Top Performances Countdown: Klecker Wins Pac-12 Cross Country Championship
April 26, 2020 | Cross Country
Heading into the 2019 cross country season, Joe Klecker said his No. 1 goal was to win the Pac-12 championship. He was referring to the team, not the individual championship, but why not win both?
The Buffs won the first six men's titles since joining the conference in 2011, but had lost out in 2017 and 2018 to Stanford. Klecker wanted to return the trophy to its rightful home.
He did one better. He brought both the team trophy and the individual championship award to Boulder, leading CU to its seventh Pac-12 men's cross country championship and becoming the first CU men's runner to win the individual crown. This earns No. 2 on our countdown of top performances of 2019-20.
Klecker crossed the finish line in the 8K race in Monmouth, Ore., in 23:02.7, beating out Oregon's Cooper Teare by 3.0 seconds (23:05.7). To win the team title, Klecker couldn't do it alone and the Buffs placed two other runners (Kashon Harrison and John Dressel) in the top 10 on their way to a team score of 41, well ahead of second-place Oregon's 57.
"Unfortunately we've lost it the past two years, so going into my senior year, this was my first goal on my checklist: to win this title," Klecker said. "I tried to do everything I could to beat a good Stanford team and winning the race was probably the best thing I could do for this team.
"When I felt good, I just went. I didn't really question myself. The only thing I did was to just remember to save a gear because this home stretch is long and you don't want to get passed up with 50 meters to go."
In winning the individual championship, he wasn't just the first CU men's runner to win a Pac-12 championship. He became the first to win a conference title since Brent Vaughn won the Big 12 title in 2007, a shockingly long drought for perhaps the most dominant cross country team in the nation.
Klecker went on to finish second at the NCAA Championships to earn the third All-America award of his career in cross country. In doing so, he led the Buffs to a third-place finish. It was the ninth straight year CU's men's team has finished in the top 10.
The Buffs won the first six men's titles since joining the conference in 2011, but had lost out in 2017 and 2018 to Stanford. Klecker wanted to return the trophy to its rightful home.
He did one better. He brought both the team trophy and the individual championship award to Boulder, leading CU to its seventh Pac-12 men's cross country championship and becoming the first CU men's runner to win the individual crown. This earns No. 2 on our countdown of top performances of 2019-20.
Klecker crossed the finish line in the 8K race in Monmouth, Ore., in 23:02.7, beating out Oregon's Cooper Teare by 3.0 seconds (23:05.7). To win the team title, Klecker couldn't do it alone and the Buffs placed two other runners (Kashon Harrison and John Dressel) in the top 10 on their way to a team score of 41, well ahead of second-place Oregon's 57.
"Unfortunately we've lost it the past two years, so going into my senior year, this was my first goal on my checklist: to win this title," Klecker said. "I tried to do everything I could to beat a good Stanford team and winning the race was probably the best thing I could do for this team.
"When I felt good, I just went. I didn't really question myself. The only thing I did was to just remember to save a gear because this home stretch is long and you don't want to get passed up with 50 meters to go."
In winning the individual championship, he wasn't just the first CU men's runner to win a Pac-12 championship. He became the first to win a conference title since Brent Vaughn won the Big 12 title in 2007, a shockingly long drought for perhaps the most dominant cross country team in the nation.
Klecker went on to finish second at the NCAA Championships to earn the third All-America award of his career in cross country. In doing so, he led the Buffs to a third-place finish. It was the ninth straight year CU's men's team has finished in the top 10.
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