BOULDER — The University of Colorado swept the top five places in the men’s 10,000-meter run on the opening day of the 2008 Big 12 Track & Field Championship on Friday.

“We knew we should have five guys do fairly well, I was confident we’d have five guys finish in the top eight and I knew if things went well we could score very high,” head coach Mark Wetmore said. “The only way it is a surprise is when you’re asking all five guys to hit on all four cylinders.”

Colorado recorded 33 points in the race and has the team lead going into the second day. Missouri is in second with 20 points. The Buffs earned the top four spots in the 5k during the indoor championship for 29 points after the first day.

Junior Kenyon Neuman won his first conference championship in the 10k with a time of 30 minutes, 40.78 seconds. It was a close pack as Bradley Harkrader placed second (30:40.98), Matt Tebo took third (30:41.22), Chris Pannone was fourth (30:41.25) and Richard Medina placed fifth