Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
at NCAA Mountain Region Championships
CROSS COUNTRY WINS THREE OF FOUR AT NCAA WEST REGIONALS
November 13, 2004 | Cross Country
Colorado, as well as the BYU men's and women's teams earn automatic bids, as does UTEP's Mircea Bogdan, Colorado State's Mike Nicks, Ben Ortega (New Mexico), Mark Walter (USAFA) from the men's race and Ida Nilsson (Northern Arizona), Jacqulyn Gallegos (New Mexico), Elise Greenwood-Briar (Utah) and Wyoming's Jennifer Thompson from the women's as the top four (of the top-25) individual finishers in each race, not affiliated with either of the two advancing teams.
Metivier led a women's charge that placed four runners in the top 10, and all five scorers in the top-12 for 32 points, their second best ever score in a regional race, for their first win in this race since 2000, seventh overall. The Buffs had finished second to BYU the last three seasons and six of the last seven.
Running conservatively through the first 5k, Wetmore's plan for the Metivier was to close hard, which she did, opening up a 20-second gap by the finish line. She won in 20 minutes, 5.4 seconds, well ahead of runner up Ida Nilsson (20:25.1) of
“Renee ran a very, very dominant race over the last kilometer and looked really strong.”
In just her second real test of the season and second in two years, Sara Slattery (20:46.8) scored as CU's second runner for a second straight race, finishing fourth, matching her finish from the 2002 season. Finally recovered from a long, lingering cold, Christine Bolf's (20:51.0) fifth place finish is a career best for the junior while Natalie Florence's (21:06.2) was the second strongest of hers. Freshman Liza Pasciuto (21:09.8) rounded out CU's scoring for the fourth race this season with a 12th place effort, the best by a CU frosh since then-Sara Gorton finished third in 2000.
“The women ran smart, patient races, slightly more aggressively than in the recent past, which was our plan with Renee, Christine, Sara and Natalie were all amongst the front pack early for a pretty dominant win.”
The CU men's team won their 11th regional championship in 13 tries, as all five scorers placed among the top 15 finishers. The Buffs' 40 points is their fifth-best effort in the annual race, lowest since 38 in 2000. They finished 22 points ahead of second place BYU (62), while 64 points separated CU and third place Air Force (106).
For just the first time since the 1993 season, they didn't have the race's individual champion, ending their streak at 10. New Mexico's Matt Gonzales, who edged Brent Vaughn at the Pre-National Invitational earlier this season, covered the 10k loop in 29:45.1, just two ticks ahead of UTEP's Mircea Bogdan (29:47.1) and less than three seconds ahead of Bret Schoolmeester who ran to a career best third place finish in this morning's race and his finish was his first this season as CU's top finisher, a first for the junior who covered the 8k course in 29:48.0.
“With 1k to go, I thought Bret would get the four or five guys in front of him, and he almost did,” explained Wetmore. “But this was a breakout race for him.”
After sitting out this race a year ago with a case of food poisoning, Brent Vaughn (30:03.6) came in as CU's second runner for the first time this year. Freshman Bradley Harkrader (30:15.4), a last minute withdrawal from the
“The men followed a race plan designed to be conservative and save energy for next week. The seven stayed pretty far behind and patiently moved up the race. By halfway it was pretty obvious who was going to win, it was just a matter of by how much. They all ran very, very strong and faster than I had hoped for.”
“All in all a good weekend and lots of reasons to be optimistic nine days from now,” concluded Wetmore.
2004
Collindale Golf Course (
MEN'S TEAM SCORES: 1. COLORADO, 40-points; 2. BYU, 62; 3. Air Force, 106; 4. New Mexico, 136; 5. Colorado State, 138; 6. Northern Arizona, 182; 7. Utah State, 184; 8. Montana State, 220; 9. Southern Utah, 252; 10.
MEN'S FINISHERS: 1. Matt Gonzales, NM, 29:45.1; 2. Mircea Bogdan, UTEP, 29:47.1; 3. Bret Schoolmeester, CU, 29:48.0; 4. Josh Roharinsky, BYU, 29:52.7; 5. Brent Vaughn, CU, 30:03.6; 6. Bryan Lindsay, BYU, 30:07.1; 7. Mike Nicks, CSU, 30:07.2; 8. Ben Ortega, NM, 30:07.3; 9. Mark Walter, USAFA, 30:10.6; 10. Stephen Samoei, UTEP, 30:11.7 Other CU Finishes: 12. Bradley Harkrader, 30:15.4; 13. Jon Severy, 30:16.9; 15. Jared Scott, 30:18.8; 17. James Strang, 30:31.9; 26. Stephen Pifer, 30:44.5.
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES: 1. COLORADO, 32-points; 2. BYU, 54; 3.
WOMEN'S FINISHERS: 1. Renee Metivier, CU, 20:05.4; 2. Ida Nilsson, NAU, 20:25.1; 3. Laura Turner, BYU, 20:31.6; 4. Sara Slattery, CU, 20:46.8; 5. Christine Bolf, CU, 20:51.0; 6. Heidi Magill, BYU, 20:52.8; 7. Rean Chesser, BYU, 20:59.0; 8. Jacqulyn Gallegos, UNM, 21:03.2; 9. Elise Greenwood-Bahr, UU, 21:05.2; 10. Natalie Florence, CU, 21:06.2. Other CU Finishers: 12. Liza Pasciuto, 21:09.8; 15. Amber Smith, 21:14.3; 53. Laura Zeigle, 22:31.6.
Players Mentioned
