Oklahoma State’s Dave Smith earned the men’s Division I National Cross Country Coach of the Year honor, it was announced.

Smith led his Cowboys to the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country title scoring 127 points to top runner-up Oregon with 143 points. The cross country national title was the second for the OSU program, the first coming in 1954.

In his four years at the helm of the Cowboys, he has led OSU to two Big 12 Championships and four NCAA Midwest Region Championships. In his four trips to the NCAA Championships, his Cowboys have never finished out of the top 10. They posted a 10th-place finish in 2006, a third-place finish in 2007 and an eighth-place finish in 2008.

The Cowboys won the Midwest Region title this season, the fifth-straight regional title for the program, earning Smith the Roy Griak Midwest Region Men’s Coach of the Year award. The Cowboys also won their second-straight Big 12 Conference title earlier this season, placing four runners in the top five. Smith was named Big 12 men's cross country coach of the year for the second straight time following the race.

Smith has directed eight runners to All-American honors. Senior Ryan Vail, senior John Kosgei, sophomore Colby Lowe and sophomore Girma Mecheso earned All-American honors in 2009.