Article on today's Pre-Nat races-
Direct link -
https://cubuffs.com/news/2018/10/13...earn-third-place-finish-at-pre-nationals.aspx
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MADISON, Wis. — After a let-down at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational two weeks ago, the University of Colorado men's cross country team knew it needed a big day on Saturday at the NCAA Pre-National Invitational.
That is exactly what the Buffs got as they recorded a third-place finish on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, the site of the NCAA Championships in November. A big part of that performance came with the return of
Joe Klecker to the lineup, who missed the previous race due to a small injury. He came back strong on Saturday afternoon, leading the Buffs with a fifth-place individual finish.
Colorado did not send its varsity women's team to the meet since the top-ranked Buffs have the points needed for the postseason, but instead gave its 'B' team a chance to compete. CU's 10th-place team finish as very respectable in a field that featured nine ranked teams.
"I'm happy with how we did in both races," head coach
Mark Wetmore said. "We learned what we needed to learn and we got to see a lot of our opponents. Coach (Heather) Burroughs is back in Boulder with our women's 'A' team and she will be crunching all of these numbers and will have charts, graphs and comparisons by the time I get home tonight."
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"Two weeks ago we ran without
Joe Klecker, and that makes a big difference in our team score," Wetmore explained. "Today he was where we would have expected him to be. Ryan had a nice race. John maybe didn't have his best race and Lalo (
Eduardo Herrera) could be better. But then our fifth man, where points are really coming in fast,
Ethan Gonzales, had a really good day. We took a little step. It will change the rankings back to something a little more realistic and yet we have 13 days to go to be rested and peaked for the Pac-12 Championship."
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"Bri Schwartz had a pretty good race two weeks ago at Stanford, but had a very good race today leading this group," Wetmore said. "She is somewhere between our fifth and seventh runner, so she is certainly going on to the Pac-12 as she gets better with each race."
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Wetmore was quite happy with how the women's team performed, especially since they were competing against many varsity programs.
"Tenth for that group is respectable," he said. "There are teams behind them that would be hoping to advance to the NCAA. That is something we talked about before the race. I said, 'You are running against varsity teams. Prove to yourself that you would make other varsity teams.' And they did. I was very happy with that group."
Oregon's Jessica Hull won the race in 20:03.2, outkicking Arkansas' Katrina Robinson, who was six seconds behind (20:09.4). Seventh-ranked Arkansas won the team race (51), defeating No. 4 Oregon by 20 points (71).
UP NEXT: The postseason begins as the Buffaloes head to the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships, October 26, in Stanford, Calif. The Cardinal will host the event at the Stanford Golf Course.
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Officiall results for both races (designated "Cardinal") in which the Buffs ran-
Women -
http://www.rtspt.com/events/ncaa/prenats18/mp/
Men -
http://www.rtspt.com/events/ncaa/prenats18/mp/#event3