No. 1 Buffs Prepare For Oct. 3 Rocky Mountain Shootout

BOULDER — When you are the unanimous choice as the No. 1 team in the nation, when you are the two-time defending national champions — and the overwhelming choice to make it a three-peat — conventional wisdom suggests that you are competing with a target on your back.

The pressure of such expectations should be substantial, right?

Wrong — at least if you are the Colorado Buffaloes. The Colorado cross country team has never fit the mold of conventional. Instead, Mark Wetmore's Buffs tune out noise from the outside, tune in to what Wetmore is teaching and more often than not, do what the Buffs have done as well as any program in the nation this century:

They have fun, they revel in the opportunity to improve — and they win, to the tune of five men's national titles since 2001, and the heavy favorites to make it six this year.

No doubt, those are the kind of expectations that create pressure, the kind of pressure that can smother a team — but not if you run for the Buffs.

“It's not pressure, it's tradition,” CU senior Connor Winter said. “That's all we know. Since I've been here, we've never finished outside of the top three in the nation. Once you see what it takes then you understand it, and you accept the responsibilities and the sacrifices that are necessary to be successful.

“There's no nervousness, no expectations and no pressure because you enjoy it and know what it takes. There's more joy and excitement to see what can happen, what's the next step you can take. Every year there's that improvement, and you're excited to see that happen.”

Clearly, Winter and the Buffs are excited about the possibilities this year. They'll put their talents on display at the Oct. 3 Rocky Mountain Shootout — their only local appearance of the season — then begin the process of preparing for the Pac-12 Championships, the NCAA Regionals and the NCAA Championships.

The Buffs are well aware of the fact that they'll be targeted this year in every race they enter. They know every other team in the field — no matter where they compete — will be taking aim at the opportunity to knock off the nation's No. 1 team.

But Winter said the Buffs can't concern themselves with what other teams are thinking.

“Honestly, you don't think about the target on your back,” Winter said. “What I think about is the target up in front of me. All of us have room to improve. Nobody was an individual national champion. We have five, six, seven guys who not only want to be All-Americans, but want to be in the top 25 at nationals, and that's really the goal.

“We don't care about who's behind us. If everybody runs to their potential, runs the way they're able to, then we're going to do great things and we're going to win championships. But we're not going to worry about who's coming after us, because you can't control what they're doing. You can only control how you're training and how ready you are when it really matters.”

The Buffs have five All-Americans on this year's roster, including four who scored at last year's NCAA Championships: Ammar Moussa (fifth), Ben Saarel (seventh), Winter (24th) and Pierce Murphy (35th). The fifth All-American, Morgan Pearson, did not compete last season, but had a 17th-place finish in 2013 to help the Buffs to a national title that season.

Their goal this year: not only win a third straight NCAA title — something that hasn't been done since Arkansas won three straight from 1998-2000 — but also place all five scorers in the top 25.

“We legitimately have a chance to do that,” Winter said. “Then we'd have the legacy of not just winning three national championships in a row, but we'd also have five guys in the top 25, which has only been done I think three times ever. That would give us the opportunity to say unquestionably we were one of the best teams ever, across the board, in any year.

“That's the exciting and fun part about it, to have the opportunity and ability to pursue something like that.”

While some coaches might attempt to tamp down such expectations — at least publicly — Wetmore has never been one to throttle down his team's goals.

“I have my expectations and I allow the team to have its expectations, and I don't worry too much about anybody else's,” Wetmore said when the season began.

Wetmore's job is to make sure his runners are prepared. It's a delicate balance of making sure they are not overtrained and peak too early, or undertrained and not ready for the biggest races when they arrive.

But perhaps most importantly, he has instilled a “team first” attitude in a sport that is geared toward individual accomplishment.

“We're running as a team,” Winter said. “You remember where you finished as an individual, of course, but you never forget that you won a national championship. That's been our strength, that we always have five, six, seven guys who can finish at the top.”

The Rocky Mountain Shootout will be conducted Oct. 3 at the Buffalo Ranch course on CU's South Campus property.

The women's race is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and the men's race at 9:45 a.m. Parking and admission are free.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu