The Colorado men have done more than enough to prove they have had the best season and that they are the best team.  Potentially we could see the best performance by a team since the men were dropped to 12.6 scholarships and this could be one of the best teams ever.

  The Colorado season has been chronicled thoroughly since the beginning of the season.  Coach Mark Wetmore led the Buffaloes to their third team title (all under coach Wetmore) last year and there was plenty of hype at the start of the season (plus the addition of 2012 all-American Sr Jake Hurysz).  As a result of the buzz it has created a lot of distraction but coach Wetmore says, “We appreciate the interest here and on campus.” 

Meantime, in Flagstaff, Arizona, defending Mountain Regional champion Northern Arizona was excited about the returners from a runner-up season and the addition of an all-American  (Tyler Byrne, 29th in 2013 while at Louisville) and NCAA competitor (Cory Glines was with Michigan).  In Syracuse, coach Chris Fox was hoping to finish in the top 6 or 7 this year after the best finish in Orangemen history (10th).  

Early in the season Colorado stayed out of the limelight with wins at home in the Time Trial and Rocky Mountain Shootout.  2013 Bronze medal winners Oklahoma State also stayed out of the limelight.  

Oregon won the Bill Dellinger Invite before practice had started and it was clear that Oregon would have new players in the top 5.  Last year Eric Jenkins missed the cross country season and ran to an all-American performance at the NCAA meet (4th in the 5K).  Dellinger was his first cross country race since 2011 because of injuries, redshirt freshman Travis Neumann had a mediocre year last year due to recovery from achilles surgery and miler Sam Prakel had redshirted.  They all made a splash at Dellinger and kept it up (Prakel got injured during the season) throughout the season. 

Syracuse lost to Oregon at the Battle in Beantown but excelled after that as they took down a tough field at Wisconsin Adidas.  Coach Fox mused about that, “We had a good day and we were better than we thought we were.”  Northern Arizona coach Eric Heins was very impressed too, “for Syracuse to win Wisconsin that was impressive.  We knew where we were at.  The race did not play out as we expected.”  

Northern Arizona made it clear that spring failures and injuries would not affect their cross country season.  Their first big opportunity was the brand new Washington Invitational and they defeated several ranked teams.  All-Americans Futsum Zienasellassie and Matt McElroy led teammate Caleb Hoover to a result of three Lumberjacks in the top 10.  

It is here that Villanova showed that (led by a win from Patrick Tiernan), combined with the Paul Short Run the same weekend, the Wilcats would contend for a trophy at the end of the season.  Although they are made up of middle distance guys for the most part, Coach Marcus O’ Sullivan has done a great job getting the team to be this strong this year.  They took the first three spots (and four of first 6 and 6 of first 12) at the Big East meet and coasted throughout the Mid-Atlantic Regional to qualify.    

Syracuse went into the ACC meet looking to defend and easily did so.  There had been no history of success for the Orange until Chris Fox arrived.  He had run for Athletics West in the late 80s and early 90s and he says, “Everybody in the top 25 draws on their experiences.  Whether they ran or didn’t run before.”   Knowing what is at stake and what the team needed to do to qualify, he held out two runners at the Regional meet.  Many see the Orange are a trophy contender and he said, “We are really excited and hope to get a trophy and so do nine other teams.”

Out front he has a strong #1 that has won a few races, Martin Hehir, who his coach reckons is the first to win a cross country title in the Big East and ACC (and won an outdoor 10k title).  Coach Fox comments about him, “he has been a great kid here, he keeps evolving.  He is and easy guy to coach, he is really smart.”  His team has ended up together at the end of races, but he says, “we don’t really outline, I am sure they will find each other.  They will settle into a race that they find comfortable.”

Northern Arizona survived the regular season although originally coach Heins thought, “this will be our best team.  Glines and Byrne were struggling with nagging injuries.  The team could have been down about the injuries but as Eric commented, Tyler is a great guywithout a lot of depth the Lumberjacks needed to be healthy to compete at a high level with only five teammates able to help them trophy or possibly winning if the Buffaloes had a problem.  They took five of the first 10 spots (and first three) at the Big Sky meet as Byrnes and Weitz ran well. 

At the Mountain Region, Byrnes proved what he had told the team.  Earlier, when injuries were slowing him, he told his teammates  “I will be ready in November”.  He finished just behind Hoover and with Weitz sitting out to get ready for the NCAA meet, Northern Arizona will likely have their best meet at the NCAA Championships.  With Futsum and McElroy likely in the top 10 at the finish and Hoover not too far behind they have a good shot of breaking 100 if things go their way.  

Coach Heins says about this meet, “I feel we are on an upswing.  The team is led by juniors and seniors. The guys are running with a chip on their shoulders.  The big comparison is the Wisconsin meet.  We have no reason to be ranked higher. “ 

Oregon constantly changed its line-up throughout the year but kept Cheserek and Jenkins up front.  Jenkins stayed with defending NCAA champ Edward Cheserek until the end of every race.  He was third at Pre-Nationals as Cheserek won.  Thankfully some runners (Daniel Winn and Travis Neumann) have improved this season to compensate for others that have been hurt. They finished an expected second at Pre-Nationals and Pac-12 to Colorado and then won the West Region meet over Portland and Stanford.  

Coach Miltenberg has been very careful with his teams at Stanford.  Graduate transfer Maksim Korolev introduced himself to the school at the Stanford Invitational and he could contend for the title.  Injuries decimated a shot at a national title as now Jim Rosa is out.  Sean McGorty injured his back in early summer and Coach Miltenberg wanted to be safe with him.  He finished 12th at the Pac-12 meet this year in his only race so far and Michael Atchoo also had his best race.

Colorado dominated this year. They beat Oregon at the pre-National meet, 35 to 91.  They scored 30 at the Pac-12 meet and only needed to qualify at Mountain Regional and accomplished that easily with 45 to 68 for Northern Arizona.  Different runners have led a group that Coach Wetmore says has become a team like others that has, “shared sacrifice.”  Individuals on this team could go for individual glory but he appreciates that “seniors will dial back their individual desires”  to reach team goals.  

With 48 hours to go coach Wetmore asks that the athletes go silent. He will answer media questions at the starting line to keep the distractions away from his athletes.  He doesn’t delve into the historical opportunities to get his first repeat winner, but instead thinks about how he can help his team. 

This team could be historic.  The seem to be down to 6 runners and Peterman has not run well.  At the Regional the usual #1, Blake Theroux sat out, and earlier in the year Jake Hurysz had a rough race.  If two have a rough race, Colorado could lose.  

  We don’t crown champions before the race starts.  Syracuse, Stanford, Oregon and Northern Arizona will get out well and Colorado will look like its struggling.  Consistently Colorado comes back.  Northern Arizona and Syracuse will battle for second and fourth is wide open.  Stanford, Oregon, Villanova will battle for the last trophy spot.