Colorado University Athletics
XC Seeks Fifth NCAA Title In Five Years
November 23, 2002 | Cross Country
Terre Haute, Ind. - Should NCAA Mountain Region Athlete of the Year, and heavy favorite, Jorge Torres take his undefeated record into, through, and out of Monday's NCAA Championships at the Wabash Valley Sports Center unscathed, then the University of Colorado would have its fifth national title in an individual or team race, since the 1998 fall season.
The third-ranked CU women and fifth-ranked men, by virtue of their runner-up finishes at last weekend's NCAA Mountain Region Championships, advance to the 64th annual men's and 22nd women's NCAA Championships which will be decided at 12 noon (EDT) with the women's 6k and 1:15 p.m. (men's 10k) Monday.
"I'm confident that (despite the regional finishes and national rankings) we'll run the best races of the year on Monday," said head coach Mark Wetmore.
Adam Goucher claimed Colorado's first NCAA Championship sans Mark Scrutton (1982) in 1998 and since, the Buffs have won a women's team title (2000), women's individual crown (Kara Grgas-Wheeler, 2000) and a men's team title (2001), becoming the first program to do so under one head coach.
Wetmore argued in the preseason that this could be the strongest women's team ever in Boulder. But like their counterparts on the men's team, the CU women took some hits with some early preseason injuries, losing highly touted recruits Erika Odlaug (posterior tibialis tendonitis) and Laura Zeigle (lower right leg stress fracture) for the season. Despite the losses, they've held their own and have climbed a notch from their preseason No. 4 ranking to third on race day, where they have rested most of the season behind BYU and Stanford. Molly Austin and Sara Gorton are a formidable 1-2 punch for the Buffs, as the two have gone 3-4 at pre-nationals, 1-2 at the Big 12 Championships and 4-5 at the regional meet and will look to put CU back on the podium after a one-year hiatus with the help of Natalie Florence (9th at regionals), Tera Moody (only the fourth-ever CU senior to compete in four NCAA Championships), freshmen Christine Bolf, Jackie Zeigle and Kendall Grgas-Wheeler.
With defending national champion status and graduating just their No. 6 and 7 runners from last year's title team, the Colorado men entered the preaseason as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. They took a hit with the eventual loss of then-freshman phenom Dathan Ritzenhein and spent the majority of the season ranked second behind Stanford and Arkansas and despite having lost just last weekend's team contest to Northern Arizona, will be the fifth-ranked team in the land when they toe the line Monday.
Torres is the man to beat and he will settle for nothing less than an individual national title, "I'm not going to be satisfied unless I win. I've spent four years pursuing this title," said Torres. The competition will come from unbeaten and '99 NCAA Champion David Kimani (Alabama), Arkansas' Allister Cragg, defending champion Boaz Cheboiywo of Eastern Michigan (and the only runner to upend Torres in the last two seasons) and Stanford's Donald Sage. While Torres and Kimani are the lone undefeated runners in that elite group, only Torres has run four races for his team in '02.
Torres' support cast will not only do what they can to get through the tape first, but continue their reign on the podium. Edwardo Torres wants nothing more than to finish top-10 and complete the season 1-2 with Jorge as they've done all year. Steve Slattery is expected to run to his third All-American certificate and if freshman Billy Nelson can turn in the kind of performance that he did a week ago at regionals (20th), then the Buffs not only have a shot at the podium, but maybe can take a step up with Jon Severy, Payton Batliner and Bret Schoolmeester.
