win, he didn’t even finish the race. At what point did he say, “Today isn’t my day...” and drop out?

25 meters.

Right after the start, Wisconsin’s Reed Connor (we think) caught Fernandez’ heel and knocks off his shoe. Distraught and surprised, Fernandez stayed in the outside lane as the field came around for their first lap and then walked off the track.

There are some races where magic happens. Someone goes down, gets up, and wins. When Galen Rupp lost his shoe during the opening laps of the 2009 NCAA outdoor 5000m, he slipped it back on, and caught up to the pack.

At the time, Iona’s Ryan Sheridan saw the mishap as the best opportunity to beat Rupp and went to the front to inject some pace. How else were they going to beat the unbeatable?

The initial laps of 72-seconds dropped down to 68 and 65, but Rupp had calmly made up the ground en route to his sixth NCAA title.

Men's 5000m splits

Whether Fernandez should’ve put his spike back on or whether the officials should have fired a second shot, it’s still an unlucky break for Oklahoma State.

At least he got to run, albeit not for too long.

There’s no curse or bad luck, but just a habit of misfortune for Oklahoma State. It just so happens that in this specific event at NCAA Indoors, Orange and Black isn’t a lucky color.

Smith added, “If you start to think you’re cursed, then you write a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Could Erassa have challenged Lalang? What would have Kosgei or Fernandez have run? For Oklahoma State, there's no looking back. Maybe the streak will come to an end next year.