University of Colorado runners lead the pack during the 2013 Pac-12 Cross Country Championships Saturday Nov. 2, 2013 at Coal Creek Golf Course in Louisville, Colo. (James Bradbury/CU Independent)
The 2013 cross country season will come to an end this Saturday when the Buffs travel to Terre Haute, Ind., for the NCAA National Cross Country Championships.
Head Coach Mark Wetmore said the meet will be the ultimate culmination of each runner’s training and mental preparation. He compared running preparation to baking a cake — a scientific endeavor that you can’t know the results of until the timer runs out and the cake is eaten.
With the men’s team entering the race ranked No. 3 overall and the women ranked No. 5, Wetmore may be able to have his cake and eat it, too.
Freshmen Ben Saarel, Melanie Nun and Erin Clark will compete Saturday as major assets of a fairly young team. Wetmore said he sees Saturday’s race as an opportunity to accomplish a goal that this year’s runners have not quite reached.
“I, frankly, consider us underdogs every year,” he said. “This team has never won any national titles, so it would be special.”
The last national championship Colorado won in cross country was the men’s team victory in 2006.
The La Vern Gibson Cross Country Course is not new territory for the Buffs, but with each season producing a unique set of runners, overall strategy is what changes from year to year.
“It’s tailored to this team, it’s tailored to our opponents and it’s tailored to the weather conditions,” Wetmore said. “Everything factors into the final race-morning decisions.”
One change the men’s team will have to face at nationals is a 10-kilometer race, considerably longer than their usual eight.
“I would say the extra two kilometers is good for us,” Wetmore said. “We’re a bigger-volume program, [so] it probably helps us a little bit.”
In the weeks leading up to Nationals, Wetmore has lowered his team’s mileage to rest the runner’s legs and avoid injuries.
“What the coaching staff here has learned is that less is better at this point,” Wetmore said. “We’re resting more these days than we used to.”
Mental preparation of the runners has also been high on Wetmore’s priority list. He said that the chaos of the NCAA championship will be new to the entire team. The team’s routine has been to remain routine.
“Eat smart, rest smart and do the workouts,” said Wetmore, summarizing the routine.
Unlike on the men’s side, the women’s team will not focus on hunting down certain schools, although top teams like Arizona have rivaled the Buffs throughout the season.
“The women will be running against the blob,” Wetmore said.
Wetmore invested confidence in Shalaya Kipp, who has recorded the top time on the women’s team for the last three meets and is coming off of a runner-up finish at the NCAA Mountain Regional meet last weekend.
Placements are more difficult to predict for this year’s top-finishing juniors Morgan Pearson and Blake Theroux, as well as sophomore Pierce Murphy and freshman Ben Saarel. The four have consistently run times within a minute of each other throughout the season.
The Buffs hit the start line at 10 a.m. Saturday for the men’s 10k race, and the women’s 6k race will begin shortly after. The meet will be streamed live on NCAA.com.
Coach Wetmore is not only excited, but confident that the Buffs will find success in Terre Haute.
“We’re trying to take the cake out of the oven on Sept. 23rd, and it’ll be delicious” he said.
Contact CU Independent staff writer Jordyn Siemens at Jordyn.siemens@colorado.edu.
