CROSS COUNTRY RACE PROVIDED SECOND CHANCE FOR VAUGHN
By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

SAN DIEGO (06-Feb) -- Brent Vaughn may be the first accidental champion of American cross country.

The tall and lanky 26 year-old with a long neck and light blue eyes thought his winter season would be defined by the USA Half-Marathon Championships eight days ago in Houston.  At that race, where he finished third the year before, he was amongst the early leaders, forcing the pace from the front.  He wanted to win.

"I was planning on giving Ryan Hall a run for his money last week," Vaughn said minutes after winning the USA Cross Country Championships here in Mission Bay Park.  "That didn't happen."

Instead, when the decisive move in that race was made by Patrick Smyth at the 6-mile (10 km) fluid station, Vaughn was quickly dropped.  He stayed in the race for the next two miles before deciding to give up and walk back to the starting area.  He was defeated in more ways than one.

"I don't want to make any excuses, but it wasn't my day," Vaughn recounted.  He continued: "The second I stepped off, I was walking back and I was just thinking I'm going to go find a job.  "I'm done running.  This is like the worst moment in my life.  I hate DNF'ing.  Coach Wetmore (at the University of Colorado) taught us, you get to that line and you finish no matter what. I really felt bad for everybody who coached me in the past that I DNF'd.  I felt like I let them down."

After returning home to Black Hawk, Colo., where he lives with wife Sara and their two young children, Vaughn reflected on his experience in Houston with his coach, Jay Johnson.  Instead of grabbing the classified section of the Denver Post to look for a job, he bought a plane ticket for San Diego and entered himself in the cross country championships.  Down deep, he knew he had a great performance straining to come out.

"Because of the fitness I knew I was in, my confidence in my coach and my confidence in my ability, I decided, you know, I've got to race," Vaughn said, his eyes beginning to glisten.  "I didn't want to waste this fitness.  I've been working too hard.  I wanted to come out here and show myself, show myself that I can compete with Tegenkamp, I can compete with Bumbalough, I can compete with Ben Bruce, some of the top guys."

And compete he did.  Vaughn surged away from the field in the fourth 2 km lap of the 12 km race, and was never seriously challenged.  He built up a 14-second lead by the penultimate lap, which was eventually whittled to six seconds by the finish because he allowed himself to enjoy the final meters before the finish. It was a dominating performance.

"I just wanted to come out here and get it back for myself, you know?" said Vaughn who also won $2000 in prize money.
 
By winning yesterday's race, Vaughn secured his first-ever USA team berth and will lead Team USA at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain, on Sunday, March 20.  The 2008 Big 12 Conference 5000m champion said that making the team was his biggest reward on the day.

"I can't really put it into words," he said of getting the chance to represent his country in a global championships.  "I'm going to have a hard time sleeping tonight."