NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday

BOULDER — For the 11^th straight year, the University of Colorado cross country program is sending both the men's and women's teams to the NCAA Championships.

Indiana State is once against hosting the championships at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind., this Saturday, Nov. 23. ISU has hosted this meet 12 times in the last 16 years.

"It's a pretty fair cross country course, I think it's one that favors us," senior John Dressel said earlier this week. "We've done really well there in the past, before I came here, so I think, going back to Terre Haute, and knowing the history of success that we've had on that course, I think we can use that as motivation for what we want to do this week going into the race."

The day will start at 9:15 a.m. MST with the women's 6-kilometer race. Then at 10:15 a.m. MST, the men will race their 10k final. An award ceremony will take place following the men's race at approximately 11 a.m. MST.

Since it is the end of November in the Midwest, weather conditions can sometimes play a factor, although every team has to deal with the same conditions.

"Right now, the forecast is wintery, but it doesn't look like there'll be any precipitation laying around," head coach Mark Wetmore said. "So, it'll be cold and breezy and maybe some rain coming down or sleet coming down, depending on what weather forecast you see. We like bad conditions, so it won't bother us."

The CU men enter the championship ranked second in the country and are coming off a great performance at the NCAA Mountain Region Championship where they were the runner-up to Northern Arizona. NAU ran away with the title, recording 21 points to CU's 53. BYU, which is currently third in the NCAA, was third at the meet with 56 points. The Lumberjacks enter the meet as the favorite, having won the last three titles.

"The Northern Arizona men are probably the best team in the country," Wetmore said. "It's hard to judge the strength of teams based upon the regionals because the teams that are already strong tend to hold people out. I think Northern Arizona held a few of their varsity people out last weekend, as did BYU; we did as well, held out one athlete. So, the scores of last weekend are very indicative of what might happen next week. NAU has been untouchable all year long. I think they are a head above most of the rest of the teams, but strange things happen at the NCAA Championships and underdog teams maybe rise up and heavily favored teams struggle, it's happened to us. So, we're still going to race."

This season the men have only first or second-place finishes. They won the Joe Piane Invitational, their first varsity meet of the season, and took back the Pac-12 Conference Championship November 1. They were second at the NCAA Pre-National Invitational to BYU (81-83) and were second at regionals to NAU.

At regionals, the men moved from an 8-kilometer course to a 10k course. They only have eight days between regionals and nationals to recover. Dressel says the team is ready.

"For us, going into that race (regionals), it was just to advance and qualify for nationals, so I would say most of our team ran fairly conservative," he said. "Everyone's feeling really good right now, our training this week has been fairly light. We had our last hard session Tuesday for the race, but for me, my legs are feeling really good, so I don't think we'll feel any effect from regionals for this Saturday."

The CU women are in a little different position heading into the championship this season. They are the reigning NCAA Champion but are currently ranked 10^th after having a bit of an up-and-down season. Unlike the men, the women do not change their distance in the postseason and will continue to run 6k.

"It's been a rollercoaster season for our women with good weeks and disappointing weeks," Wetmore said. "Some little illnesses along the way and a few people who didn't arrive ready for duty in August. We had a woman have to stop last week with a lower leg injury and we hope that'll be prepared by this weekend. So last Friday was a bit of a disappointment except that we got through. We're patching things up and hope to be a little stronger and deeper this weekend."

The best finish for the women this year was second at Joe Piane. They were third at pre-nationals and placed fourth in their last two meets, Pac-12s and regionals.

No matter what the case, Wetmore has both teams prepared to do their best. After 25 years at the helm of the program, he knows what it takes to be successful.

RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS: CU has several returning All-Americans who will be competing at the championship and look to add another honor to their resume.

3-TIME ALL-AMERICANS: Sage Hurta and John Dressel
2-TIME ALL-AMERICANS: Joe Klecker
1-TIME ALL-AMERICANS: Eduardo Herrera and Tabor Scholl

2019 NCAA DIVISION I CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday, November 23
Terre Haute, Ind. (LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course)
9:15 a.m. (MT) - Women's 6k Race
10:15 a.m. (MT) - Men's 10k Race
Live Stream: FloTrack.org (subscription required)
Results: NCAA.com

Colorado University Athletics

Players Mentioned

John Dressel

Eduardo Herrera

Sage Hurta

Joe Klecker

Tabor Scholl

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