BOULDER — On the Tuesday before the Mountain Region cross country meet in Albuquerque, longtime Colorado coach Mark Wetmore finally decided to slot in one of his most reliable championship runners.
The move to race junior Ben Saarel — who had been held out all season in the hopes of redshirting him and saving eligibility for 2017 — came just eight days before the Buffaloes would race in the NCAA championships. who will graduate next spring, but the message was clear: If they want to win their third consecutive national title Saturday in Louisville, Ky., at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park — a feat achieved by only five other NCAA teams since 1938 — the best way to do it is to race your top runners.
“This team could have gotten inflated with themselves,” Wetmore said. “They could have gotten comfortable with themselves in the past. It hasn’t.”
Saarel struggled early in the season with an illness but had trained hard over the summer, which helped him bounce back these past few weeks. Saarel is the kind of runner who tends to peak when it matters most: He was seventh overall at the NCAAs last year as a sophomore and eighth as a true freshman. Wetmore hopes for a similar or better result Saturday.
“I’m really happy I’m racing,” Saarel said. “I felt like I shouldn’t be held out and that I could definitely contribute. It was a good mutual decision.”
Saarel will have support from senior Pierce Murphy, Colorado’s season-long No. 1 runner, who has been closely followed by seniors Morgan Pearson, Ammar Moussa and Connor Winter. True freshman John Dressel has been a surprise this season: He was the Buffs’ No. 2 runner at the Pac-12 championships, finishing sixth overall in just his second race ever for CU.
The CU women are also deep, with just a single senior. They have been ranked No. 2 most of the season behind New Mexico, which rested two of its top runners in Albuquerque. The Buffs edged New Mexico by a single point last weekend, but they’re unlikely to repeat that Saturday, with some commentators calling New Mexico the best women’s team in NCAA history.
Should the CU men run to victory again, as they are expected to do, they would go down as one of the Buffs’ best teams ever. Which is saying something for Wetmore, who has won seven national cross country titles since 2000 between the men’s and women’s squads. But does this momentous stretch qualify as a dynasty?
“When I think of a dynasty, I think of UCLA basketball back in the 1970s. I think of Dan Gable and his wrestling dynasties in the ’70s and ’80s (15 NCAA team titles at Iowa). I think you need to win 10 in a row to be a dynasty,” Wetmore said. “Honestly, I’m still wide-eyed about it. I’m surprised we won the last two and I’m surprised we’re favored to win again.”
Daniel Petty: 303-954-1081, dpetty@denverpost.com or @danielpetty
