Colorado University Athletics
Cross Country Media Day Quotes
August 22, 2017 | Cross Country
BOULDER – The 2017 cross country season officially gets underway on Friday, Sept. 1, at the Colorado State Invitational in Fort Collins, Colo. The Buffs are coming off a great 2016 season where both teams won the Pac-12 team championship. The women's team placed third at NCAAs, while the men's team was sixth. Head coach Mark Wetmore was on hand to talk about the upcoming season at Colorado's Annual Fall Olympic Sports Media Day on Tuesday.
Below is a transcript from the press conference.
Colorado Head Coach Mark Wetmore
Opening Remarks:
"2017 for cross country started last Thursday. The elders are here, the freshman have yet to move in. We have about forty something cross country runners, all but five of them are in town. I just peeled off from practice, which is still ongoing, but glad to see everybody back. I have a feeling that a lot of good work was done over the summer. You may have noticed that football and soccer and other fall sports started a couple of weeks ago, but cross country starts later. So, cross country runners are a little at the mercy of the discipline of their teammates or maybe by the leadership of their elders. It looks like we did okay and I'm ready to go and excited as always even after all these years."
On who's returning on the men's team and women's team and if they're expected to be a top five program on both sides this year:
"We had two All-Americans last fall who returned for us on the men's team, John Dressel and Joe Klecker. A serviceable senior by the name of Zach Perrin did very good duty for us up until the NCAA and then had an off day there. A young man named Ryan Forsyth was a solid fourth or fifth man throughout the season, he's back. The big missing person is Ben Saarel who exhausted cross country eligibility although we have him back for indoor and outdoor track. Anyways the front two I have total confidence in – Zach (Perrin) and Ryan (Forsyth)—I need them to be there on the final day - and then I'm looking because five score and seven run and there's three spots, so it's time for some young folks to move up. We had six or seven male freshmen last year that we redshirted and we never used them. So, they're back a year older, a year in the system, but as freshman, so maybe a couple of them [will step up]. That's my task is to fill in those other spots.
"The women's team is similar to the men's team. We lose a major leader in Erin Clark, she was the captain and a multi-time All-American for us. She has indoor and outdoor track, but she's exhausted cross country, so she goes out. But, on the women's side everybody else is back. Everyone who ran the Pac-12 and the NCAA is back, some of them are better and there are some new folks who are looking to get a spot. So, the women's team is deeper than the men's, but both teams can be good.
"Unfortunately, we're in the strongest conference in the country and the Stanford roster--both men and women-- is totally loaded, Oregon is always good, Washington women are always good, their men are good from year to year. Then there's all the other eight or nine teams that won't hear me mention their name and be highly motivated. The Pac-12 is a killer conference, we could be third in the men's race and third in the women's race in the Pac-12 and be in the top five in the NCAA, that's how competitive it is. I think on the women's side three teams in the Pac-12 will be ranked in the top five of the NCAA by the end of the season."
On the Pac-12 Championship being in Eugene and Oregon's strong roster:
"Well it's been proven and I don't quite understand why or how, but there is a home course advantage in cross country. The reason I say I don't quite understand it, is because we don't run our Pac-12 Championship on the normal home course. When we hosted in 2013, we ran it on a brand new course that we had never raced on before. UCLA, Cal, all the recent Pac-12 championships have been on brand new created courses that were not their home course. In the case of Oregon, out in Springfield, they're running on a course that they've run on a few times a year for a few years. So, they'll have an advantage."
On the World Championships and what Jenny Simpson and Emma Coburn accomplished:
"For those of you that don't know, every other year there is a world championship of track and field. It was just conducted in London, concluding less than a week ago. It's the exact same track meet as the Olympic Games, it just doesn't have water polo, rhythmic gymnastics, sailing and equestrian. It's the exact same track meet with the same qualifying standards with the same cast of characters. If you were looking at the people who raced a year ago in Rio and last week in London you'd see a lot of familiar names. So, it's as prestigious in the sport of track and field as is the Olympics, it's a really big deal.
"Jenny Simpson had a very unexpected silver medal and Emma Coburn had a very unexpected gold medal. Both of them were against even deeper fields than they were in the Olympic games. Honestly based on performances thus far, at that point in the season Jenny entered the World Championships ranking 14th in the world and Emma was ranked probably fifth or sixth in the steeplechase. But, they're used to that environment, to the pressure, to the media. They're both very highly motivated and hardworking athletes. They go into those games without any reason to feel that they won't be able to run as well as they did maybe a month ago. And yet there are people who go there and can't feel that way. Both had very dramatic, very courageous and thrilling races. Emma's now coached by her fiancé [Joe Bosshard]. He had an excellent ten months with her, took her to an American record, took her to a gold medal.
"Jenny was in a world championship in 2007. If you look and say, 'Who were her opponents in 2007?' either in the steeplechase or the 1500, they're all long gone. If you look at who was in the 2011 championship they're long gone. She's had eleven years of experience on a world championship level and winning medals and setting records is extremely unlikely. Those are two extremely unique young women, I get a lot of credit for them, but honestly, I'm just lucky they landed here. They're special. Coaches are thrilled to get one in a lifetime and I got two in a decade. It was a lot of fun. It was very dramatic. They still have a couple of races to go, there's a big race in Brussels in about ten days. Jenny's in the race, the Fifth Avenue Mile, where they run a mile down New York City streets. So, they're not done yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're a little depleted because of the excitement of those two medals. It was a big deal, thanks for asking."
Below is a transcript from the press conference.
Colorado Head Coach Mark Wetmore
Opening Remarks:
"2017 for cross country started last Thursday. The elders are here, the freshman have yet to move in. We have about forty something cross country runners, all but five of them are in town. I just peeled off from practice, which is still ongoing, but glad to see everybody back. I have a feeling that a lot of good work was done over the summer. You may have noticed that football and soccer and other fall sports started a couple of weeks ago, but cross country starts later. So, cross country runners are a little at the mercy of the discipline of their teammates or maybe by the leadership of their elders. It looks like we did okay and I'm ready to go and excited as always even after all these years."
On who's returning on the men's team and women's team and if they're expected to be a top five program on both sides this year:
"We had two All-Americans last fall who returned for us on the men's team, John Dressel and Joe Klecker. A serviceable senior by the name of Zach Perrin did very good duty for us up until the NCAA and then had an off day there. A young man named Ryan Forsyth was a solid fourth or fifth man throughout the season, he's back. The big missing person is Ben Saarel who exhausted cross country eligibility although we have him back for indoor and outdoor track. Anyways the front two I have total confidence in – Zach (Perrin) and Ryan (Forsyth)—I need them to be there on the final day - and then I'm looking because five score and seven run and there's three spots, so it's time for some young folks to move up. We had six or seven male freshmen last year that we redshirted and we never used them. So, they're back a year older, a year in the system, but as freshman, so maybe a couple of them [will step up]. That's my task is to fill in those other spots.
"The women's team is similar to the men's team. We lose a major leader in Erin Clark, she was the captain and a multi-time All-American for us. She has indoor and outdoor track, but she's exhausted cross country, so she goes out. But, on the women's side everybody else is back. Everyone who ran the Pac-12 and the NCAA is back, some of them are better and there are some new folks who are looking to get a spot. So, the women's team is deeper than the men's, but both teams can be good.
"Unfortunately, we're in the strongest conference in the country and the Stanford roster--both men and women-- is totally loaded, Oregon is always good, Washington women are always good, their men are good from year to year. Then there's all the other eight or nine teams that won't hear me mention their name and be highly motivated. The Pac-12 is a killer conference, we could be third in the men's race and third in the women's race in the Pac-12 and be in the top five in the NCAA, that's how competitive it is. I think on the women's side three teams in the Pac-12 will be ranked in the top five of the NCAA by the end of the season."
On the Pac-12 Championship being in Eugene and Oregon's strong roster:
"Well it's been proven and I don't quite understand why or how, but there is a home course advantage in cross country. The reason I say I don't quite understand it, is because we don't run our Pac-12 Championship on the normal home course. When we hosted in 2013, we ran it on a brand new course that we had never raced on before. UCLA, Cal, all the recent Pac-12 championships have been on brand new created courses that were not their home course. In the case of Oregon, out in Springfield, they're running on a course that they've run on a few times a year for a few years. So, they'll have an advantage."
On the World Championships and what Jenny Simpson and Emma Coburn accomplished:
"For those of you that don't know, every other year there is a world championship of track and field. It was just conducted in London, concluding less than a week ago. It's the exact same track meet as the Olympic Games, it just doesn't have water polo, rhythmic gymnastics, sailing and equestrian. It's the exact same track meet with the same qualifying standards with the same cast of characters. If you were looking at the people who raced a year ago in Rio and last week in London you'd see a lot of familiar names. So, it's as prestigious in the sport of track and field as is the Olympics, it's a really big deal.
"Jenny Simpson had a very unexpected silver medal and Emma Coburn had a very unexpected gold medal. Both of them were against even deeper fields than they were in the Olympic games. Honestly based on performances thus far, at that point in the season Jenny entered the World Championships ranking 14th in the world and Emma was ranked probably fifth or sixth in the steeplechase. But, they're used to that environment, to the pressure, to the media. They're both very highly motivated and hardworking athletes. They go into those games without any reason to feel that they won't be able to run as well as they did maybe a month ago. And yet there are people who go there and can't feel that way. Both had very dramatic, very courageous and thrilling races. Emma's now coached by her fiancé [Joe Bosshard]. He had an excellent ten months with her, took her to an American record, took her to a gold medal.
"Jenny was in a world championship in 2007. If you look and say, 'Who were her opponents in 2007?' either in the steeplechase or the 1500, they're all long gone. If you look at who was in the 2011 championship they're long gone. She's had eleven years of experience on a world championship level and winning medals and setting records is extremely unlikely. Those are two extremely unique young women, I get a lot of credit for them, but honestly, I'm just lucky they landed here. They're special. Coaches are thrilled to get one in a lifetime and I got two in a decade. It was a lot of fun. It was very dramatic. They still have a couple of races to go, there's a big race in Brussels in about ten days. Jenny's in the race, the Fifth Avenue Mile, where they run a mile down New York City streets. So, they're not done yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're a little depleted because of the excitement of those two medals. It was a big deal, thanks for asking."
Players Mentioned
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
Thursday, May 21
Monday, August 12
Monday, August 12
Tuesday, December 12