Note: This is one of a series of articles about the top stories in OC athletics during the 2021 calendar year.

OKLAHOMA CITY (Dec. 26, 2021) – It had been three years since a member of Oklahoma Christian's men's track and field team earned an All-America honor or won a conference championship in any event. Two OC runners ended those droughts in 2021.

The success of All-America sprinter Verrell McBride and Lone Star Conference 800-meter champion Dylan Burrows ranks as the No. 6 story in OC athletics for 2021.

Burrows, a sophomore from Melbourne, Australia, became OC's first LSC champion in any event at the league's outdoor meet in Canyon, Texas, on May 8. Burrows outdueled Jared Gilley of Dallas Baptist in the final moments to win the 800-meter crown in 1:55.03, with Gilley second in 1:55.40.

He was OC's first conference champion since Landon Huslig won the 2018 Great American Conference title in the 400-meter hurdles. Huslig also was the Eagles' most recent track and field All-American, having won the NCAA Division II title that season in that event.

Also at the LSC meet, McBride finished second in the 200 meters behind Benjamin Azamati of West Texas A&M, who set a Division II record with a time of 20.13 seconds. But McBride's time of 20.96 seconds ranked as the seventh-best in Division II to that point in 2021 and secured him a spot in the Division II Outdoor Championships in Allendale, Mich.

McBride, a junior from Norman, said his goal entering the national meet was to qualify for the nine-man final in the 200. He did, finishing eighth nationally with a time of 21.10 seconds to snag the final All-America spot in the event.

McBride will enter the 2022 season eyeing the current school record in the outdoor 200 of 20.85 seconds, set by OC Athletic Hall of Famer in 1995.