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Cross Country Shows Strong at First Time Trial
September 02, 2006 | Cross Country
BOULDER ? The University of Colorado men's and women's Cross Country teams ran their first time trial of the year at the Buffalo Ranch at South Campus this Saturday. Both teams had strong showings as they stuck to the tradition of running as a pack in the first time trial.
The women started out at 8:30 a.m. combined with teams from the Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian University.
“There were eight women together, who finished ten seconds ahead of where a group of five women came in a year ago. Obviously, we are stronger and deeper than we were a year ago,” commented head coach, Mark Wetmore.
The fastest of those women was sophomore Rebecca Culbertson, who finished the 5.8K course fourth overall with a time of 23:12. “Becca (Culbertson) has been a fitness runner for years, but not a competitive runner. This was her first real race and she was with the lead group at a time which is very good for a novice,” said Wetmore.
Following close behind Culbertson was red shirt freshman Rachel Gioscia in fifth (23:12), sophomore Jenny Barringer in sixth (23:13), junior Liza Pascuito in seventh (23:13) and senior Erin Marston in eighth (23:13).
Rounding out the field for the Buff women was freshman Emily Hanenburg in tenth (23:40), junior Kelly Shuma in 11th (23:52), freshman Anna Chase in 13th (24:00), freshman Dani Rodriguez in 17th (24:54), sophomore Caitlin Schultheiss in 18th (25:14), sophomore Jen Hooper in 19th (25:26) and freshman Erin Thayer in 24th (27.35).
“We have a large contingent of brand new people, especially on the women's side and I think every one of them was a success today,” said coach Wetmore after the women's 5.8K.
As for the men, who kicked off their run at 9:30 a.m. on the 8K course, they stuck to the pack mentality, taking 13 of the top 14 positions. Crossing the tape first for the men was senior Erik Heinonen with at time of 26:48, followed closely by nine other Buffs.
On the slower pace of the men's team, Wetmore commented, “We were really looking for the break point between our eight and nine guys, and while we discovered that, the pace was a little slow. I don't know how hard they were going or how much faster the front guys could have gone, but the break point on varsity was slower than a year ago.”
Occupying the remaining spots of 2-10 were sophomore Seth Demoor (26:49), junior Brent Vaughn (26:49), junior Pete Janson (26:49), sophomore Kenyon Neuman (26:50), junior Stephen Pifer (26:50), senior Billy Nelson (26:50), juniors James Strang (26:56) and Shaun Lyle (26:58) and sophomore Chris Pannone (26:59).
Finishing out the field for the Buffs were junior Rob Thayer in 12th (27:14), senior Anthony Chiulli in 13th (27:15), senior Dan Kenney in 14th (27:15) and freshman Matt Herzl in 19th (27:56).
“The veteran guys on the team, who have not been varsity, looked a lot more like varsity runners today. There is a big adjustment to college running for men and it is hard to tell how the new guys looked just from today. The women looked very good today,” said Wetmore.
As for the next step for the team, coach Wetmore is “looking forward to another big block of training and coming back a month from now in a race where everyone is running hard the whole way.”
That race, one month from now will be the Rocky Mountain Shootout on September 30, held at the same place as today's time trial. The Open will start at 8:30 a.m. with the NCAA race to follow at 10:30.
