Colorado University Athletics
Benner, Buffs Take Aim At NCAA Mountain Region
November 10, 2015 | Cross Country, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Kaitlyn Benner and her Colorado cross country teammates want to run fast in Friday's NCAA Mountain Region meet in Albuquerque — but not too fast.
Not so fast, anyway, that they are “flat on the ground” tired when the race is over.
That kind of effort, Benner said, is what the Buffs hope to save for the NCAA Championships eight days later in Louisville, Ky.
It's a delicate dance in which the Buffs engage every season. They run to win the conference meet — which they successfully did this season, sweeping the men's and women's titles at the Pac-12 Championships — then do what is necessary at the NCAA Regionals to advance.
Then, if all goes according to plan, they will have saved their best for last — which is exactly what they've done the last two years, when the CU men won back-to-back NCAA titles and the women collected a pair of top-10 finishes.
“It's kind of tricky,” Benner said. “You can't go into it with the mindset of being super competitive; it's not like going into nationals. I look at it as a hard workout, but I'm not trying to be flat on the ground afterwards. It's still going to be hard and I'm still going to be tired at the end, but we just want to make sure we're comfortably qualified for nationals.”
If the Buffs finish either first or second as a team, they'll automatically qualify. The men, ranked No. 1 in the nation all season, will be favored to win; the women, currently ranked No. 2, will be lining up against No. 1 New Mexico. But given their finishes in the conference and Pre Nationals meets, the men and women could finish as low as fourth and still likely earn a trip to Louisville.
Translation: unless disaster strikes in a big way, they'll advance.
Benner, a sophomore from nearby Monarch High School, is a major reason the Buffs have climbed to No. 2 in the national rankings. After a solid freshman season, she's had a breakout year, including a recent second-place finish in the Pac-12 Championships, where she beat teammate Erin Clark for the first time in two seasons. It was the first time since the 2013 season that Clark did not finish as the Buffs' top runner in a meet.
“Erin obviously is a super-great runner,” Benner said. “She's really fit and great at racing. To be able to beat her was definitely a confidence boost for me, just to know that I can be where she is.”
Benner started her year in February with a victory in the USA Cross Country Championships in Boulder, followed up by a 27th-place finish in the IAAF World Junior Championships. A minor injury slowed her training in the summer, but she rallied quickly to finish 15th in the Pre Nationals (she was 52nd there a year ago) before her Pac-12 performance.
It's been a season in which she's exceeded even her own expectations.
“This summer I wasn't expecting to be where I am right now because I got a little late start to training,” Benner said. “But I'm happy with where I am now. I thought I would do a little better at Pre Nationals, but I ended up getting stuck at the start with it being so crowded. But Pac-12s, I was really happy with my race. I think that's a lot more indicative of my fitness level.”
A year ago, Benner finished 13th at the regional meet, earning All-Mountain Region recognition as CU won the team title. She went on to finish 81st at the NCAA Championships, where the Buffs women finished seventh.
She'd like to improve on both finishes this year in Louisville.
“We're ranked second, so we want to at least be on the podium (top three),” Benner said. “New Mexico is ranked first and they're a really, really strong team, but no one wants to get second. We'll definitely be trying to be as close to them as possible or beat them.”
One thing Benner will be aware of in Louisville is a narrowing of the course about 400 meters from the start. At the Pre-Nationals, she got caught in the pack and lost precious time, forcing her to try to catch up once the course widened again.
“I'll definitely try to get out a lot harder and a lot quicker to be ahead of the crowd when we get to that place so I don't get caught up in anyone falling or stuck behind a bunch of girls,” Benner said. “It's too hard to pass them there in such a narrow space. That's what happened at Pre Nationals, and I'll be sure not to let that happen again.”
NCAA MOUNTAIN REGION INFORMATION: The meet will include athletes from 21 schools running on the University of New Mexico's North golf course in Albuquerque, a course that includes rolling hills and switchback turns.
Both men and women will be racing longer distances at regionals and the NCAA meet than they ran in the regular season. The women will move up from 5 kilometers to 6 kilometers; the men from 8K to 10K.
The women's race begins at noon; the men's race at 1 p.m.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
