At Colorado, the cross country cupboard might not ever be bare. Yet from a historical perspective, the Buffaloes were well behind the pace of their glory days when Sean Carlson arrived.
It was an unenviable position Carlson walked into roughly 16 months ago. Not only was he hired at Colorado less than a month before the start of workouts ahead of the 2024 season, but Carlson was tabbed as the replacement for a CU coaching legend in Mark Wetmore, the winner of eight team cross country titles with the Buffs .
There were growing pains during Carlson’s first season a year ago. But the Buffaloes are back in their accustomed position among the top cross country programs in the nation, a status CU will look to further cement on Saturday morning at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Columbia, Missouri.
The CU men’s team will make its 33rd consecutive appearance at the national final, the longest active streak in the nation. The CU women will compete in the final for the 31st time in the past 33 years.
“When I got here we had a few leaders that stuck around and committed to building this the way we wanted to. So big credit to them,” Carlson said. “And then we retooled a lot. We brought in a lot of transfers and a lot of freshmen, fresh faces to kind of get the culture back to where we wanted it to be.
“There’s a level of talent thatap required in all sports to compete for a national title, but then there’s a cultural development that has to happen within your program to be at that level. I think we’ve taken a massive step over the last year in both of those categories.”
Both Buffs teams finished fourth at the NCAA Mountain Regional last week, even while keeping key runners sidelined with an eye toward this week’s championship. CU competed on the championship course in September at the Gans Creek Classic, with the men’s and women’s teams both finishing third against a national field.
The CU men enter the final ranked seventh in the country, while the women are ranked 18th.
“We try to be very strategic with how we approach the postseason,” Carlson said. “I think we were the only school in the country to rest two of our top five on the men’s side. We think that provides us an advantage. Two 10Ks in eight days, and it takes a massive toll on you emotionally and physically. There’s certain people that we felt would benefit from training through that period of time. Isaiah (Givens) has primarily been a miler, so we thought it would be an advantage to not run two 10Ks. We really think he can hit one 10K really well, and we’ll save it for the national meet.
“Same with the women’s side. We sat Ashley Jones. You don’t get brownie points or any pats on the back for winning the regional meet. Itap cool that day, and then after that nobody remembers it. People are looking at the national meet, and thatap kind of always going to be our priority. We did what we had to do at the regional meet, nothing more, so we go into nationals a little better rested and a little bit better prepared.”
The championship races will air live on ESPNU, with the 6K women’s final beginning at 8:20 a.m. MT and the 10K men’s final to follow at 9:20 a.m. MT.
