TRACK OPENS 2005 WITH COLORADO OPEN

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

January 13, 2005 | Track and Field

By: CUBuffs.com

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BOULDER - The gun will go off on the 2005 track and field seasons when the University of Colorado's men's and women's track teams host the Colorado Open Friday, Jan. 14 in Balch Fieldhouse. The meet's field events begin at 11 a.m. with the men's weight throw and the running events, starting with the men's 60-m hurdles, begin at 5 p.m. While CU and the Colorado School of Mines will be the only fully fielded teams at the meet, due to their respective academic calendars Colorado State and Wyoming as well as several other front-range schools will send unattached individuals as well as area open and professional athletes.

Friday's meet will be the first step in a grueling season-long process for the Buffs coaching staff, "Now begins the unpleasant task of developing the varsity travel squad," said head coach Mark Wetmore. "This meet will be the first for people to make claim on their travel seats. Thanks to the cross country schedule, we already have a pretty good idea of our middle and distance roster, so now is the time to look at other event areas so that we can use the last six months of the season most practically."

For that reason, Wetmore's varsity distance runners, his "A" team, will not be competing Friday night. By design, a break between the cross country and track seasons, they will make their season debuts Feb. 5 in a scored quadrangular meet at Air Force.

A traditionally distance-laden program, Wetmore is expecting that a spread of the wealth among the disciplines will help the Buffs' improve from last year's conference standings, and NCAA Championships.

"There were some significant temporary absences, due to injury and illness, a year ago. If we can stay healthy through the spring, that alone will make an immediate impact. Events that have not traditionally been big point producers in the past look as if they will help in the conference scoring. I anticipate a big step in the men's team outcome and just as big a leap on the women's side, as well."

DISTANCE

The most veteran of Mark Wetmore's 10th team will be in the distance events where the Buffs return 16 of 28 letterwinners and lose just one in Dathan Ritzenhein, a 2004 Olympian who broke the school and American Collegiate mark, while running the Olympic A Standard in the 10,000-m. While Ritzenhein's departure to pursue a professional career created doubters prior to the fall, those doubts were put to rest when both the CU men and women swept the team titles at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November.

In a reflection of the fall roster, the men's distances will be led by returners Brent Vaughn, Bret Schoolmeester, Jon Severy, Stephen Pifer, Jared Scott, Billy Nelson, Pete Janson and Erik Heinonen and newcomers James Strang and Bradley Harkrader. The women will be paced by school record holder Sara Slattery and NCAA Cross Country runner-up and eight time All-American Renee Metivier, as well as Christine Bolf, Natalie Florence, Kaline Toedebusch, Kendall Grgas-Wheeler and Jackie and Laura Zeigle. Looking to make waves like they did in the fall will be freshmen Liza Pasciuto and Amber Smith.

JUMPS

Wetmore feels that both the vertical and horizontal jumps took big steps a year ago and the new people, as well as the veterans, are on the threshold of conference-level performances.

Paving the way for such expectations are returning letterwinners high jumpers Andy Miller and Anna Magle who have a supporting cast of varsity reserves in Julia DeMarines, Liza Negriff, Blake Vanier, Megan Baker and Brianna McDevitt.

MIDDLE DISTANCE

Looking at the big picture, combining both men's and women's squads, the Big 12 Conference will be one of the strongest, if not the strongest, middle distance leagues in the nation this year. But fortunately for Jay Johnson, he has what he thinks is a rare trait...several personalities that will do anything to be better athletes.

The core of this group will be returning letterwinners Jason Zichterman (fifth in last year's 800-m to Texas Tech national champion and Olympian Jon Johnson) and Daniel Kenney. A big boost on the women's side will be the addition of Kate Hamera, a Division II All-American transfer from Missouri-Rolla who has just one season of indoor eligibility remaining.

SPRINTS/HURDLES

While the sprints will be challenged by a lack of depth to injuries and graduation, each returning runner has the talent and speed to compete from the 60-m up to the 400-m. With such range, any combination of these athletes should mesh for some powerful 4x400-m relay teams for sprints and hurdles coach Tamara Ards.

The coincidence of the 2005 sprints and hurdles roster is that all four returning letterwinners, Chris Abuan, Eric Lee-Obrien, Sam Pincock and Daric Wilhite (who will redshirt '05 with a chronic foot injury) are from the men's squad while the two letterwinners lost, Daneeka Torrey and Alexandra Boksay, are from the women's. Mikaela Raddatz is a varsity reserve performer while Chelsea Peterson and Jaclyn Sturm are new to the program.

While Wetmore compliments the team on making great strides a year ago, he expects even more in '05.

THROWS

The Buff throwers, coached by '04 Olympian Casey Malone, could just be Wetmore's Diamond in the Ruff as he feels that this group will contribute in ways that they haven't in the recent past. And according to Malone, he has some national caliber athletes just waiting to happen.

With the exception of freshman Bethany Harrison, he has nine returning throwers, including returning letterwinners Zach Hazen, Chase Mullen and Hannah Warfield-Reffatto.

THE SCHEDULE

While the Buffs open the 2005 season in the familiar confines of Balch Fieldhouse, they will have just two weeks to make any adjustments before traveling to the Air Force Open Jan. 21-22. The first scoring meet of the season will be two weeks later, Feb. 5 at Air Force and will be the first that the fall postseason cross country teams will run. The last regular season meet of the '05 campaign will be at Washington in mid-February. The Big 12 Indoor Championships will be held in Lincoln, Neb. Feb. 25-26 where they will look to better last year's fifth and eighth place women's and men's finishes, respectively. Between the conference championships and the NCAA Indoor Championships, March 11-12 in Fayetteville, Ark., the Buffs will have one last chance to meet a qualifying standard.

Just a week separates the last meet of the indoor season and the first meet of the outdoor when the Buffs host the Potts Collegiate Invitational on March 19. An omission to this year's schedule will be the team's annual spring break trip to Arizona.

"We are going to try and experiment and give them a week off, take a deep breath, wave goodbye and hopefully they will come back re-charged with 10 weeks remaining in the season," Wetmore said."

Stanford has been a stop on the Buffs slate the last six seasons and will be again on March 26 and May 6 in a last chance qualifier. The Buffs will be close to home when they run at Northern Colorado (April 2) and at Colorado State (April 9). The star-studded Mt. SAC Relays will be contested April l 15-17. Half the squad will make the trek to Waco, Texas for the Michael Johnson Invitational while the other half will head up I-25 for the Christiansen Invite in Fort Collins.

Kansas State is the host of this year's Big 12 Outdoor Championships, May 13-15 and Indiana will host the NCAA Midwest Regionals Mary 27-28. The crescendo of the 2005 calendar will be June 8-11 at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento, Calif. for the NCAA Championships.