Colorado University Athletics
Men Look For Third NCAA Title, Women Also Aim High
November 20, 2015 | Cross Country
BOULDER — The University of Colorado top-ranked and two-time defending NCAA men's cross country team is set to defend its titles on Saturday, November 21, at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Louisville, Ky.
The men enter the meet as the unanimous No. 1 team and have been the undisputed top-ranked team in every poll for the last two seasons. The women's team is also looking to do well at the meet and are ranked second. This will be the 24th straight NCAA appearance for men, while it's the 23rd appearance for the women in 24 years.
The women's 6-kilometer race is first and is scheduled for a 10 a.m. (MST) start. The men will run the 10k course second at 11 a.m. (MST) at 'E. P.' Tom Sawyer State Park. An awards ceremony will follow both races. The meet will be streamed live online at NCAA.com starting at 10 a.m. and results will be posted there upon the completion of both races.
Both teams advanced to NCAAs after winning their respective races at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships for the second straight season. The women defeated No. 1 New Mexico 49-50, while the men topped UTEP (67-77).
Of the 31 men's teams participating at nationals, the CU men will face six other Pac-12 opponents in No. 3 Stanford, No. 9 Oregon, No. 11 Washington, No. 25 Washington State, No. 27 California and No. 28 UCLA. The women have four other Pac-12 competitors in No. 5 Oregon, No. 12 Washington, No. 13 Stanford and No. 21 Utah.
CU's men have won all four of its varsity races this season. The Buffs took home the Rocky Mountain Shootout title with a perfect score of 15. At NCAA Pre-Nationals, CU recorded 89 points to defeat Oregon (151). The Buffs won their fifth consecutive Pac-12 title, defeating Stanford (46-57), before winning regionals on Nov. 13.
Senior Pierce Murphy, a two-time All-American (2013 and '14), has led the Buffs in all four varsity races this season. He won the Rocky Mountain Shootout to start the season and then placed fifth at NCAA Pre-Nationals. At the Pac-12 Championships, he earned all-conference honors with a fourth place finish. Two weeks later, Murphy was seventh at regionals, collecting all-region recognition.
The Buffs have a very solid line-up with four other All-Americans on the team in seniors Ammar Moussa, Morgan Pearson and Connor Winter, as well as junior Ben Saarel. Pearson, who redshirted the 2014 season, has been CU's No. 2 runner twice, placing second at the Rocky Mountain Shootout and eighth at regionals. He was also the fourth harrier for the Buffs at pre-nationals (15th) and Pac-12s (14th).
Moussa has run at three meets for Colorado, and has been third for the Buffs in each. He was 14th at pre-nationals, seventh at Pac-12s and 15th at regionals. Winter was third overall at the Rocky Mountain Shootout and placed ninth as CU's No. 2 runner at pre-nationals. He was also 15th at Pac-12s (fifth runner) and 23rd at regionals (seventh).
Saarel ran his first race in uniform last weekend at regionals, placing 21st overall as CU's No. 6 racer.
Another Buff making an impact this year is true freshman John Dressel. He earned a position on the varsity roster after finishing fifth (unattached) at the Rocky Mountain Shootout. Dressel went on to placed 46th at pre-nationals as CU's No. 5 scorer. He recorded a sixth place overall finish at Pac-12s as CU's No. 2 and last week at regionals, Dressel placed 19th as the fifth Buffalo across the finish line.
Zach Perrin, a redshirt sophomore, has also been a contributor to the team. He was fourth overall at the Rocky Mountain Shootout before coming in seventh for the Buffs at pre-nationals (68th) and Pac-12s (38th). Perrin placed 18th at regionals as CU's No. 4 runner.
The CU men won their fifth NCAA championship last year and five individuals earned All-American honors. Moussa led the Buffs last year with a fifth-place finish, while Saarel earned his second straight top ten finish (seventh). Blake Theroux was also in the top 10, finishing ninth. Winter was 24th overall and Murphy placed 35th overall. The Buffs recorded a score of 65 points to defeat Stanford (98).
The women's team has three wins this season. CU won the Rocky Mountain Shootout, Pac-12s and regionals. The only meet CU didn't win, NCAA Pre-Nationals, the Buffs placed second.
The Buffs have a very strong 1-2 punch this season. Junior Erin Clark led CU in the first two races, winning the Rocky Mountain Shootout and pre-nationals, while sophomore Kaitlyn Benner has led CU in the other two meets with runner-up finishes (Pac-12s and regionals).
Senior Maddie Alm has been a solid top five racer for the Buffs the last two seasons. She has recorded All-Pac-12 (eighth place) and all-region honors (seventh) this season and looks to have a strong finish to her career. She was the runner-up at the shootout and placed 18th at pre-nationals. True freshman Dani Jones has been one of CU's scorers since making the varsity roster at the shootout. She was fourth overall at the shootout and placed 62nd at pre-nationals. Jones improved to 24th at Pac-12s and was 16th at regionals to record her first all-region honor.
Three other Buffs will look to score at the meet. Redshirt sophomore Melanie Nun, who missed the 2014 season due to injury, has scored in the last three meets. She placed 67th at pre-nats (CU's No. 5), was seventh at Pac-12s (CU's No. 3) and took 23rd (CU's No. 5) at regionals. Redshirt junior Carrie Verdon and redshirt freshman Val Constien also have strong credentials for Saturday. Verdon has been a strong No. 6 racer for the Buffs, while Constien has been challenging for that position.
In total, five of CU's seven racers have raced at NCAAs. Three of the women competed last season, Alm, Benner and Clark, while Nun and Verdon ran in 2013.
Colorado was seventh overall at the 2014 championship, totaling 267 points. Clark led the way for the Buffs, placing 31st overall for her first All-America honor. Alm was second on the team, placing 51st. Benner was 81st, Jenny DeSouchet took 95th and Sara Sutherland was 96th.
The current forecast for Saturday is a high of 46 degrees Fahrenheit with a 50 percent chance of rain after 8 a.m. Admission is $10 – this is a cash only event.
2015 NCAA DIVISION I CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday, November 21
E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park
Louisville, Ky
10 a.m. (MST) 6k Women's Race
11 a.m. (MST) 10k Men's Race
Live Stream: NCAA.com starting at 10 a.m.
Results: NCAA.com
Pre-NCAA Press Conference Quotes (Nov. 17, 2015)
Colorado Head Coach Mark Wetmore
On looking back to 2004 when both men and women teams swept the NCAA's
“I think you remember it better than I do, but I would guess that we were not ranked number one or two on either side and we did need a good day and we had a good day. I think the conditions were bad and maybe we managed the condition better than some other teams but that was a good day, when you win them both that's pretty fun.”
On the success of the 2015 men's senior class and its impact on recruiting
“We graduate four men this coming spring they've made a special contribution to our history. Each is an excellent recruiter when we have people here on visits, each of them make sure to reach out and communicate with the visitors. I can use them in my recruiting as well to say, 'Are you the next class that will be that together and will be that synergetic and that successful?' So, they help in lots of ways. It's going to be hard to see them go, but we have some great young people and were still recruiting good people and yeah it will continue for a while.”
On if the pit falls in cross country are similar to other sports such as staying humble and not overlooking opponents
“Yes if those are the pit falls in other sports, they the same for us. This team could have gotten inflated with themselves, they could have gotten comfortable with the successes they've had in the past so that could have harmed them in last six months, it hasn't, they have prepared as well as any team. The senior year is difficult; each of those four seniors is looking at real life coming in July. It's often problematic for seniors managing wrapping up their athletic career and planning for the future. That is something I've been a little bit nervous about, but there pretty ready. There is other good teams they expect to have to run hard.”
On what it would take for the women to win the NCAA's as an underdog
“The NCAA cross country final championship field is established by nine competitions that happen the weekend prior, our ninth of the country was called the Mountain Region in which we faced the New Mexico women. All across the country the best teams, the better teams, are hoping to get through as easily as possible. Who in this room would want to run an all out race on Friday and then try to do it even better eight days later, particularly on the men's side when it's 10,000 meters? Our men, the New Mexico women, our women to a degree were racing the last weekend as carefully as they dared. New Mexico is strong enough that they could be more careful than anybody else. Of their top-seven women, they sat out two, meaning they didn't run them all, and four ran side by side basically talking behind our top-three, but absolutely with the rains pulled back. We got one or maybe two No. 1 votes probably from some far enough across the country to not understand how much that team was holding back. On a normal day with everyone going hard and nothing strange happening we won't beat them. So, we do need something strange to happen (in order to beat New Mexico). So your question what has to happen, we have to manage the day better. I don't know what the condition will be, if it will be snowing or raining or 80 degrees, I don't know yet. But the way that we will beat them is if we manage the field size, the vagaries of the terrain and whatever condition we face.”
On comparing the 2014 men's team to the 2015 team
“They're a year older. Blake Theroux went out and Morgan Pearson comes in. People ask me all the time – a year ago – 'Is this the best team you've ever had?' At one point I said, 'I think it might be.' So the logical question now would be: 'Is this team even better than that (2014 team)?' The answer would be, it's almost impossible to tell. We'll race on a different NCAA final course, we'll race in different conditions against different teams. I do think the opposition is stronger this year. Then, there is that senior concern. We've all hear of the term 'senioritis' which is applied usually to high school 17-year-olds that get quite full of themselves and are ready to conquer the world; the collegiate version of 'senioritis' is almost the opposite. It's basically a horror of insurance payments and car payments and mortgages and things like that. The senior year is difficult, we'll have to see how they manage that.”
On the new facilities the cross country team is moving in to
“We haven't moved out yet. We were supposed to move a couple weeks ago and I asked the bosses to let me stay until the end of cross country so that we can keep our normal routine. The closer that date comes – next Monday (Nov. 23rd) – the more I'm resistant to it. Maybe I'm attached to the boxelder bugs and the stains in the ceilings and squishy rugs, as [long-time Sports Information Director] Dave Plati became attached to his squirrels that he knew by name; their own names in fact, which they taught to him. So, we haven't moved yet, we will be moved when we come back. When we get back from this trip (to the NCAA's) we'll be on the fifth floor of the Champions Center in beautiful, palatial new surroundings. I think one of your questions was, 'How does that change us in the future?' The answer is: if it doesn't change me, it doesn't change us. If it doesn't change the coaching staff and what we expect of ourselves and our team, then a fancy new office shouldn't change the team.”
More on new facilities
“It's farther from the students; the students can be in my office in 15 seconds between classes, now it's a bit of a hike. I may sit in a chair in Balch gym during the day, for them to stop by. It will be different, but it's inevitable and it had to happen, and it's great that it happened. It will attract new recruits, particularly in the more technical events – the sprints and hurdles and so forth, jumps, multi-events – who have reasonably looked at Balch gym in the past and said, 'I don't know if I can make my college career here.' So, it's a palatial new facility, it's beautiful, the indoor practice facility, we're looking forward to that. That's February 1st-ish (when construction will be completed).”
On new track surface being state-of-the-art
“Collegiate indoor track these days is conducted on either a banked 200-meter track or a flat 300-meter track, or at least I should say that the new tracks that are being built are banked 200s or flat 300s. Ours will be a flat 300-meter track, very broad turns, which is what determines how fast a track is. Nearly the length of outdoor turns, six lanes, Mondo surface, which is the Italian company that puts all the surface on the Olympic tracks and world championship tracks. It might be the best indoor track in the country. Again, for people who really need an indoor facility for their preparation -- the sprinters, the hurdlers, throwers, jumps, multi-event people -- this is a brave new world. Distance runners, it will help us a handful of times a year, but the bulk of their work is done outside, no matter what the conditions are and so it changes things for them a little bit, but mostly for the rest of the team.”
On what it will be like to no longer practice in Balch Fieldhouse
“No nacho cheese spilled on the floor, no pigeons picking up popcorn kernels during practice, no people waiting at the door to walk through in slushy Uggs during our practice. It'll make a big difference.”
On what he thinks when people refer to his teams as a 'dynasty'
“When I think of dynasty I think of UCLA basketball back in the 70's. I think of Dan Gable and his wrestling dynasties back in the 70's and 80's. I think you need to win 10 in a row to be a dynasty. Honestly, I still am kind of wide eyed about it. I'm surprised that we won the last two and I'm surprised that we're favored to win again and I'll cling to that for a couple more years.”
On Ben Saarel
“Throughout the season we had the choice to race every one of our best people or to hold a few, I wouldn't say up our sleeve, but not play those cards yet, in case we could hold them for another year. The other juniors have all redshirted already. Ben had not. The question was were we good enough without him to have a strong chance to win the NCAA or the conference meet and save him. If we don't use him in 2015 we have him in 2017 and we do have four seniors going out so that was the puzzle. We held him out, all the way until last week when myself and [associate head] coach [Heather] Burroughs just said to ourselves, 'The chance to win an NCAA Championship is rare. We've had a few, but we may never have one again. Let's look at this one in the perspective of the future rather than the past.' Plus he has the right to be on an NCAA Championship team if he can be. Imagine if we hold him out and we win and then we never win again and he lost the chance to be on that team. Last week we put him in and he ran pretty well for a guy that's been a long time away from racing. We hope he'll run a little better this weekend and strengthen our team and strengthen our chances.”
On his coaching philosophy and if it's changed over the years
“Well the changes that have happened since 1992 have all been small, but 20 years of small changes adds up to a fairly different overall look. Alan Culpepper or Adam Goucher who were marquee runners for us in the middle 90's, were they to come back and spend a week with us, would probably speak more about what has changed than what's different. I think we push a little less hard than we did then, but we're doing as well or better so that's a good change. And I only lived in a tent for about a week. I was long beyond the tent by 1995.”
On being named by the Pac-12 as the 'all-century' cross country coach
“Immediately I thought it didn't feel like a century and then I thought, there's some pretty good people in the Pac-8, Pac-10, and Pac-12 before five years ago, when I came in. So I was of course flattered and a little bit embarrassed. John Chaplin at Washington State won the NCAA a few years in a row I think, with one of the greatest, if not the greatest, cross country runner ever in the history of the NCAA, Henry Rono. Vin Lananna had a number of great teams, male and female, at Stanford. Then moved to Oregon and had a few teams before he moved up into the administration. Prior to him at Oregon was an amazing coached named Tom Heinonen. His son ended up the captain of my men's team that won a national championship, but Tom, maybe they didn't look at him because it was the NAIA back then, but he had a lot of great runners and a lot of great teams. I'm aware of the people they selected me over and as I said, a little embarrassed, but also of course really honored. I hope I have a shot at the next century.”
On Kaitlyn Benner and Erin Clark
“We started the season and Erin was winning our races and she had been our top finisher and everything a year ago. Caitlyn was not an outstanding freshman a year ago, but did some very good running in the winter and the spring. You might remember that she won the U.S. Junior Cross Country Championship and qualified for the World Cross Country Meet in China and followed that up with some good races in the spring. I knew that Caitlyn would be a much better runner this fall than last. Not sure I would have bet a lot, were I allowed to bet, on her being right with Erin and maybe beating her here and there. They're a very strong one and two. One of the best two front runners on any team in the country. We'll have to see how it goes next week, or this weekend in the chaos of the NCAA, which is a completely different situation then almost any runner has ever seen before.”
