Men and Women Place Second at Pre-Nationals

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Colorado recorded a pair of runner-up team finishes on Saturday morning at the NCAA Pre-National Invitational at E. P. 'Tom" Sawyer Park.

The seventh-ranked men's team finished second to No. 2 BYU. The Cougars tallied a score of just 41 points, while the Buffs totaled 118 points. CU finished ahead of Pac-12 rival, No. 8 Oregon, which picked up 129 points.

The top-rated women suffered their first defeat of the season, falling to second-ranked Oregon, 63-91. No. 9 Arkansas came in third overall (148).

MEN'S RACE: Racing without two-time All-American John Dressel, the CU men still turned in a solid performance in the 8-kilometer race. Joe Klecker led the team with a ninth-place finish (23:20.9), improving on his 24^th place finish in 2016.

Ryan Forsyth also turned in his best pre-nats performance, finishing 11^th in 23:23.2. He led the Buffs last season with a 15^th place finish.

Running in his first pre-nationals, Eduardo Herrera had a race to remember, clocking in 14^th overall in 23:25.3. Following Herrera were Adam Peterman and Ethan Gonzales. Peterman earned his top pre-nats performance with a 41^st place finish (23:49.8) and Gonzales also bested his top meet finish with a 45^th place performance (23:53.2).

Zach Perrin was the final runner for the Buffs, finishing sixth for the team. He earned a 63^rd place finish.

WOMEN'S RACE: The women were led by Dani Jones, who came in third overall, her highest ever finish at the meet. She clocked in at 19:33.7, just over five seconds behind the winner, New Hampshire's Elinor Purrier (19:28.5).

Jones was the only Buff to place in the top-10 as the next scorer for the Buffs was Sage Hurta at 17^th (20:13.1), improving from 36^th in 2016. Makena Morley was third for the Buffs, placing 21^st (20:17.2), an improvement from 26^th last season, and Kaitlyn Benner took 23^rd (20:19.7).

Crossing the finish in fifth for CU was Madie Boreman, who recorded a 36^th place finish in 20:32.0.

Tabor Scholl and Brianna Schwartz also ran the 5k race for the Buffs. Scholl placed 38^th overall, just missing scoring for the Buffs, while Schwartz was 74^th.

UP NEXT: The post-season is just around the corner for the Buffs with the Pac-12 Championships next up on Oct. 28 in Springfield, Ore.

QUOTES:
Head Coach Mark Wetmore
On the men's overall performance
"Some of our men ran very well. We are running without John and we'll have to see if we will be able to bring him back in time to help us in two weeks. One guy had an off day, Zach, and then the other guys ran pretty well. So we have 3/5's or 4/7's of a team that can get better in the next couple of weeks."

On the women's race
"We knew going in that Oregon was very good and it was quite possible they would beat us; they beat us in the NCAA 11 months ago. We have a couple little tactical mistakes, which maybe we can fix and maybe not, it depends. We have some people who have tendencies towards repeating certain mistakes. So Coach (Heather) Burroughs and I will talk to them, maybe strictly, to see if we can solve that by the Pac-12."

2017 NCAA Pre-National Invitational
Louisville, Ky. (E. P. 'Tom' Sawyer Park)

Men's Red Race Seeded Results (top 20 of 41 teams)
Team Results
1. BYU 41; 2. Colorado 118; 3. Oregon 129; 4. Virginia Tech 148; 5. Ole Miss 193; 6. Utah State 312; 7. Texas 317; 8. Campbell 340; 9. Arkansas 374; 10. Liberty 383; 11. Charlotte 400; 12. Tennessee 430; 13. Weber State 436; 14. Georgetown, 446; 15. Notre Dame 450; 16. Gonzaga 478; 17. Georgia 533; 18. Boston U. 547; 19. Pittsburgh 548; 20. Dayton 563.

Individual Red Race Seeded Results (Top 10 Individuals)
1. Rory Linkletter, BYU, 23:08.4; 2. Peter Seufer, Va. Tech, 23:10.4; 3. Amon Kemboi, Campbell, 23:11.1; 4. Azaria Kirwa, Liberty, 23:11.4; 5. Dillon Maggard, Utah State, 23; 6. Connor McMillan, BYU, 23:13.2; 7. Casey Clinger, BYU, 23:17.0; 8. Johnathan Green, Georgetown, 23:19.0; 9. Joe Klecker, Colorado, 23:20.9; 10. Brian Barraza, Houston, 23:22.1.

CU Individual Red Race Results
11. Ryan Forsyth, 23:23.2; 14. Eduardo Herrera, 23:25.3; 41. Adam Peterman, 23:49.8; 45. Ethan Gonzales, 23:53.2; 63. Zach Perrin, 24:10.8.

Women's Red Race Seeded Results (top 20 of 43)
Team Results
1. Oregon 63; 2. Colorado 91; 3. Arkansas 148; 4. Utah State 214; 5. Michigan 235; 6. Georgia 236; 7. BYU 273; 8. Eastern Kentucky 299; 9. Ole Miss 360; 10. Northern Arizona 387; 11. Virginia Tech 389; 12. Louisville 416; 13. Ohio State 455; 14. Duke 465; 15. Arizona 518; 16. Portland 523; 17. Toledo 555; 18. Abilene Christian 561; 19. Northwestern 566; 20. Wake Forest 570.

Individual Red Race Seeded Results (Top 10 Individuals)
1. Elinor Purrier, New Hampshire, 19:28.5; 2. Karissa Schweizer, Missouri, 19:29.7; 3. Dani Jones, Colorado 19:33.7; 4. Katie Rainsberger, Oregon, 19:42.1; 5. Charlotte Imer, Eastern Kentucky, 19:48.9; 6. Caroline Sang, Charlotte, 19:58.0; 7. Lilli Burdon, Oregon, 20:00.6; 8. Sharon Lokedi, Kansas, 20:00.9; 9. Alyssa Snyder, Utah State, 20:03.0; 10. Winny Koech, UTEP, 20:03.3.

CU Individual Red Race Results
17. Sage Hurta, 20:13.1; 21. Makena Morley, 20:17.2; 23. Kaitlyn Benner, 20:19.7; 36. Madie Boreman, 20:32.0; 38. Tabor Scholl, 20:32.6; 74. Brianna Schwartz, 20:58.4.

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Players Mentioned

Kaitlyn Benner

Madie Boreman

John Dressel

Ryan Forsyth

Ethan Gonzales

Eduardo Herrera

Sage Hurta

Dani Jones

Joe Klecker

Makena Morley

Zach Perrin

Adam Peterman

Tabor Scholl

Brianna Schwartz