Buffs Prepare For Pac-12 Championships

BOULDER — It's crunch time for the Colorado cross country teams.

When the gun goes off Friday for the Pac-12 Championships in Colfax, Wash., the Buffs will begin a 22-day stretch that will see them compete in their conference championships, the Nov. 13 NCAA Mountain Regionals in Albuquerque, N.M., and the Nov. 21 NCAA Championships in Louisville, Ky.

That's three high-level competitions in three weeks. It means the Buffs must race, recover, race, recover — and then race one more time, a stretch that requires a delicate balance of going all out and still having enough left to be at their peak in the final race.

The strategy, according to head coach Mark Wetmore, will be one that has served the Buffs well in the past:

“We try to do very well at the conference meet, do whatever is necessary two weeks later at the regionals, and then, of course, do very well again at the nationals,” Wetmore said.

It's hard to argue with the strategy. It's one that has produced two consecutive NCAA men's title and two straight NCAA top-10 finishes for the women, along with four straight Pac-12 titles for the men and two straight top-three conference finishes for the women.

Friday, the Buff men — No. 1 picks in the national coaches' poll all season — will be the favorites to win their fifth consecutive Pac-12 championship. The women, ranked No. 3 in the nation, will enter the race as the highest-ranked team, with Oregon and Stanford also among the favorites.

The Buffs are coming off excellent performances at the Oct. 17 Pre-Nationals in Louisville, where the men won the team title and the women, led by an individual championship from junior Erin Clark, finished second.

Clark, who finished fourth at the Pac-12 meet last year, has been the clear leader for the Buffs this year. Following after her at Pre-Nationals were sophomore Kaitlyn Benner in 15th and senior Madeline Alm in 18th.

For the men, senior Pierce Murphy was the top finisher at Pre-Nationals, crossing the line in fifth place. Fellow seniors Connor Winter (9th), Ammar Moussa (14th) and Morgan Pearson (15th) also recorded top-20 finishes.

Winter was fifth at the Pac-12 meet a year ago, with Moussa in sixth and Murphy in 12th. Pearson redshirted a year ago and did not compete. Wetmore said any one of the four could be the top finisher for the Buffs this week.

“There's no real top dog, or top Buffalo, so to speak,” Wetmore said. “Pierce was our first runner at the (Rocky Mountain) Shootout and Pre-Nationals, but similar to last year, it could be any one of three or four people the next time we race.”

Because the Pac-12 involves conference bragging rights for a year, the Buffs won't be holding anything back this weekend.

“We'll go as hard as we can at the Pac-12,” Wetmore said. “There isn't a worry about going too hard there. If there's a worry, I'd say there's a worry about going too hard two weeks later at NCAA regionals. That's where we want to do just what's necessary.”

Right now, Wetmore's biggest concern is academics. The NCAA regionals and championships come at the same time as CU's second stretch of midterm exams. Thus, Wetmore pushes his athletes to get ahead in their classwork so that the aren't forced to pull any late-night or all-night study sessions to prepare for a test or finish a paper.

“A lot of our runners have very difficult majors,” Wetmore said. “We have several that are studying engineering, integrative physiology, biological sciences. They have some very heavy academic requirements coming up, and one of our biggest fears is that they get behind or make a mistake and have to go sleepless in an important week. We want them ahead of schedule on their papers and 'studied up' so they aren't pulling all-nighters.”

Wetmore is also still toying with his lineup for the Pac-12 meet. He's been holding out two-time All-American Ben Saarel this year with the idea of possibility redshirting him and having him available for two more years.

“We're holding Ben,” Wetmore said “He's going to the meets. He'll be at the Pac-12 and we'll decide based on how his teammates are looking whether we put him in or not.”

Wetmore employed a similar strategy with Pearson a year ago. An All-American in 2013, Pearson did not compete last fall. The Buffs won a national title, and now have Pearson available this year.

“If we used him last year, he would have been done and unavailable for this year,” Wetmore said. “The question was if we were good enough through 2014 to do what we wanted to do without using him — and that's exactly where we are with Ben. Are we good enough in 2015 to do what we hope to do and save him for future seasons?”

While the men are the clear favorites in Friday's race, Wetmore warned that in smaller races, upsets are more common.

“Absolutely we can win,” Wetmore said. “But Stanford could win it, Oregon could win it. In a small meet where our fourth and their fourth aren't separated by 30 points, anything can happen. The top three teams in this meet will probably be separated by about 15 points.”

And, Wetmore knows that someday the men's streak of consecutive Pac-12 titles will come to an end.

“When this conference puts all of their athletes on the line, they're half of the top 10 in the country, often,” Wetmore said. “It's a killer conference. There will come a time when we'll lose — it might be this Friday — and I'll know we lost to a good team.”

Friday's race will not be televised live, but will be broadcast by the Pac-12 Networks on Monday at 7 p.m. in two half-hour specials.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu