Women Place Third, Men Six, At NCAA Championships

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The Colorado women's cross country team earned a third place finish, while the men placed sixth, at the 2016 NCAA Championships on Saturday.

The women's third place finish marks the second straight year they have placed on the podium after a second place finish in 2015. In total, they have placed on the podium nine times under the direction of head coach Mark Wetmore. This is the sixth straight year the men's team has finished in the top 10.

THE WOMEN'S RACE: Top-ranked Colorado suffered its first loss of the season, recording 134 points in the 6-kilometer team race. No. 12 Oregon won the championship by one point over fifth-ranked Michigan (125-126).

Like they had been doing all season, the Buffs finished in a very close pack with four recording All-America honors (as top 40 finishers). The Buffs were led by sophomore Dani Jones, who placed 22^nd overall (20:14.2) for her first All-America nod. Junior Kaitlyn Benner, now a two-time All-American, was just behind Jones at 26th (20:15.6).

Colorado's next four runners came across the finish in a strong pack. Sophomore Mackenzie Caldwell led the stampede with a 39th place finish (20:23.8) and freshman Sage Hurta was 40th overall (20:24.1) to each earn their first All-America honor. CU's final scorer was freshman Tabor Scholl, who placed 42^nd (20:24.9) and just missed All-America recognition by 0.8 seconds.

Although she did not score, sophomore Makena Morley earned a very high placing, finishing 43rd (20:27.6), right behind Scholl. The Buffs seventh racer was senior Erin Clark, who finished 133rd (20:58.4).

Missouri's Karissa Schweizer won the overall individual title, crossing the finish in 19:41.6.

THE MEN'S RACE: Colorado's second-ranked men finished the 10-kilometer race sixth overall with 223 points. Top-ranked Northern Arizona won the meet with 125 points and No. 5 Stanford placed second overall (158).

The Buffs were led by senior Ben Saarel, who caught his teammate, redshirt freshman Joe Klecker, down the final stretch. Saarel finished his final cross country race 21st overall, clocking in at 30:11.8. Klecker was just behind at 28th, finishing in 30:15.6.

Another Buff, sophomore John Dressel, crossed the finish shortly after Klecker, placing 33rd overall in 30:21.3. With those finishes, Saarel, Klecker and Dressel were named All-Americans. It was the fourth time for Saarel, second for Dressel and first for Klecker.

CU's No. 4 runner was sophomore Ryan Forsyth, who placed 74th overall (30:42.8). The final scorer for the team was junior Zach Perrin, who crossed the line 125th (31:04.7)

Also racing, although they did not score, were junior Christian Martin (192nd) and redshirt freshman Reilly Friedman (217th). Martin finished in 31:35.4 and Friedman clocked in at 31:54.3.

Villanova's Patrick Tiernan was the individual winner, finishing in 29:22.0.

ALL-AMERICAN NOTES:
The Buffs had a total of seven harriers finish in the top 40 to earn the title of All-American, four women and three men.

Ben Saarel became just the third Buff, fourth including men and women, to earn All-America honors four times in his career. Saarel was the top racer for the Buffs in 2013, placing eight overall. In 2014, he improved to seventh and was 31^st in 2015. This year he was 21st.

Saarel joins Olympian and 1998 NCAA Cross Country Champion Adam Goucher and Stephen Pifer in this elite group. (Olympian Shalaya Kipp is the only female to earn the honor four times.)

WEATHER: At the start of the women's race, it was 37 degrees with winds gusting up to 18 miles per hour and a wind chill of 27. The men's race was very similar although the wind was down to 16 mph.

QUOTEABLE:
Head Coach Mark Wetmore
On The Men's Performance
"Honestly, I thought the second place ranking was a little optimistic for us. I felt we were about fourth or fifth, trying to be objective."

On Ben Saarel Earning His Fourth All-American Honor
"He's in rare company. I am happy that he got All-American. He indeed moved up throughout the race to be our number one runner. Again, I think our men made the same mistake our women did in that they were a little too tentative. If both teams do that times seven players, then you have to look at the coach and say, 'how did I fail to communicate with the necessities of this event?' They were a little too far back moving up the whole way. Again, the intermediate splits will show that but it was too late to get much higher. Anyway, I think they ran about where they should have. We will have to wait and see for the results though."

On Joe Klecker
"A great race for Joe. Joe is a courageous guy. He's up front of everything and we have to constantly ask him to hold back. He is going to be a really good runner in the future."

On the Women's Team
"Well, the first thing I noticed 600-700 M into the race is that we were not positioned well. They were out a little too tentatively, in fact a lot too tentatively and then it was a catch up raced the whole way. I think later when the intermediate splits are revealed we will see that they were moving up, but it was too late.

On His Coaching Tactics
"Every race is different and every race requires a different strategy. There are races where we do tell them to, absolutely, to be very careful and leave it to the second half. That's not what we told them today, but no one led them up. They all waited too long and they couldn't catch up."

On Dani Jones
"We have some very good races today. Dani was very good. Mackenzie Caldwell was excellent. The two freshman were excellent. We've got a good future."

On Next Season
"As I said, we had some very good races today. The freshmen were wonderful. They're going to be two of the best freshman in the country by the end of the day. Lots of reasons to be optimistic about next time."

Kaitlyn Benner, Junior
On The Race Overall
"It was hard. I think I got out a little too buried and it was hard to work my way up. That finishing straight away was hard into the wind so trying to finish that last 400 was tough."

On Whether Weather Conditions Played A Big Role
"I don't really think so. Obviously it wasn't ideal but that's something we prepare for mentally and physically. I think we came in well prepared for the weather."

On Team Result
"Obviously we wanted to win but regardless of whether we do or not, we're such a strong team. We all love each other; we all support each other. We all know when we go out there that everyone is going to do the best we can and that's all you can ask for."

Dani Jones, Sophomore
On The Race Overall
"It was tough out there but I think me and Makena and Kaitlyn did a good job as a team."

On Whether Weather Conditions Played A Big Role
"It was difficult but at the same time, I don't think anyone really has. We live by the mountains so it's not like we've never run in this weather before."

On Her Individual Performance
"I felt okay. I wasn't really sure where I was the whole time. I tried to gauge off of where my teammates were. It was definitely hard."

Ben Saarel, Senior
On The Race
"It was an alright day. I made one good adjustment from Pre-Nationals, from the 4K to 5K I was able to get up to the pack that I wanted to be in. And I was able to cut a lot of the wind out. But also I made a few poor choices by not being aggressive enough, from about 5K to 7K. So some good stuff happened and some bad stuff. But I felt like I could have done a little bit more but that's kind of how I ended up. It was an ok day. I can't be too angry with how I did, but at the same time it would have been nice to be two spots ahead."

On Being a Four-Time All-American
"I'm thinking about today and how I did, and I've had better days in the past. I'll have to think about that more in a few days or maybe a few months when I get my head back in a different place."

John Dressel, Sophomore
On His Race
"Yeah, through the race I was making surges and moving up fine. I think, surprisingly, when we got out I was running with Joe and Ben and thought we were in a decent position, but turned out we were too far back and the front group was probably making some surges without us knowing it and that had us a little bit buried during the race. I did make a few surges to reestablish my position throughout the field, but I didn't run as well as I wanted to today and was probably further back than I needed to."

On What Held Him Back
"I think a thing to take away from the race was just that we were too far back. The last 500 down that stretch, I tried finishing as best and I possibly could but my thighs were just not moving that fast, or they didn't feel like they could move that fast [from the cold]. I just couldn't get as much of a turnover as I would have liked."

On the Team's Finish
"Definitely not satisfied with it. I mean we are not saddened by it, by any means. We are just going to walk away from here and know we need to improve upon things and look forward to next year at this time. Definitely not happy with sixth knowing that we were ranked second and how we ran at Pac-12. We thought we could have had a chance to possibly mix it up and win today, but we definitely fell back more than we would have liked. A few of our guys didn't run as well as they could have or should have. I think next year we are going to have a deeper team. Some of the freshman this year are gaining strength and putting more miles in. If we can get focused, we can do some good things next year."

RESULTS:
2016 NCAA DIVISION I CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
LaVern Gibson Championships Cross Country Course (Terre Haute, Ind.)
WOMEN'S TEAM TOP-10 6K RESULTS (of 31 teams):
1. Oregon 125; 2. Michigan 126; 3. Colorado 134; 4. NC State 223; 5. Stanford 255; 6. San Francisco 307; 7. New Mexico 310; 8. Michigan State 314; 9. Eastern Michigan 316; 10. BYU 328

WOMEN'S TOP-10 INDIVIDUAL FINISHERS:
1. Karissa Schweizer, Missouri, 19:41.6; 2. Erin Finn, Michigan, 19:44.2; 3. Anna Rohrer, 19:44.6; 4. Katie Rainsberger, Oregon, 19:51.1; 5. Sharon Lokedi, Kansas, 19:52.2; 6. Brenna Peloquin, 19:54.5; 7. Elinor Purrier, New Hampshire, 19:56.9; 8. Amy-Eloise Neale, Washington, 19:58.3; 9. Grace Barnett, Clemson, 20:02.4; 10. Charlotte Taylor, San Francisco, 10:02.7

COLORADO FINISHERS:
22. Dani Jones, 20:14.2; 26. Kaitlyn Benner, 20:15.6; 39. Mackenzie Caldwell, 20:23.8; 40. Sage Hurta, 20:24.1; 42. Tabor Scholl, 20:24.9; 43. Makena Morley, 20:27.6; 133. Erin Clark, 20:58.4

MEN'S TEAM TOP-10 10K RESULTS (of 31 teams):
1. Northern Arizona 125; 2. Stanford 158; 3. Syracuse 164; 4. Mississippi 196; 5. Arkansas 206; 6. Colorado 223; 7. BYU 247; 8. Wisconsin 256; 9. Oregon 282; 10. Iona 319

MEN'S TOP-10 INDIVIDUAL FINISHERS:
1. Patrick Tiernan, Villanova, 29:22.0; 2. Justyn Knight, 29:27.3; 3. Edward Cheserek, Oregon, 29:48.0; 4. Futsum Zienasellassie, Northern Arizona, 29:49.8; 5. Grant Fisher, Stanford, 29:57.9; 6. MJ Erb, Mississippi, 29:58.5; 7. Morgan McDonald, Wisconsin, 29:59.2; 8. Edwin Kibichiy, Louisville, 29:59.5; 9. Nicolas Montanez, BYU, 30:02.3; 10. Scott Carpenter, Georgetown, 30:03.0

COLORADO FINISHERS:
21. Ben Saarel, 30:11.8; 28. Joe Klecker, 30:15.6; 33. John Dressel, 30:21.3; 74. Ryan Forsyth, 30:42.8; 125. Zach Perrin, 31:04.7; 192. Christian Martin, 31:35.4; 217. Reilly Friedman, 31:54.3

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Players Mentioned

Kaitlyn Benner

Mackenzie Caldwell

Erin Clark

John Dressel

Ryan Forsyth

Reilly Friedman

Sage Hurta

Dani Jones

Joe Klecker

Christian Martin

Makena Morley

Ben Saarel

Tabor Scholl

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