The Colorado men’s and women’s cross country teams swept the NCAA Mountain Region cross country championships Friday in Albuquerque, sailing through a race considered a formality on the way to the NCAA Championships in two weeks.
In that spirit, No. 1-ranked Colorado men’s team held out top runner Blake Theroux, racing only six of seven allowed athletes, presumably to rest him for the ultimate goal of trying to .
“We are always happy to advace,” CU coach Mark Wetmore said in a release. “We weren’t too nervous about that with the men, but the women could not have afforded to have a bad day, and instead they had a very good day.”
It’s the first time since 2006 that both teams have won the same regional.
The Buffs men placed five in the top 13 to win their 20th regional title with 45 points, beating out Northern Arizona, which had 68. BYU was third with 121 points.
Junior Connor Winter was the Buffs’ top runner with a fourth-place finish in 29 minutes, 55.33 seconds over the 10-kilometer course. He was followed by senior Jake Huryaz in seventh, junior Ammar Moussa in ninth, junior Pierce Murphy in 12th and sophomore Ben Saarel in 13th. two weeks ago.
Colorado State’s men’s team — thanks to high finishes from sophomore Jefferson Abbey (10th) and freshman Jerrsell Mock (11th) — earned their second straight NCAA championship berth after finishing fifth as a team in the race.
The Colorado women — who fell to 12th after finishing third in the Pac-12 Championships two weeks ago — also put five in the top 13, finishing with 43 points to defeat host New Mexico’s 56 points. BYU was third, Wyoming fifth and Colorado State sixth. CU’s win was their second straight regional championship.
Sophomore Erin Clark finished second for the Buffs in 20:56.50 on the 6K course. Junior Maddie Alm was seventh, senior Sara Sutherland was ninth, sophomore Annie Kelly was 12th and freshman Kaitlyn Benner was 13th.
Daniel Petty: 303-954-1081, dpetty@denverpost.com or
