2004 NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Leaving victory to the last

by Parker Morse

Simon Bairu (right) and Josphat Boit break away shortly after 8K. (Photo by Alison Wade/New York Road Runners - click to enlarge)

When the NCAA Cross Country Championships were last held at Indiana State University's LaVern Gibson cross country course, in 2002, the race developed very early into a four-way battle amongst standout individuals. In 2004, the individuals were much more wary, and in the early going it looked more like a marathon than a cross country race. A "bus" of 20 or 30 aggregated behind Arkansas' Josphat Boit. There were simply too many competitive athletes at the front.

With three of them — Simon Bairu, Matt Tegenkamp, and Chris Solinsky — representing the heavily-favored University of Wisconsin Badgers, it was clear that last year's runners-up were going to try to put the team race out of sight right away. While Colorado's victory in the women's race just an hour earlier was more surprising than shocking, the failure of the race to follow the form chart could be seen as an ominous signal for Wisconsin. Somehow, before the race even began, another Colorado upset on the men's side seemed ever so slightly more likely.

Colorado, however, was scaring its fans to death as usual. "Being a Colorado fan is heartbreaking, because we're just getting killed the whole way," said coach Mark Wetmore after the race. "If the race goes out in 4:30, we're just not capable of doing that. ... [Colorado's top runners] Brent Vaughn and Bret Schoolmeester were probably around 50th at 2K." The leaders passed the mile mark in 4:40, not 4:30, but the effect was the same: Colorado was buried.

The Buffaloes, however, have traditionally benefited from the late-season increase in race distance from 8K to 10K, and Wisconsin coach Jerry Schumacher wasn't fooled. "The style of racing that Colorado does means you can't count them out. We saw them moving." Schumacher also had to pay attention to the other team in white and red: Arkansas' Jason Sandfort and Marc Rodrigues were in the second pack (with Boit still up front) and if the Hogs closed well — their coach, John McDonnell, had noted that he would need a strong race from his fifth runner — they could knock off Wisconsin without any help from Colorado.

The team missing from this three-way scramble was Stanford. Ryan Hall was visible at the front throughout the first lap, and as the pack was winnowed down to 15 and then eight, he hung on, but who was behind him? Nef Araia was with Vaughn, Schoolmeester, and Sandfort at halfway, but otherwise Stanford was spread all over the course.

At the end of the sixth kilometer, the pack was eight: Boit and New Mexico's Matt Gonzales, Tegenkamp and Kansas' Benson Chesang, Bairu and Hall, Solinsky and Arizona's Robert Cheseret. In the seventh kilometer, Boit and Gonzales put the hammer down, and Bairu covered the move. Cheseret hung on for a little while, but he was the next off the back, and then there were three. At 8K, Boit and Bairu decided, independently but simultaneously, to drive for the finish, and the pair opened a gap on Gonzales before he could respond.

Now it was down to two, and Boit and Bairu turned out to be evenly matched. They tested each other through the closing mile until they turned into the finishing straight, and Bairu got a stride on Boit. A stride turned into a gap, then, eventually, four seconds as Bairu sprinted madly for the line. "I was too scared to look back and see who was behind me," he admitted afterward. He finished in 30:37.7. Gonzales, meanwhile, charged after the dueling pair, and caught Boit just before the line for second in 30:40.9; Boit took third in 30:41.8.

While that trio was sorting out the front of the pack, meanwhile, Colorado was on the move. From 8K to 10K, two of the fastest-moving runners on the course were Vaughn and Schoolmeester. They tore through the remains of the pack with barely a mile remaining, catching the last (Simon Ngata of Georgia) as they entered the homestretch. Vaughn finished fourth in 30:48.7 and Schoolmeester fifth in 30:56.3. Bairu, now looking back for his teammates, must have started to feel a bit nervous.

Tegenkamp was 11th (31:09.7) but only scored nine due to non-scoring individuals (Cheseret and Chesang) in front of him. At two runners, Wisconsin was down by one. Solinsky, in 16th, scored 11; just over four seconds (and five places) later, Jon Severy was 21st (15 points) for Colorado. 21 to 24 Wisconsin after three runners. Rodrigues and Sandfort had Arkansas at 34 after three runners, and they would not make up any more ground. Fourth for Colorado was Stephen Pifer in 45th (31 points); for Wisconsin, Tim Keller in 47th (34). With four runners in, Wisconsin and Colorado were tied at 55 points. Right after Keller was James Strang in 49th for Colorado, scoring 35; Bobby Lockhart closed Wisconsin's scoring in 54th (39 points) and the final totals stood at 90 to 94. Wisconsin, ranked first all season, was second for the third consecutive year.

Four points. Nearly any Wisconsin runner, except of course Bairu, could think of some place during the race when they might have picked up four points, could find someplace where they wished they had a do-over. In any upset, however, just as much goes right for the winner as goes wrong for the former favorites. Wetmore could point to any one of his scorers and explain how they alone had done just enough to deliver the win; in the post-race press conference, he did point to both Vaughn and Schoolmeester, as well as Severy, who Wetmore said had run "the race of his life."

"Before the race," Wetmore explained, "I formulate, not expectations, but aspirations. At least five of them exceeded those." He added, "I'd be interested to see what the team scores were at 8K."

Schumacher agreed, adding, "Colorado sunk that last-second three-pointer. They did that over the last kilometer, over the last 800, even." He went on to make an observation about the rest of the field. "Third-place scores in the two hundreds [Arkansas, 202] and fourth place nearly 250 [Butler, 243] I don't know the last time that's happened. I think it shows a lot of parity among the teams right now."

If he's right, four-point squeakers may be possible again when the meet returns to ISU in 2005 and 2006. If they are, look for Colorado again; they won their previous men's championship (in 2001) by only one point.

(Posted November 23, 2004)