Brooks: Peterman, Perrin Turn Bad Trip Into Special Bond

BOULDER - Apologies to Deadheads everywhere and their beloved band, but what a strange and rewarding trip it turned out to be.

Flash back with Adam Peterman and Zach Perrin to the 2010 Montana high school cross country championships. Peterman and Perrin were running rivals, but as high school sophomores neither had any idea of how bitter the rivalry would become.

And they certainly couldn't visualize how the animosity eventually would dissolve into an unshakable friendship.

Peterman ran for Hellgate High School in Missoula, Perrin for Flathead High School in Kalispell - roughly 115 miles due north of Missoula. In a state whose population density ranks 48th (seven per square mile), while elite young runners don't reside next to grizzly bears on the endangered species list, the really good ones are still rare.

In 2010 word spread quickly about the prowess of Peterman and Perrin, who were going head-to-head in Helena. It turned out to be foot-to-foot.

"He tripped me," Perrin recalled, grinning but maybe still a little steamed. "I don't know if it was on purpose; he's never told me for sure. You're going to have to ask him about that . . . definitely after that we weren't super close."

Here's Peterman's explanation: "My coach in high school always said cross country is a contact sport. So . . . it got a little aggressive between us at times. We were a lot younger then."

But did your foot find Perrin's on purpose?

Repeated Peterman: "Ah, I can just say it's a contact sport. I was aggressive."

The trip cost Perrin, who finished a disappointing seventh in 16:00. Peterman, meanwhile, ran 15:49 and finished an unexpected third. That, recalled Peterman, "was a big moment for me, considering I was ranked like 15th (in the state)."

It was also a big moment, although not nearly as joyous, for Perrin. "We didn't say anything to each other after that race . . . in fact, we didn't talk much until our senior years; it wasn't always the best relationship," he said. "We were competing at a pretty high level and were each other's top competition, just because Montana isn't that big of a state and there's not that much (competition)."

THEIR RELATIONSHIP NEVER TURNED snarky, but it remained at a tepid "how's-it-going?" level for most of the next two years, with Peterman noting that "saying 'hi' to each other at meets" was about as warm as it got. "Really, we were just feeling each other out . . . but I definitely looked up to him because he was quite a bit faster than me. "

Their high school racing resumes prove it. Perrin won the 3,200-meter state championship as a freshman, encored at that distance as a senior and added the 1,600-meter title in his final year. He also won the 2012 cross country championship.

That season's runner-up? Peterman. But he won the state 3,200 meters title two seasons earlier, setting an all-class record (9:12). "I beat him in that state race when we were sophomores, but he had an iron deficiency," Peterman said. "Our junior years he broke 9 minutes (in the 3,200) and that was the year I had an iron deficiency . . . but I was much, much slower than him."

The Perrin-Peterman relationship finally moved past the nod-and-shrug stage when both attended a three-day running camp in Kalispell, where they discovered they shared mutual outdoor interests. No big surprise there, said Peterman, because "it's Montana and most of the fun stuff you do is outdoors. We had three days of trail running, hanging out by the lake."

It went smoothly enough that in the summer before their senior years they decided to take a biking/camping trip with a fellow in-state runner. "I don't know if Zach had biked that much, but I did a ton," Peterman said. "It was a fun, two days of biking. We got along very well. But it made it difficult in cross country (that fall) because we had been rivals all through high school, then all of a sudden we're friends."

When they were closing in on the end of their high school careers, they began conversing about colleges. They took a joint trip to Flagstaff, Ariz., and Northern Arizona University, then pondered visiting Portland together. When Perrin canceled his trip, Peterman didn't go on his own.

Colorado entered the picture first for Perrin, who contacted Buffs coaches but also was being shown interest by Oregon, NAU, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State and Alabama. "He was getting recruited by quite a few big-time programs," said Peterman, whose first correspondence with CU followed.

It initially posed a quandary for head coach Mark Wetmore, associate head coach Heather Burroughs and assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Billy Nelson. The Buffs were interested in Peterman, but they knew of his rivalry with Perrin.

Burroughs remembers the coaches saying among themselves, "'We need to talk to Zach' - because we were pretty far along in the recruiting process and we wanted to know if it would trouble him to have his big rival on the same team for the next four or five years. I think it was Billy that contacted Zach and he said, 'Oh, no, I'd love to go to school with Adam.' That was a happy surprise."

Meanwhile, Peterman was reasoning that a subpar junior year probably lowered his overall stock in the recruiting process. "I was trying to figure out what (Perrin) was doing to get that much attention," he said before figuring that out for himself. "We'd talk about that and about the whole recruiting process, which is kind of confusing especially in Montana. Not that many people go out of state to run competitively in college - at least that's how it was in the past. Now it's getting quite a bit stronger. But I had his phone number and we'd talk about logistical stuff, stuff like the (NCAA) Clearinghouse."

ALTHOUGH PERRIN MADE THE FIRST contact, Peterman committed to CU first then found out that Ben Saarel, of Salt Lake City, also was coming to Boulder. They had met as competitors at an indoor meet in 2013. "I figured I'd room with him," Peterman said.

Then Perrin called Peterman and said he also was on board with the Buffs. So they approached Nelson about tripling up as roommates. When Nelson made it happen, Perrin was grateful.

"Going somewhere completely new, where you don't know anybody, can be scary," said Perrin. "But knowing there's somebody there you already know is a pretty cool concept. Yeah, I was pretty happy about that."

Unless it happens in the house they now rent a couple of miles up Boulder Canyon, Peterman's and Perrin's competitive paths no longer cross. For the upcoming NCAA West Prelim (May 28-30, Austin, Texas), Peterman, a sophomore, is focused on the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Perrin on the 1,500 meters.

"But we still push each other," said Perrin, a redshirt freshman. "There's always going to be competition."

After an eighth-place finish (8:58.04) at the recent Pac-12 Championships in a steeple race that saw Buffs finish 1-2, Peterman is eyeing "some redemption at regionals. The Pac-12 didn't go that well for me so I'm excited. I learned a lot from that (Pac-12 race). I was the guy who went out leading then everyone passed. No way I'll do that in Austin. I'm assuming it'll be a pretty fast pace early on, so I'm going to try and just ride the train and get it done. I'm going to try and punch my ticket (to the NCAA nationals). I'll give it a good shot."

Perrin came in 10th (3:47.67) in the 1,500 at the Pac-12 meet but says he's "running really well right now, so it should be fun" in Austin. "I'm excited about it."

Both Montanans have adapted well to Boulder and the surrounding area, its diverse terrain for training and its expansive but close-knit running community. Peterman calls the overall experience "awesome . . . coming from Montana, the trails and landscape mean quite a bit to me and to Zach, too. Here you've got the mountains, the plains, everything at your disposal."

Added Perrin: "This is one of the best places to be for running. We've got the best coaching staff in the nation, a great trail system, awesome facilities and athletic director. I don't think it can get much better than this as far as I'm concerned. I feel really fortunate to be a part of it."

Fortunate covers a lot of territory here. Peterman and Perrin have morphed from fierce high school rivals to teammates to college roomies to best buds. All things considered, it's been a very, ahem, nice trip.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU