Wetmore-Wednesday Top Races: Metivier Wins Indoor 3k, Slattery Takes 10k Title

BOULDER – The Colorado track and field and cross country program has a special history, one that began to hit full-stride under head coach Mark Wetmore.

CU track and field and cross country will take a look back at every year under Wetmore and recap the best races and teams of every calendar year.

Fresh off winning the 2004 NCAA Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships, the spring of 2005 saw the Buffs continue to roll as a pair of seniors captured individual NCAA titles. Renee Metivier was able to finally get the NCAA title she had been striving for, winning the indoor 3k after suffering a tough loss the night before in the 5k, while Sara Slattery came back from injury and won the 10k in her second ever attempt at the event.

METIVIER'S BREAKTHROUGH NCAA WIN
Winning an NCAA title is the dream of all athletes and Metivier was not different. Prior to transferring to Colorado, she was the runner-up at the 2001 NCAA Cross Country Championships while competing at Georgia Tech, just missing a national title. She recorded her second runner-up finish in 2004 and helped the Buffaloes capture their second NCAA team crown in five seasons.

But with one indoor and outdoor season remaining during the spring of 2005, she was still looking for the elusive title that had been just outside of her grasps.

"I had been all the places between second and sixth and it was my last year," Metivier said. "I was one of the favorites. It was one of my last opportunities to win a title.

Metivier went into the 2005 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., as the favorite in the 5,000-meter run and was also entered in the 3,000 having qualified in both events. The 5k was first on March 11, and as she stepped to the line, the pressure was on. Not just the pressure to win, but the pressure to set an NCAA record. While some pressure is good, this combination proved to be bad.

"I tripled at indoor conference and was running senior cross country too," Metivier remembered. "I had taken on a lot and put a lot of pressure on myself and needed to figure out how to manage that. And I didn't feel awesome and I didn't listen. I didn't listen to my body. I didn't alter our plans. I didn't pay attention to the sensory data."

And in her words, her race blew up. She finished a disappointing sixth (16:08.72).

"I screwed up the 5k," she said. "I went out going for the record. I went out too aggressively and burnt up."

The following night Metivier returned to the track to race in the 3,000, a race she had placed sixth the year before. She was also under strict orders not to lead the race until the last lap (final 200 meters). For someone who was always leading, and everyone else was expecting to lead, this was a big change.

The race was very slow with everyone expecting Metivier to jump to the lead. There were two falls in the first mile to negotiate and the pack stayed close for the first two-thirds, but with four laps left, one racer pulled ahead of the pack, realizing Metivier was not going to lead. Metivier and two others covered the move but still stayed back. After every lap around the track, she would look to Wetmore for the sign to take the lead, but he wasn't giving in, forcing her to stay controlled until the bell lap.

When she got the green light to go, she was off. Metivier sprinted the last lap and took the lead with 20 meters left. She won in 9:22.81, which was not an NCAA record, but it did not matter. She had finally accomplished the goal of winning an NCAA title, defeating UTEP's Adriana Prtea (9:23.58).

"I remember looking at Coach Wetmore and he would shake his head no," she said "And he was right. I had wheels. I always was too nervous. He told me this, 'It takes more confidence to sit back than it takes to lead sometimes, because sometimes when you are leading, you are just scared and want to control the race. You have to be confident and relax and know the tools in your own tool belt to wait.' It was probably the easiest race that I've ever run in my life that I've won. He taught me so much in that one race."

Metivier was one of three women to race the double and by far was the most successful scoring in both. Stanford's Anita Siraki was 12^th in the 5k and came back to finish ninth in the 3k, while Annie Bersagel (Wake Forest) was third in the 5k and 11^th in the 3k. Her 13 points tied the Buffs for 16^th in the team standings.

"I was so much wanting to get a record and championships aren't about that," Metivier said. "You are there for your team and the championship title and I lost sight of that in that 5k. There is a sense of accomplishment for coming out of that and scoring those points for my team."

To this day Metivier continues to sing Wetmore's praises as a coach. He helped her through a big heartbreak after the 5k and then coached her through what she describes as, 'the only A+ race of my entire career that I've won.'

"I don't think there is a better coach in the NCAA than Coach Wetmore," she said. "There are a lot of great coaches in the NCAA, but he's special. I wouldn't be the person I am without his tutelage and growth. That (3k) race was the pinnacle moment of my college career. I can't say enough about that. He taught me so much in that one race."

SLATTERY BATTLES BACK FROM INJURY TO TAKE 10K TITLE
Sara Slattery's career at CU started off on a high note. She placed eighth at the 2000 NCAA Cross Country Championships as a true freshman and helped CU win its first NCAA Cross Country title. Slattery would go on to record six All-America honor in track, including a national title in the indoor 5k during the 2003 season, as well as another All-America honor in 2002 on the cross country team.

But Slattery's 2003-04 season did not have the success she was used to seeing. She missed the cross country season due to surgery and redshirted indoors. Slattery made it back to race at outdoor Big 12s before suffering a stress fracture in her femur which took her out the rest of the 2004 track season.

She was finally able to start training for the cross country season six weeks before nationals and helped the Buffs win their second NCAA Cross Country Championship in November, becoming the first female Buffalo to be a part of two NCAA Championship teams. Her 28^th-place finish won her All-America honors for the third time in cross country. But truth be told, she wasn't running at full strength.

It wasn't more than a couple of weeks later that she was hurt again. When she finally got the green light to start training again in March, she had missed the entire indoor season. Already a fifth-year senior, she only had one spring left of eligibility. So she was a little surprised when Mark and assistant coach Heather Burroughs approached her with the idea of trying a new event.

"I remember I had been cross-training like crazy when they approached me," she said. "I had been more of a miler/5k runner. They said I had a really good aerobic base with the cross-training and thought it was a good opportunity to move up."

Trusting in her coaches as any good athlete does, she ran her first 10k at the Big 12 Conference meet in Manhattan, Kansas. Slattery ran a very tempo-ed race to start and then raced the final mile or so. The strategy worked as she not only qualified for NCAAs, but she won the Big 12 title in 33:43.10, almost 30 seconds in front of the runner-up, Baylor's Brittany Brockman (34:14.31).

A month later, Slattery found herself at the 10k starting line at NCAAs in Sacramento, Calif. It was the final race she would run as a collegiate runner and as a Buff.

"I hadn't had the perfect build-up, but each week I was getting stronger and stronger and feeling more confident with my fitness," she said. "I was honestly just excited to be there and to be healthy and to give my last season a shot."

With 25 laps in the 10k, there is no need to jump out to a huge lead. The field had hung on together pretty well throughout the first half, but slowly competitors fell off one by one. Then with three laps to go, it was down to three. And then two. Entering the final lap, Slattery remembers it was down to her and Caroline Bierbaum (Columbia). And it was exactly what she wanted.

"I was super confident with my kick because I was a miler/5k girl," she said. "I knew if it came down to a lap to go that I could do it. I remember Mark and Heather really preaching being patient during that race. I was patient the whole way and was just chomping at the bit for that last part of the race. I felt good the whole way, so when it came down to the last part of the race, I was running as hard as I could."

Slattery won in 33:02.21, just 1.16 seconds ahead of Bierbaum. But the best part? That's the celebration of course.

"The night before I had been talking to my husband (Steve) and some friends discussing what different teams do when they win a title," she said. "Arkansas has 'sooie' and Texas has hook-em horns. And they asked, 'What do Buffaloes do?' I said, 'They stomp like a buffalo and put their hands up like buffalo ears.' Everyone said if I won, I had to do that. So in the last 100 meters, I knew I had to do that and I did."

Heading into her sixth year as the cross country head coach at Grand Canyon University this fall, Slattery looks back at her five years at Colorado fondly.

"One of the things I am most proud of is being apart of two NCAA national championship teams (2000 and 2004)," Slattery said. "As a college coach, I am so appreciative of running for coach Wetmore and have learned so much."

PAST TOP RACES:
2004: BUFFS WIN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
2003: RITZENHEIN RACES TO THE TITLE (FINISH VIDEO)
2002: TORRES CEMENTS LEGACY (VIDEO)
2001: CU MEN CAPTURE FIRST TITLE (VIDEO)
2000: KARA GRGAS-WHEELER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
1999: JAMES DAVIS 1999 4x400-METER RELAY ALL-AMERICAN
1998: ADAM GOUCHER 1998 CROSS COUNTRY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (VIDEO) (5,000) (3,000)
1997: ADAM GOUCHER INDOOR 3,000 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
1996: ALAN CULPEPPER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 5,000/ WOMEN'S BIG EIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
(VIDEO)

Wetmore-Wednesday Top Races: Metivier Wins Indoor 3k, Slattery Takes 10k Title

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