They are the two best small-college cross country programs in the country – no other school comes close – and they love to hate each other almost as much as they love to win.
Separated by 120 miles of gorgeous Colorado scenery, situated in remote high-country towns where there is little to do besides run and study, the Adams State Grizzlies and Western State Mountaineers have spent decades piling up national championships and building one of America’s most entertaining collegiate rivalries.
“It’s very, very fierce,” Western State senior Kelly Christensen said after a recent workout. “I’m graduating in December. I could have graduated (last) May, but I came back just to beat Adams one more time.”
The NCAA Division II championship is an annual tug of war between the Colorado rivals located in Alamosa (Adams State) and Gunnison (Western State).
The past 13 seasons, either Adams or Western has won the women’s title. The men’s title has gone to one or the other 11 of those 13 seasons. Over that span, the rivals finished 1-2 nine times on the women’s side, five on the men’s side.
“It’s a rivalry that is really based on national championships,” said former Adams State coach Joe Vigil, who built the program into a national power in the 1970s and 1980s.
“It’s like oil and vinegar,” current Adams State coach Damon Martin said.
The rivals will use anything to get under the skin of their nemesis, including insults involving school colors. Western calls Adams the Green Weenies. Adams calls Western the Red Weenies. Adams junior Derek Yorek accuses Western runners of throwing red paint on him during a 2003 meet.
“There is no love lost,” Yorek said on his way to a recent workout, smirking at the thought of stirring things up even as Martin cringed. “I don’t like a single guy on their team. They’re not good guys. They have no class.”
In Boulder on Saturday, their rivalry will enliven the Rocky Mountain Shootout, a meet featuring the reigning NCAA Division I men’s and women’s champions (Colorado won both titles last fall) and the Division II champions. Western won the men’s title last season and Adams claimed the women’s, bringing their combined national championships total to 41.
Both teams will be hoping to take down the Buffs, consistently one of the top Division I teams. Christensen, who was recruited only by Western coming out of Moffat County High School in Craig, won the CU meet last year, outkicking Buffs star Brent Vaughn over the last 50 meters. Vaughn finished fourth at the Division I championships seven weeks later.
“These are the kids no other school wanted,” said Western assistant coach Michael Aish, who won Division II titles as a Mountaineer in 1999 and 2001. “These guys, they won’t back down. Every year we race against the bigger colleges, Division I, and (the big schools) hate it because we’ve got nothing to lose and they have everything to lose.”
The Adams-Western rivalry is so pervasive, it added intrigue to the Bolder Boulder citizen’s race last May. Aish was a two-time Olympian for New Zealand, but he had to dig deep to hold off Adams State junior Jesus Solis, a graduate of ThunderRidge High School. Aish won by four seconds.
“I thought, ‘A little bit of (school) pride here, I’ve got to hold up my end,”‘ Aish said at the time.
Vigil took over the Adams State program in 1967, winning the first of his 14 men’s national championships in 1971. Sam Montoya won Adams’ first individual national title in 1979. Pat Porter won the next two years and went on to become a two-time Olympian.
In 1992, Adams and Western left the NAIA to compete in NCAA Division II. That year the Adams State men accomplished something no other collegiate team has, sweeping the first five places at the NCAA meet for a “perfect score” of 15. Western finished second with 56.
“Just getting the uniform instills a huge sense of pride in athletes there,” said Smoky Hill coach Greg Weich, who ran for Adams State from 1989-92. “You’d seen pictures of Porter wearing the striped shorts, and all of a sudden you have a pair? It’s like a dream come true. Man, when I turned them in, I almost started crying.”
Western State coach Duane Vandenbusche, a history professor, began coaching the program there in the early 1970s, first on an unofficial basis.
“There wasn’t much of a rivalry” because Adams State dominated all the time, Vandenbusche said. “It took awhile to get to their level. When we got to their level, it really became a rivalry.”
Vandenbusche knew little about coaching, but he picked Vigil’s brain whenever he could and he learned from experience. He showed a knack for recruiting and motivating runners.
“There’s probably guys out there who know considerably more (about running) than Duane does,” said Cody Hill, who ran for Western in the early 1990s. “He’s one of those captivating guys. I mean, he could have had us run through fire and we would have done it.”
Western tied Adams for the NAIA men’s title in 1986, claimed its first NCAA men’s title in 1995 and has won five of the past six men’s titles.
“Some years we’re best friends with them and we’ll race them to death,” Aish said. “Some years there’s this bitterness between the guys. It might be because they read into rivalry thing too much. They’re the same kind of guys, the guys that didn’t get to go to other schools.”
Both teams go into NCAA championships believing the title trophy is coming back to Colorado one way or the other.
“I think it’s like Duke and North Carolina, being that close to each other and a lot of times whoever wins that game has a chance to win the national title,” Martin said. “That makes it a little bit more fierce.”
Staff writer John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
