2025 Oklahoma State Final Grades: Cross Country National Championship Salvages a Forgettable Fall

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State Cowboy cross country coach Dave Smith described the eighth-place finish in 2024 as a low point.

It certainly looks that way now as the program bookended it with national championships giving the program six overall.

While these Pokes celebrated a dominant return to prominence, most of the other fall sports derailed in 2025 and will be looking to bounce back later this year.

This kicks off a four-part series looking back at how each OSU team finished in the 2025-26 athletics calendar year.

Cowboy Cross Country

Postseason: National Champions
Conference: Big 12 Champs
All-Americans:
Brian Musau
Fouad Messaoudi
Denis Kipngetich
Adisu Guadie
Ryan Schoppe

Final Thoughts: Smith has built the Pokes into a legitimate powerhouse. The team has finished second or higher in three of the last four seasons and gives the program six first-place and two second-place finishes since 2009.

In that 17-year stretch only three other programs have combined to finish second or higher three times. Northern Arizona won six titles and finished second three times to hold the slimmest of leads over OSU, but the Cowboys are miles ahead of BYU and Colorado who each won a pair of titles with one second-place showing mixed in during that stretch.

Fouad Messaoudi and Denis Kipngetich finished fifth and sixth in the national championship race, making them the seventh and eighth Cowboys to earn three-time All-American honors. Their teammate, Brian Musau, finished fourth in the race, becoming the sixth three-timer.

The senior-to-be has also won the Big 12 conference race all three times he competed. His success in other sports will come up later in the series, but there’s a reason both Smith and PFB’s own Marshall Scott have big expectations for him in the upcoming sports cycle and it all starts with cross country.

Grade: A+

Cowgirl Cross Country

Postseason: 12th overall
Conference: 4th
All-Americans:
Isca Chelangat

Final Thoughts: The Cowgirls didn’t hoist the trophy at the end of the season, but they arguably responded even better to a disappointing 2024 run that saw them finish 27th in the nation after back-to-back finishes inside the top five during 2022 and 2023.

Freshman Isca Chelangat led the way this time around, placing seventh overall. In the process she beat her own school record (which was just over a week old at the time) for the fastest 6K by 23 seconds.

Grade: B+

Football

2025 Record: 1-11, 0-9 Big 12
All-Big 12:
Punter Wes Pahl (First Team)
Edge Wendell Gregory (Freshman of the Year; Third Team)
LB Brandon Rawls (Honorable Mention)
OL Bob Schick (Honorable Mention)

Final Thoughts: The Pokes hit rock bottom last fall.

In the long-term, the collapse in 2025 could prove to be perfectly timed to usher in the next great era of Cowboy football, but that doesn’t really change how bad things looked or how unfair this ending was for the players who remained committed throughout the season, including guys like Parker Robertson who wrapped up their careers.

Grade: F

Soccer

2025 Record: 4-13-2 (0-10-1 Big 12)

Final Thoughts: Considering the Cowgirls lost six one-goal games in 2025, there’s an argument to be made that the team was much better than the record suggests. However, the Cowgirls returned seven starters from a team that won 14 games in 2024 and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2020.

Eight of the team’s losses came against teams which made the NCAA Tournament field with five of those advancing to the third round or later.

Even with a challenging schedule this was an unusual down year for a program that won double-digit games for eight of the last nine entering 2025. Considering the last losing season came back in 2001, there’s reason to believe the dip could be short-lived.

Grade: F