Buffs Aim To Add To Pac-12 Cross Country Title Collection

STANFORD, Calif. — In the seven years Colorado's cross country teams have competed in the Pac-12 championships, the Buffaloes have claimed 10 of the possible 14 team titles (six men, four women).

Friday, Mark Wetmore's Buffs will look to add to that trophy total when the Buffs compete in the annual conference championships on the Stanford Golf Course. Both races will be televised live by the Pac-12 Network, beginning with the women's 6K race at 12:10 p.m. (MT) and the men's 8K race at 1:10 p.m.

The Buffs have never competed at the Pac-12 championships without winning at least one team title, and have swept the event three times. But tor the first time since CU began competing in the conference, the Colorado men will be neither the favorite nor the defending champion. The Buffs last year saw their six-year reign come to an end when they were edged by Stanford in the team standings.

CU's women, however, will carry both mantles with them into the race, as the defending champion Buffaloes — and nation's No. 1 ranked team — are favored to claim their fifth team title in eight years.

Wetmore expects two highly competitive races.

"The Pac-12 is probably the strongest cross country conference in America for both men and women," he said. "To do well in it, you have to be 100 percent ready. There may be years when a team can afford to take it less seriously than, say, the NCAA — but this is not one of them for anybody."

The Pac-12 is indeed a cross country powerhouse, with three of the nation's top 10 teams in both the men's and women's rankings coming from the Pac-12.

Led by defending conference champion and senior All-American Dani Jones, the CU women have earned their ranking by not only having talented runners at the top, but a deep team that can score well through five runners. When the Buffs won the prestigious Nuttycombe Invitational earlier this year in Wisconsin, they did so by placing their top five runners in fourth (Jones), sixth (Makena Morley), 13th (Sage Hurta), 19th (Tabor Scholl) and 38th (Tayler Tuttle). The Buffs have also had solid efforts this year from Valerie Constien, Holly Bent and Brianna Schwartz.

"If we have a special strength this year, it's that someone in the front five for us could stumble and there will be somebody coming soon after — or two or three," Wetmore said. "Depth is not an issue."

The women should be well-rested for the Pac-12s. After winning the Nuttycombe, Wetmore decided against sending the varsity back to Madison for the Pre-Nationals. That extra rest could prove valuable for the Buffs not only this weekend, but for the NCAA Mountain Regional (Nov. 9 in Provo, Utah) and the NCAA Championships (Nov. 17 in Madison).

"The course is not complicated and we'd had a good run there," Wetmore said. "That middle October weekend is always the peak of colds and midterms and other academic stresses, so Coach (Heather) Burroughs and I said, 'Let's try something new.'"

While the Buffs will be favored Friday, Wetmore expects a challenge from Oregon (currently ranked fourth in the nation) as well as sixth-ranked Stanford and No. 16 Washington.

Individually, defending champion Jones will obviously be among the favorites, with Oregon's Jessica Hull (who won her division at Pre-Nationals), Stanford's Elise Cranny and Fiona O'Keeffe, and Washington's Katie Rainsberger (a former Oregon runner who transferred this year) also expected to be at the front.

CU's men, meanwhile, are coming off a strong effort at the Pre-Nationals, where they delivered their best performance of the year with a third-place finish in their division. CU placed three runners in the top 20: junior Joe Klecker in fifth, senior Ryan Forsyth in 10th and junior John Dressel in 16th.

Klecker, last year's runner-up at the Pac-12 meet and the NCAA Mountain Region winner, has come on strong over the last month. He did not race at the Nuttycombe, but is now "100 percent," according to Wetmore, and should once again be near the front of the pack Friday.

Led by defending Pac-12 champ Grant Fisher, host Stanford — ranked fourth in the nation — is the team favorite, with Washington (No. 7), Colorado (No. 8) and Oregon (No. 11) all figuring to be in the mix.

"Right now our men are underdogs and they are predicted to get third," he said. "I think the men are interested in proving that wrong."

Individually, Stanford's Fisher will be the race favorite, while Klecker, Dressel and Washington's Tibebu Proctor could also be in the lead group down the stretch.

The key for the Buffs in the team race, Wetmore said, will be how Colorado's fourth and fifth runners score. Eduardo Herrera (31st at the Pre-Nationals) has been a solid third or fourth scorer all year, while Ethan Gonzales has been improving steadily as well.

"We're the healthiest and most complete we've been all year," Wetmore said. "The great likelihood is that our fifth man will be Ethan Gonzales, who has been getting better at every race. We needed that. He seems to be hardening up to his training and to that racing level. He had a good run in Madison at the Pre-Nationals and he'll be very important to our team score on Friday."

BROADCAST: The races will be televised by the Pac-12 Network, with Jim Watson and Dwight Stones. The women's race begins at 12:10 p.m. and the men's race at 1:10 p.m.

RESULTS: Results will be posted as soon as possible at pac-12.com/xcchamps.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Fans can follow @CUBuffsTrack on twitter for in-race updates. The official hashtag of the meet is #Pac12XC.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu