Colorado Looks To Repeat At NCAA Championships

BOULDER - The University of Colorado sweep the NCAA Mountain Region titles last Saturday to earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships on Mon., Nov. 21. Indiana State will host the event at the Lavern-Gibson Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind.

The men's 10k race is slated for a 12 p.m. start and the women's 6k will follow at 1:15. An awards ceremony will follow the races.

The Buffs have won a team or individual NCAA title in each of the past five years. The streak is the second longest next to Villanova's 12 straight titles from 1989-1994. The championship is the 20th consecutive race for CU's men and is the 24th in 25 years. The women will race in their 14th straight and have participated in 15 of the last 16.

Terre Haute is a familiar course for Colorado. Both teams won the championship here last year and Jorge Torres won his individual title there in 2002, setting the course record of 29:04.7. Terre Haute will also host the championship in 2006.

"The race course at Terre Haute is one of only a few that can fairly handle the NCAA Championships," head coach Mark Wetmore said. "It's broad, good-footing, good for spectators and plenty of parking. I wish it was a little more difficult, but objectively speaking it's a good place to have a meet. Now there's a move from the NCAA to select a permanent site and the folks from Terre Haute are working really hard to put themselves in a position to earn the right, but personally I hope we continue to have a rotation."

Of the 31 men's teams participating, third-ranked Colorado will face three other Big 12 opponents in No. 10 Texas, No. 14 Oklahoma State and No. 19 Kansas. Only three of the 31 teams on the women's side are Big 12 schools. Sixth-rated Colorado is joined by No. 9 Oklahoma State and No. 19 Baylor.

"On both sides, there are two teams that are a head above the rest of us. Duke and Stanford on the women's side and Wisconsin and Arkansas on the men's side. Behind those sets of two teams are another handful of teams that will be fighting closely for third, fourth and fifth. Of course in our business, a team can make a strategic mistake or a team meal mistake or a hotel mistake and a heavy favored team may not necessarily win.

Senior Christine Bolf started off the season with three straight wins; including the Big 12 Championship, before taking a third-place finish at the NCAA Mountain Regions. She should be a contender for the individual title on Monday.

"Christine had an excellent season; an undefeated season until last week," Wetmore explained. "Unfortunately she's just starting a head cold that we're hoping will be done with by then. In which case; she will be in the lead pack."

Colorado's underclassmen are a strong 1-2 punch. Sophomore Liza Pasciuto took second overall at the regionals and freshman Jenny Barringer took second at the Big 12 Championships. Barringer's runner-up finish earned her the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honor.

"Liza finally had the race she's been waiting for all season," Wetmore said. "I think she is ahead of a year ago in her fitness and she's more experienced. She should also be among the leaders Monday. Jenny has had an excellent freshman season. I'm sure she wasn't thrilled with her race at the regionals, but we had some equipment problems. I would like to see her in the top-20 on Monday."

The other CU women are seniors Jackie Zeigle and All-American Kalin Toedebusch, junior Laura Zeigle and sophomore Kristen Hoogheem. The alternate is sophomore transfer Sara Ensrud.

The Buffalo men have a strong line-up as well. Despite a disappointing finish at the Big 12 Championship, senior Bret Schoolmeester and junior Billy Nelson finished just five-tenths of a second apart at the regions. Nelson took the top honors and earned his first postseason first-place finish in his career.

"Bret had the season team cold at the Big 12," Wetmore continued. "It seems to be working its way out. It wasn't all the way gone this weekend. Luckily the pace in Provo was cautious and that left he and Billy in it all the way until the last sprint, which both of them are good at. We were happy with that outcome, definitely better performances up in the front of our men's team than the Big 12. We need to put together the front end of the Regional and the rear end of the Big 12 to have our best go on Monday."

The other CU men racing are seniors Austin Baille, Payton Batliner, sophomores Stephen Pifer, Pete Janson and James Strang. Senior Erik Heinonen is the alternate.

Despite winning both championships last season, Wetmore says the team has reasonable expectations for Monday.

"We prepare as hard as we dare every year. Whether we won in the past or whether people have high expectations of us can't really force us to train any harder than we already do. There are people who have high expectations for us. Our close friends, people who know our program well, know what reasonable high expectations are. And then our far away fans who we value, but really don't know us that well, may have unreal expectations for us from season to season. In any case, its our own expectations that matter and we're realistic about them and have prepared hard to achieve them and we are excited about the opportunity to go do that. "

2005 NCAA DIVISION I CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Monday, Nov. 21
Lavern-Gibson Cross Country Course
Wabash Family Sports Center, Terre Haute, Ind.
12 p.m. (ET) 10k Men's Race
1:15 p.m. (ET) 6k Women's Race