TOPEKA, Kan. – Defending national champion Oklahoma City University returns to the track in the Washburn Alumni Invitational at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Washburn Indoor Athletic Facility. 

The Stars open the season after winning the NAIA indoor men's track & field championship March 5 in Brookings, S.D. OCU brought back four of the six runners who fueled the run to the program's first national championship. 

"This meet will be a great opener with a mixture of some extended cross country fitness for some and also rust buster for our track group that has been working extremely hard this fall," said OCU coach Frezer Legesse, who became 2022 NAIA men's indoor coach of the year as awarded by the USTFCCCA. "We're very excited for our men and women to kick off the season." 

Shimales Abebe and Abraham Chelangam headline a group of four Stars entered in both the mile and 5,000-meter races. Abebe, a junior from Los Angeles, earned three all-American finishes in the national indoor meet. Abebe racked up runner-up finishes in the mile and 3,000 meters plus a third-place showing in the 5K. Abebe went on to take the 3,000-meter steeplechase national title in the NAIA outdoor championships in May. Abebe owns eight all-American nods in cross country and track & field. 

Chelangam comes off winning the NAIA individual cross country title. Chelangam, a freshman from Kampala, Uganda, will make his college track debut. OCU's other runners competing in the mile and 5K are Ryan McLaughlin and Milan Todorovic.  

In addition to Abebe, Todorovic, Fares Marrouf and Tate Smithhart also delivered for the Stars in the national indoor meet. Marrouf, Smithhart and Todorovic are three fourths of the team who raced to the distance medley relay national crown. 

Marrouf, a sophomore from Piedmont, Okla., and Brendan Robeaux are Oklahoma City individuals set to race in the 1,000-meter run and the mile. 

Among the women, Cailen Jolley runs in the 800 meters. Jolley, a senior finance major from Pauls Valley, Okla., competed in the NAIA indoor meet in the 800 and 1,000 meters and in the outdoor national meet in the 800.  

OCU's Stephanie Towle, a junior biomedical sciences major, is ready to perform in the high jump, long jump and shot put.