Saturday, November 18
Louisville, KY
8:00 AM
Colorado
vs
NCAA Championships
Dani Jones had CU's top finish (10th) Saturday in Louisville at the NCAA Championships.
Photo by: Ken Moreland
Buff Women Third, Men Eighth At NCAA Cross Country Championships
November 18, 2017 | Cross Country
Four Buffs Earn All-America Honors
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Colorado women finished third and its men eighth here Saturday in blustery conditions at the 80th annual NCAA Cross Country Championships.
With impending thunderstorms headed into the area, the races were moved up an hour and 45 minutes, but the runners still had to battle against winds gusting up to 25 miles per hour and wet and muddy spots at various spots throughout the course.
In the women's 6-kilometer race, No. 2 New Mexico won its second title in three years, upending the No. 1 ranked Buffaloes and holding off No. 3 San Francisco. Colorado was in either second or third place at all the kilometer splits, as UNM and USF pretty much were dueling it out from the get go. When all was said and done, the Lobos had 90 team points, outdistancing the Dons (105) and CU (139). The Buffaloes did have the highest fifth-place finisher, or last team scorer, of all teams competing here.
It was Colorado's 10th podium finish in the 33 times it has qualified a team for the NCAA Championships dating back to 1976, its fourth third-place effort to go with two wins and four runner-up finishes. The Buffs have been knocking at the door the last three years, finishing second in 2015 and third last year, scoring virtually the same point total all three times (129 in 2015, 134 in 2016).
The Lobos' Ednah Kurgat claimed individual honors, as the sophomore won in a 19:19.5 time. Junior Dani Jones had CU's top finish, claiming 10th place in 19:47.0. Sophomore Sage Hurta was Colorado's next finisher, with her time of 20:09.6 good for 35th, while senior Kaitlyn Benner was behind her in 36th in 20:09.8. Junior Makena Morley (50th, 20:20.8) and redshirt freshman Madie Boreman (62nd, 320:25.7) rounded out CU's five scorers.
Jones, Hurta and Benner earned All-American honors for their top 40 finishes. It was Benner's third such honor, while being the second for Jones and Hurta.
"I feel pretty good about the women's team," CU head coach Mark Wetmore said. "I don't think anybody had a terrible day. We sent one person home who helped us earlier in the year, but she was legitimately hurt and if I would have plugged her in, she really wouldn't have helped us.
"I think the team score gaps were big enough that even with a perfect day, our women were going to be third," he continued. "I kind of had that feeling entering the meet that San Francisco and New Mexico were kind of under ranked. Dani wasn't 100 percent healthy today but still at the front end of the race, whether she was fifth or 10th doesn't change the team score very much. She did well for someone with a head cold and losing her psychological momentum going into the race. Behind her we had a couple of other All-Americans.
"It wasn't a perfect day but I'm still happy with them. They beat some really good teams if you look who's behind them and the rosters of those teams, they're hard to beat. I'm happy with the women."
Northern Arizona, the nation's top-ranked team, defended its title in the men's 10-kilometer race, as the Lumberjacks became the 19th team in NCAA history to win at least two back-to-back titles; Colorado was the last in 2013 and 2014. NAU led practically from wire-to-wire, assuming the team lead by the 2-kilometer split and never nursed anything lower than a 30-point edge in team scoring the rest of the way in finishing with 74 points, easily topping Portland (127) and Brigham Young (165).
Colorado was in sixth place in each of the four splits (2, 4, 5 and 8k) before eventually settling for an eighth-place finish with 294 points. The Buffs had entered Saturday as the nation's fifth-ranked team, and had finished in the top six for six straight years (now in the top eight for seven consecutive NCAA's).
Syracuse's Justyn Knight was the individual champion in a time of 29:00.1; he held off NAU's Matthew Baxter, who was seven-tenths of a second back. Two more NAU runners were behind him in third and eighth.
Freshman Eduardo Herrera turned in the top performance by the CU men, finishing 33rd in 29:55.4 and earning All-America honors in the process. Junior Ryan Forsyth (57th, 30:15.8), sophomore Joe Klecker (67th, 30:24.4) and senior Adam Peterman (89th, 30:34.7) were other Buffs to finish in the top 100; senior Zach Perrin was Colorado's fifth scorer, placing 107th in 30.48.0.
"The men didn't have a great day," Wetmore said. "Our lead guy, Joe Klecker, struggled maybe a little bit too much after eight days ago (when he won the Mountain Regional). "I mentioned that to him that I didn't need him to win a week ago, but he felt good and maybe he left some back there.
"(It was) a great race for Eduardo Herrera, a freshman. At the end of the day, he's in the top three or four freshmen in the country. He was not a heralded cross country runner out of high school, more of a mile runner, so he had a great day. I think Adam Peterman did a good job for us. He missed a year with an Achilles tendonitis problem, and he just started in late August so for the foundation he had, he did well.
"I'm very happy with the women, I'm happy with some of the men – now we have a big rest and back to work for next year."
NCAA Cross Country Championships
Women's Team Standings—1. New Mexico 90; 2. San Francisco 105; 3. Colorado 139; 4. Stanford 165; 5. Oregon 203; 6. Boise State 264; 7. Furman 271; 8. North Carolina State 280; 9. Michigan 295; 10. Wisconsin 318; 11. BYU 342; 12. Villanova 346; 13. Arkansas 377; 14. Utah State 395; 15. Michigan State 395; 16. Providence 400; 17. Georgia 411; 18. Penn State 443; 19. Minnesota 488; 20. Iowa State 508; 21. Washington 513; 22. California 530; 23. Eastern Kentucky 537; 24. Indiana 562; 25. Mississippi 571; 26. Syracuse 582; 27. Eastern Michigan 603; 28. Columbia 672; 29. Dartmouth 745; 30. Oklahoma State 748; 31. Texas 788.
Women's Individual 6-Kilometer Leaders (255 finishers)—1. Ednah Kurgat, New Mexico, 19:19.42; 2. Amy-Eloise Neale, Washington, 19:26.93; 3. Charlotte Taylor, San Francisco, 19:28.55; 4. Allie Ostrander, Boise State, 19:31.21; 5. Weronika Pyzik, San Francisco, 19:34.01; 6. Caroline Sang, Charlotte, 19:35.54; 7. Weini Kelati, New Mexico, 19:35.66; 8. Grayson Murphy, Utah, 19:36.27; 9. Allie Buchalski, Furman, 19:42.42; 10. Dani Jones, Colorado, 19:47.0. Other CU Finishers: 35. Sage Hurta, 20:09.6; 36. Kaitlyn Benner, 20:09.8; 50. Makena Morley, 20:20.8; 62. Madie Boreman, 20:25.7; 152. Melanie Nun, 21:05.3; 254. Brianna Schwartz, 23:37.3.
Men's Team Standings—1. Northern Arizona 74; 2. Portland 127; 3. BYU 165; 4. Stanford 221; 5. Arkansas 259; 6. Oregon 274; 7. Iowa State 279; 8. Colorado 294; 9. Colorado State 318; 10. Michigan 334; 11. Southern Utah 334; 12. Iona 373; 13. Syracuse 406; 14. Alabama 420; 5. Air Force 429; 16. Virginia 436; 17. North Carolina State 455; 18. Mississippi 465; 19. Boise State 475; 20. Virginia Tech 481; 21. UCLA 485; 22. Washington 488; 23. Middle Tennessee State 513; 24. Washington State 539; 25. Michigan State 590; 26. Utah State 603; 27. Furman 603; 28. Princeton 620; 29. Oklahoma State 637; 30. Texas 759; 31. Navy 855.
Men's Individual 10-Kilometer Leaders (250 finishers)—1. Justyn Knight, Syracuse, 29:00.1; 2. Matthew Baxter, Northern Arizona, 29:00.8; 3. Tyler Day, Northern Arizona, 29:04.6; 4. Gilbert Kigen, Alabama, 29:11.9; 5. Grant Fisher, Stanford, 29:12.1; 6. Dillon Maggard, Utah State, 29:16.2; 7. Vincent Kiprop, Alabama, 29:27.2; 8. Peter Lomong, Northern Arizona, 29:33.1; 9. Lawrence Kipkoech, Campbell, 29:34.5; 10. Jonathan Green, Georgetown, 29:38.6. CU Finishers: 33. Eduardo Herrera, 29:55.4; 57. Ryan Forsyth, 30:15.8; 67. Joe Klecker, 30:24.4; 89. Adam Peterman, 30:34.7; 107. Zach Perrin, 30:48.0; 177. Ethan Gonzales, 31:23.3. 200. Christian Martin, 31:38.0.
QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Wetmore
On the 2018 outlook for the men's team: "When we made the decision to sit John [Dressel] out, we knew that would be a big blow to the team's hopes. This team with a good day and John, could have been third. Sitting him out was 100 and some points right away. The good news is that he's back for two years. Joe [Klecker] will have a better day next time. Eduardo [Herrera]'s back, Ryan [Forsyth] is back. Our top recruit is from (around) here in Indiana. He came and watched us today. We're excited about him. There are a lot of things to be fired up about for a year from now. For now, it's time to rest."
Dani Jones
On handling the race: "I think [the race] went out pretty hard, probably because I wasn't feeling my best after being sick this week. It was hard and it kept going, but I'd rather it be that way than how it was last year. At least we started up front and died back rather than starting out slow and trying to make our way back."
On being sick: "Me and Caitlyn are both dealing with just regular colds. Jenny Simpson told me that no team is going to get to the line perfect. I tried to not let it be a factor and I'm not going to blame that for how my performance went today."
On advice from Jenny Simpson: "Well she's always really supportive. Despite how great she is she still has a big part of our team and she's always a part of it in some way."
On running a 6k: "I think Sage would agree that we're good at the middle distance, but I think strength is a big part of being a middle-distance runner and it's obviously a big part of being a cross country runner so I don't think we come out here intimidated in any way."
On if anything was unexpected during the race: "No, I mean the race went out as planned, I think it's just how we felt and how we have executed it in the past maybe didn't go how we thought, but I think we ran as hard as we could."
On takeaways: "I don't think we're ever going to be out of it, next year or the year after. We're going to come back wanting the same things."
On final thoughts on the season: "I'm proud of what we've accomplished and I'm more proud to see all the people who came out today to see the meet and all the notes and the thoughts and the prayers that we received before the race."
Sage Hurta
On what if anything went wrong in the race: "It's hard to be critical of what I did and what my teammates did. I think we got out there in a pack and we were working hard. We just didn't follow through and we needed to follow through. I'm always looking for my teammates to be around me and we really care each other through the race and I think when all of us are kind of parting it's hard for us to rally and get after it. But, really I was proud of our loss this year opposed to last year because we really stuck with each other the whole time."
On takeaways: "I know next summer we're going to come out much harder so that we can get out hard and we can stick up there."
On final thoughts on the season: "It was lots of fun I'd say. It was a really good experience and I feel like we're a lot closer."
On support from teammates: "I was really overwhelmed because we got a lot of letters from our teammates back home and just feeling like this isn't just for us it's for all of them and the history of CU and everyone that's ever put stuff into this team."
Eduardo Herrera
On the race: "The race went out pretty well and pretty quick. There's just so many people that are talented and they have the capability of being there with you and making you uncomfortable the whole race. I kept that in mind and there are runners next to me, behind me, in front of me and they're constantly surging and in my mind, I'm like 'you gotta go,' but, in reality it's a 10k so it's a race where you can make up ground in the last 2k. I kept that in mind and I was just staying in control. In the last 2k I was just moving and picking off people, I was counting them down. Like Wetmore said, when you count them down it's going to give you an urge to keep on going without even stopping so that's what I was doing. It was a good race, it was a little uncomfortable, but I'm pretty happy."
On if this was his best race: "I mean it's nationals and it's my first time here so it's probably a big accomplishment for me."
On expectations: "My expectations were to finish in the top 40 and I didn't know how that was going to feel. I had no experience going into this, but my experience from recent national meets in high school was very competitive and I know that any runner can make you feel uncomfortable and you have to fight for every little spot."
Ryan Forsyth
On the race: "Well it's always an honor being here, we work really hard and we don't take this for granted. That being said, when we come here we always expect to be in contention so we train for that and we race for that and we put ourselves in a position to do that. I'm really proud of my teammates and the way we fought. There's always more to be desired, but I'm proud of today and we're going to come back strong next year and this was definitely a successful season."
On takeaways: "I've done this once before, but like you said, nothing compares to this race. I knew what to expect, but you can never remember that feeling that you're going to have with 5k to go or 2k to go. You just have to have guts and race with heart. What Jenny [Simpson] always says is 'be brave' so I try to keep that in mind and just fight."
On Eduardo Herrera: "I was sitting in like 40th for most of the race and then with like 3k to go he flies right by. I'm really proud of him, he ran awesome."
Ethan Gonzales
General: "It's been a good team, everyone has kind of moved around in terms of their order. I know this whole season we've really missed John [Dressel] he's typically our first or second guy. It's been strange not having him here, we miss his presences, it's great for the team. But, I think everyone ran hard today, but at the end of the day it is what it is. We'll come back next year working really hard, but for now we'll just deal with this and move forward."
On takeaways: "This was my first nationals so you learn that it goes out like crazy and you're surrounded by people the whole way. You just have to keep your composure."
Associate SID Linda Sprouse contributed to this report.
With impending thunderstorms headed into the area, the races were moved up an hour and 45 minutes, but the runners still had to battle against winds gusting up to 25 miles per hour and wet and muddy spots at various spots throughout the course.
In the women's 6-kilometer race, No. 2 New Mexico won its second title in three years, upending the No. 1 ranked Buffaloes and holding off No. 3 San Francisco. Colorado was in either second or third place at all the kilometer splits, as UNM and USF pretty much were dueling it out from the get go. When all was said and done, the Lobos had 90 team points, outdistancing the Dons (105) and CU (139). The Buffaloes did have the highest fifth-place finisher, or last team scorer, of all teams competing here.
It was Colorado's 10th podium finish in the 33 times it has qualified a team for the NCAA Championships dating back to 1976, its fourth third-place effort to go with two wins and four runner-up finishes. The Buffs have been knocking at the door the last three years, finishing second in 2015 and third last year, scoring virtually the same point total all three times (129 in 2015, 134 in 2016).
The Lobos' Ednah Kurgat claimed individual honors, as the sophomore won in a 19:19.5 time. Junior Dani Jones had CU's top finish, claiming 10th place in 19:47.0. Sophomore Sage Hurta was Colorado's next finisher, with her time of 20:09.6 good for 35th, while senior Kaitlyn Benner was behind her in 36th in 20:09.8. Junior Makena Morley (50th, 20:20.8) and redshirt freshman Madie Boreman (62nd, 320:25.7) rounded out CU's five scorers.
Jones, Hurta and Benner earned All-American honors for their top 40 finishes. It was Benner's third such honor, while being the second for Jones and Hurta.
"I feel pretty good about the women's team," CU head coach Mark Wetmore said. "I don't think anybody had a terrible day. We sent one person home who helped us earlier in the year, but she was legitimately hurt and if I would have plugged her in, she really wouldn't have helped us.
"I think the team score gaps were big enough that even with a perfect day, our women were going to be third," he continued. "I kind of had that feeling entering the meet that San Francisco and New Mexico were kind of under ranked. Dani wasn't 100 percent healthy today but still at the front end of the race, whether she was fifth or 10th doesn't change the team score very much. She did well for someone with a head cold and losing her psychological momentum going into the race. Behind her we had a couple of other All-Americans.
"It wasn't a perfect day but I'm still happy with them. They beat some really good teams if you look who's behind them and the rosters of those teams, they're hard to beat. I'm happy with the women."
Northern Arizona, the nation's top-ranked team, defended its title in the men's 10-kilometer race, as the Lumberjacks became the 19th team in NCAA history to win at least two back-to-back titles; Colorado was the last in 2013 and 2014. NAU led practically from wire-to-wire, assuming the team lead by the 2-kilometer split and never nursed anything lower than a 30-point edge in team scoring the rest of the way in finishing with 74 points, easily topping Portland (127) and Brigham Young (165).
Colorado was in sixth place in each of the four splits (2, 4, 5 and 8k) before eventually settling for an eighth-place finish with 294 points. The Buffs had entered Saturday as the nation's fifth-ranked team, and had finished in the top six for six straight years (now in the top eight for seven consecutive NCAA's).
Syracuse's Justyn Knight was the individual champion in a time of 29:00.1; he held off NAU's Matthew Baxter, who was seven-tenths of a second back. Two more NAU runners were behind him in third and eighth.
Freshman Eduardo Herrera turned in the top performance by the CU men, finishing 33rd in 29:55.4 and earning All-America honors in the process. Junior Ryan Forsyth (57th, 30:15.8), sophomore Joe Klecker (67th, 30:24.4) and senior Adam Peterman (89th, 30:34.7) were other Buffs to finish in the top 100; senior Zach Perrin was Colorado's fifth scorer, placing 107th in 30.48.0.
"The men didn't have a great day," Wetmore said. "Our lead guy, Joe Klecker, struggled maybe a little bit too much after eight days ago (when he won the Mountain Regional). "I mentioned that to him that I didn't need him to win a week ago, but he felt good and maybe he left some back there.
"(It was) a great race for Eduardo Herrera, a freshman. At the end of the day, he's in the top three or four freshmen in the country. He was not a heralded cross country runner out of high school, more of a mile runner, so he had a great day. I think Adam Peterman did a good job for us. He missed a year with an Achilles tendonitis problem, and he just started in late August so for the foundation he had, he did well.
"I'm very happy with the women, I'm happy with some of the men – now we have a big rest and back to work for next year."
NCAA Cross Country Championships
Women's Team Standings—1. New Mexico 90; 2. San Francisco 105; 3. Colorado 139; 4. Stanford 165; 5. Oregon 203; 6. Boise State 264; 7. Furman 271; 8. North Carolina State 280; 9. Michigan 295; 10. Wisconsin 318; 11. BYU 342; 12. Villanova 346; 13. Arkansas 377; 14. Utah State 395; 15. Michigan State 395; 16. Providence 400; 17. Georgia 411; 18. Penn State 443; 19. Minnesota 488; 20. Iowa State 508; 21. Washington 513; 22. California 530; 23. Eastern Kentucky 537; 24. Indiana 562; 25. Mississippi 571; 26. Syracuse 582; 27. Eastern Michigan 603; 28. Columbia 672; 29. Dartmouth 745; 30. Oklahoma State 748; 31. Texas 788.
Women's Individual 6-Kilometer Leaders (255 finishers)—1. Ednah Kurgat, New Mexico, 19:19.42; 2. Amy-Eloise Neale, Washington, 19:26.93; 3. Charlotte Taylor, San Francisco, 19:28.55; 4. Allie Ostrander, Boise State, 19:31.21; 5. Weronika Pyzik, San Francisco, 19:34.01; 6. Caroline Sang, Charlotte, 19:35.54; 7. Weini Kelati, New Mexico, 19:35.66; 8. Grayson Murphy, Utah, 19:36.27; 9. Allie Buchalski, Furman, 19:42.42; 10. Dani Jones, Colorado, 19:47.0. Other CU Finishers: 35. Sage Hurta, 20:09.6; 36. Kaitlyn Benner, 20:09.8; 50. Makena Morley, 20:20.8; 62. Madie Boreman, 20:25.7; 152. Melanie Nun, 21:05.3; 254. Brianna Schwartz, 23:37.3.
Men's Team Standings—1. Northern Arizona 74; 2. Portland 127; 3. BYU 165; 4. Stanford 221; 5. Arkansas 259; 6. Oregon 274; 7. Iowa State 279; 8. Colorado 294; 9. Colorado State 318; 10. Michigan 334; 11. Southern Utah 334; 12. Iona 373; 13. Syracuse 406; 14. Alabama 420; 5. Air Force 429; 16. Virginia 436; 17. North Carolina State 455; 18. Mississippi 465; 19. Boise State 475; 20. Virginia Tech 481; 21. UCLA 485; 22. Washington 488; 23. Middle Tennessee State 513; 24. Washington State 539; 25. Michigan State 590; 26. Utah State 603; 27. Furman 603; 28. Princeton 620; 29. Oklahoma State 637; 30. Texas 759; 31. Navy 855.
Men's Individual 10-Kilometer Leaders (250 finishers)—1. Justyn Knight, Syracuse, 29:00.1; 2. Matthew Baxter, Northern Arizona, 29:00.8; 3. Tyler Day, Northern Arizona, 29:04.6; 4. Gilbert Kigen, Alabama, 29:11.9; 5. Grant Fisher, Stanford, 29:12.1; 6. Dillon Maggard, Utah State, 29:16.2; 7. Vincent Kiprop, Alabama, 29:27.2; 8. Peter Lomong, Northern Arizona, 29:33.1; 9. Lawrence Kipkoech, Campbell, 29:34.5; 10. Jonathan Green, Georgetown, 29:38.6. CU Finishers: 33. Eduardo Herrera, 29:55.4; 57. Ryan Forsyth, 30:15.8; 67. Joe Klecker, 30:24.4; 89. Adam Peterman, 30:34.7; 107. Zach Perrin, 30:48.0; 177. Ethan Gonzales, 31:23.3. 200. Christian Martin, 31:38.0.
QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Wetmore
On the 2018 outlook for the men's team: "When we made the decision to sit John [Dressel] out, we knew that would be a big blow to the team's hopes. This team with a good day and John, could have been third. Sitting him out was 100 and some points right away. The good news is that he's back for two years. Joe [Klecker] will have a better day next time. Eduardo [Herrera]'s back, Ryan [Forsyth] is back. Our top recruit is from (around) here in Indiana. He came and watched us today. We're excited about him. There are a lot of things to be fired up about for a year from now. For now, it's time to rest."
Dani Jones
On handling the race: "I think [the race] went out pretty hard, probably because I wasn't feeling my best after being sick this week. It was hard and it kept going, but I'd rather it be that way than how it was last year. At least we started up front and died back rather than starting out slow and trying to make our way back."
On being sick: "Me and Caitlyn are both dealing with just regular colds. Jenny Simpson told me that no team is going to get to the line perfect. I tried to not let it be a factor and I'm not going to blame that for how my performance went today."
On advice from Jenny Simpson: "Well she's always really supportive. Despite how great she is she still has a big part of our team and she's always a part of it in some way."
On running a 6k: "I think Sage would agree that we're good at the middle distance, but I think strength is a big part of being a middle-distance runner and it's obviously a big part of being a cross country runner so I don't think we come out here intimidated in any way."
On if anything was unexpected during the race: "No, I mean the race went out as planned, I think it's just how we felt and how we have executed it in the past maybe didn't go how we thought, but I think we ran as hard as we could."
On takeaways: "I don't think we're ever going to be out of it, next year or the year after. We're going to come back wanting the same things."
On final thoughts on the season: "I'm proud of what we've accomplished and I'm more proud to see all the people who came out today to see the meet and all the notes and the thoughts and the prayers that we received before the race."
Sage Hurta
On what if anything went wrong in the race: "It's hard to be critical of what I did and what my teammates did. I think we got out there in a pack and we were working hard. We just didn't follow through and we needed to follow through. I'm always looking for my teammates to be around me and we really care each other through the race and I think when all of us are kind of parting it's hard for us to rally and get after it. But, really I was proud of our loss this year opposed to last year because we really stuck with each other the whole time."
On takeaways: "I know next summer we're going to come out much harder so that we can get out hard and we can stick up there."
On final thoughts on the season: "It was lots of fun I'd say. It was a really good experience and I feel like we're a lot closer."
On support from teammates: "I was really overwhelmed because we got a lot of letters from our teammates back home and just feeling like this isn't just for us it's for all of them and the history of CU and everyone that's ever put stuff into this team."
Eduardo Herrera
On the race: "The race went out pretty well and pretty quick. There's just so many people that are talented and they have the capability of being there with you and making you uncomfortable the whole race. I kept that in mind and there are runners next to me, behind me, in front of me and they're constantly surging and in my mind, I'm like 'you gotta go,' but, in reality it's a 10k so it's a race where you can make up ground in the last 2k. I kept that in mind and I was just staying in control. In the last 2k I was just moving and picking off people, I was counting them down. Like Wetmore said, when you count them down it's going to give you an urge to keep on going without even stopping so that's what I was doing. It was a good race, it was a little uncomfortable, but I'm pretty happy."
On if this was his best race: "I mean it's nationals and it's my first time here so it's probably a big accomplishment for me."
On expectations: "My expectations were to finish in the top 40 and I didn't know how that was going to feel. I had no experience going into this, but my experience from recent national meets in high school was very competitive and I know that any runner can make you feel uncomfortable and you have to fight for every little spot."
Ryan Forsyth
On the race: "Well it's always an honor being here, we work really hard and we don't take this for granted. That being said, when we come here we always expect to be in contention so we train for that and we race for that and we put ourselves in a position to do that. I'm really proud of my teammates and the way we fought. There's always more to be desired, but I'm proud of today and we're going to come back strong next year and this was definitely a successful season."
On takeaways: "I've done this once before, but like you said, nothing compares to this race. I knew what to expect, but you can never remember that feeling that you're going to have with 5k to go or 2k to go. You just have to have guts and race with heart. What Jenny [Simpson] always says is 'be brave' so I try to keep that in mind and just fight."
On Eduardo Herrera: "I was sitting in like 40th for most of the race and then with like 3k to go he flies right by. I'm really proud of him, he ran awesome."
Ethan Gonzales
General: "It's been a good team, everyone has kind of moved around in terms of their order. I know this whole season we've really missed John [Dressel] he's typically our first or second guy. It's been strange not having him here, we miss his presences, it's great for the team. But, I think everyone ran hard today, but at the end of the day it is what it is. We'll come back next year working really hard, but for now we'll just deal with this and move forward."
On takeaways: "This was my first nationals so you learn that it goes out like crazy and you're surrounded by people the whole way. You just have to keep your composure."
Associate SID Linda Sprouse contributed to this report.
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