Colorado University Athletics
Murphy, Clark Lead Buffs Into NCAA Indoor Meet
March 07, 2016 | Track and Field, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado senior Pierce Murphy's final national championships “tour” will continue this weekend, when he makes his last appearance in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships.
Colorado sophomore Erin Clark, meanwhile, will be making her first — but likely not her last — indoor championships appearance.
Murphy and Clark are part of a five-person CU contingent that will be competing this weekend in Birmingham, Ala. They'll be joined by seniors Connor Winter and Morgan Pearson on the men's side and sophomore Kaitlyn Benner on the women's side.
Murphy will be looking to add to his collection of All-American honors — he was an indoor and outdoor All-American last year, and is a three-time All-American in cross country — when he competes in the 5K and 3K races. Clark — a two-time cross country All-American and a second-team outdoor All-American selection last year — will run the 3K.
Pearson, a second-team All-American in the indoor 5K last year, will run the event again this year while Winter will be making his indoor nationals debut and compete in the 3K. The meet will also be Benner's first indoor nationals appearance, and she will join Clark in the 3K. All three also have cross country All-American credentials on their resumes.
Murphy finished sixth in the 5K at last year's indoor nationals. This year, his goal is to improve on that finish in Friday night's race, then turn his attention to the 3K race one night later.
“I really didn't expect to make the 3K,” Murphy said. “I was mostly focusing on the 5K, and then I ran the 3K at conference and qualified.”
Murphy didn't “just” qualify for the 3K, he won the MPSF Indoor meet with a time of 7 minutes, 51.51 seconds, the 11th-fastest time on the NCAA qualifying list. His 5K time of 13:40.12 is sixth-fastest.
“I want to finish higher than I did last year in the 5K,” said Murphy, who was third in the NCAA Cross Country Championships last fall. “But to be honest, I really haven't thought a lot about the 3K. I know I won't be fully recovered by Saturday night, but at least I'll have a day in between races. Once I run the 5K, I'll think about the 3K.”
Clark has the ninth-fastest time in the 3K field, 9:08.29. Benner is right behind in 12th with a 9:09.75.
Clark, who also won an MPSF title, eclipsed her best time of a year ago by 11 seconds. Both she and Benner are well within reach of a top-eight finish and All-American status.
“I don't have any specific goals for this race,” Clark said. “It's my first indoor nationals, so I'm just going to run my hardest. I'd like to run as fast as I did as MPSF, but if the race goes out slow — it might be a 'sit and kick race' — I just want to run smart and place as high as I can.”
For most NCAA track and field athletes, the indoor season is simply a bridge to the outdoor season. Once the indoor championships are over, the Buffs will immediately begin training for the outdoor season, and their workouts will step up another notch in intensity.
Murphy will run the 10K and 5K in the outdoor season — he ran both at the NCAA regionals last year — while Clark will run the steeplechase (she's the defending Pac-12 champ) and the 5K.
“I'm still not sure which one will be my primary focus,” Clark said. “The steeple is fun. It's a really different race and you can improve a lot as the season goes on.”
When the outdoor season arrives, it will be Murphy's “swan song” in a CU uniform.
“I think it hit me at cross country nationals,” Murphy said. “I realized it was my last cross race. I'm not sure it will be such a big deal at indoors, but I know when we get to outdoors, I'll be thinking about it. When I run my last meet then, I think it will really hit me.”
The men's 5K race will begin at 7:05 p.m. (Mountain) Friday. The men's 3K race begins at 5:10 p.m. Saturday with the women's race scheduled to begin at 5:25 p.m.
ESPN 3 will stream the meet live beginning at 4:25 p.m. Friday and 2:55 p.m. Saturday. A re-air of the championships will begin at 5 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2 and also on March 23 at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
