Top Finisher, Minnesota's Hassan Mead on the big win:

"It means another trip to nationals. All these races are great, but your main goal, the main event, is at nationals and I made it. I had to bring everything I had today. I have been struggling the last two years at the national level, but I felt good today, I felt great. Today was another training race and hopefully at nationals I will have a great race."

On the wide margin of victory:

"I was surprised that I won by that much. There could have been a couple other guys that could have been up there, but for whatever reason they weren't, so I was happy for the easy day."

Conditions:

"The conditions were pretty good. I liked that it was warm. It was a hard course, so you do not have to deal with the softness. It was hilly, but the weather and the ground made up for it. It was good though."

#2 Southern Illinois' Jeff Schirmer on the race:

"I really wanted to race him (Mead) for the title today, but he and the Iowa State runner took the lead early and I just felt like sitting on the main pack was the way to go at the beginning."

"The second place guy wound up coming back, but Mead's real strong and kept on chugging along, so when that was out of range, I just thought I'd go for second place."

#3 Oklahoma's Kevin Schwab on the race:

"It went out the first sixth or seven K just like a tempo run. It was still packed at the top 20 guys, and after that seven K it was just who wanted it the most."

On the conditions:

"It was perfect. They did a great job with the course. It is wide, there are no problems. The wind could have played a factor, but it stopped. It was perfect."

On the team's second place finish:

"That finish is huge. That is what it is all about. My place, whatever place I took, does not mean anything to me. This program went from the lowest lows to finally make it to the top."

On the Sooners' next step:

"We just have to keep doing what Coach Smith tells us. He is a good coach and I have a lot of faith in him and I think he can take me to that next level where I have wanted to go."

#4 Oklahoma's Robert Sorrell on the race:

"I just tried to stay composed and within myself for the first 6K and just wanted to stay with the front pack and stay with the guys we're supposed to beat."

Winning coach Dave Smith of Oklahoma State:

"It's always a little nerve-wracking going into something like this, especially when you feel like you have a good shot to win it.  There's only one way to go and that's down.  But the guys ran very well and executed the race exactly how we'd talked about, so we're very excited. "

Runner-up coach Martin Smith of Oklahoma:

"All season long we tried to have a real tight pack from our third man to our seventh man and we tend to run a very controlled and disciplined race where we try to move through the field over the second half of the race come on. I thought today we did a great job doing that. We were real fortunate we had two low sticks with Kevin Schwab in third and Rob Sorrell (in fourth)."

On advancing:

"We are going to have to regroup. This is a pretty young team. Our goal all along has been to improve all season. When the year started this win was a real hope that we didn't know if it could become a reality. Now we will have to take a couple days to enjoy this."