2001 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships:
Boaz Dominates/CU Edges Stanford In Memorable Duel

Furman, SC - 11/19/2001 - The 2001 NCAA cross country championships may have played out as expected with the team title going down to the wire between #1 CU and #2 Stanford, with #3 Arkansas close behind in 3rd and with Eastern Michigan's Kenyan sensation, Boaz Cheboiywo, running away with the individual title.  However, don't think because things went as expected that it wasn't terribly exciting.

The NCAA cross country championships are always exciting and one of the greatest sporting events on the landscape.  As Colorado coach Mark Wetmore said after the race, "It's a thrill to be here (at NCAAs).  It's always a thrill to be here. This is the most-exciting and dramatic sport in the world for those of us who know it and enjoy it." He then paused for dramatic effect before adding, "And for those of us who go out in the back and move up through the pack (as my teams due), it's the most petrifying sport in the world." 

Petrifying, but extremely rewarding for Wetmore and his Colorado Buffaloes, as after more than one hour of waiting (with the women's race being conducted in the interim) the results were finally announced - Colorado 90, Stanford 91 (although inexcusably somehow, someway incorrect results were released beforehand to the media and Wetmore and Stanford coach Vin Lananna as everyone was told the score was CU 86 - Stanford 90 (more on this terribly gaffe when we come out with our thumbs up/thumbs down awards)).  The Colorado Buffaloes had captured their first men's team championship and in the process made Wetmore the only coach in NCAA cross country history to have guided a program to team titles and individual titles on both the men's and women's sides.

The battle for the team title quickly became the focus of attention as the men's individual race quickly turned into a coronation of the great Boaz Cheboiywo (just as LetsRun.com predicted it would prior to the race) who put on an absolutely dominating performance, that was a thing of beauty to watch.  Hammering hard from the start, Boaz crushed one of the most talented fields at NCAAs in recent memory.  Only two people even attempted to try go with Boaz - both fellow Kenyans in TCU's Eliud Njubi and Alabama's David Kimani (13:10 5k runner and 1999 champion ) - and neither of them ended up finishing the race.  Kimani didn't even make it two miles, dropping out officially because of achilles tendinitis, but unofficially in part to a broken will.

6:45 into the race, after a 4:24 opening mile, Boaz and the Kenyans had an amazing 16 second lead on the rest of the field.  10 minutes into the race (well beyond the 2 mile mark), the other Kenyan's were gone and Boaz's lead was already up to 22 seconds.  For all practical purposes, the race for the individual title was over.  Boaz would stretch his lead to as much as 26 seconds, before Colorado's Jorge Torres cut into it a bit to make things look respectable as the final margin of victory was 19 seconds.  Boaz covered the 10,000 meters in a course record of 28:47, which broke the mark of 28:54 set by Meb Keflezighi - the current American record holder at 10,000 meters.  To understand just how impressive Boaz's performance was, one needs to understand that Boaz shattered his own 8k course record en route to the 10k course record.

To everyone in attendance, there appeared to be little drama in the men's individual race but there was plenty of drama in Boaz's mind.  He revealed after the race today that he's been battling both a hip flexor and achilles tendon injury, since destroying everyone else in his region two weeks ago by 44 seconds.  The injuries greatly curtailed Cheboiywo's training, and caused him to take 6 days off completely from running during the last two weeks. As a result, when he toed the line for the start today, Boaz said he was "not very confident" about his prospects for the title.  

Amazingly, given the fact that Boaz covered the opening mile in 4:24, Boaz said his strategy for today's race was to take it out slowly to see how his injuries felt.  "So I wanted to go out slow, but when I couldn't feel the injuries at the first instance, I tried to go fast so I could have a clear view of the course." said Boaz.  "After a while I said (to myself), 'Let's get going as Kimani is very fast compared to me. I've only run 13:30 (for 5k and Kimani's run 13:10)." 

With the individual race virtually decided by mile two, all attention quickly turned to the tight team battle, which was a wonderful thing to watch as it featured the 3 powerhouse programs in men's cross country - Stanford, Arkansas, and Colorado - all going at it with a legitimate shot at the title.  

Moreover, the race was great to watch as the top two teams in CU and Stanford employed their contrasting trademarked styles.  Stanford got out well and ran hard from the gun while the CU runners started slowly (everyone except Torres) and gradually moved up, running more even splits.  Around the two mile mark, there were quite a few comments being made amongst the thousands of spectators like the following one that I overheard: "Colorado's running like **it," said one impatient fan.  Colorado was definitely way behind in the team battle early in the race and even at the 8k mark.  However, they continually moved up and passed just enough runners to get the job done.  

A perfect example of CU's even paced style was employed by freshman sensation Dathan Ritzenhein, who wasn't in the top 30 in the mile which he hit in 4:43 but he ended up fourth in 29:11.  When Wetmore was asked after the race if he was a little nervous that Dathan had started out a little too slowly, Wetmore responded emphatically. "No, never. Not at all. He was 4:43 (at the mile). Due the math. What's 6.2 4:43 miles? (it's 29:15) I think that's about 3rd or 4th in the race," said Wetmore of his prodigy. "He has the race experience of a 40 year old."

Despite expressing complete confidence in Ritzenhein's even-paced start, Wetmore admitted that it his team even paced running style is tough to handle psychologically, "We're always petrified about being buried at the mile every year. That feeling doesn't change. (The narrowness of the course at the start here) just makes it harder to trust," said Wetmore on CU's strategy, which he revealed is partially the result of the fact that CU trains at 5,000 feet of altitude.

"I sincerely believe that living at elevation is an advantage, but training at elevation is a disadvantage.  I believe that when our opponents are doing repeat miles in 4:30, we're doing them in 4:42 or 4:45. So we really don't have the choice (to go out hard)," commented Wetmore about his team's strategy. "The leaders today were down around 4:20 (actually 4:24) at the mile and if I'd sent Jorge and Dathan with them, that would have been suicidal. We would have been 5th today. So we really don't have a choice (but to go out slower).  My job is just to convince (my runners) to trust it and not be nervous at the mile or two mile and blow up out of nerves."

In contrast to CU's cautious start, Stanford got right into the mix of things from the gun.  For example, junior Grant Robison who was running in his first NCAA cross country championship, was the first American at the mile which he hit in 4:31  - 7 seconds behind Kimani.  As a result, Stanford had a big early lead on Colorado.  At 4 miles, Wetmore claimed Stanford was still "killing us". However, the lead evaporated as Robison faded and the Buffaloes continued to pass runners all the way to the finishing chute. 4th overall at the mile, Robison ended up as the 4th Cardinal finisher in 21st in 29:51.  

However, despite the fact that their lead in the team battle evaporated in the final stages of the race (literally the last steps as CU's Ed Torres passed Dartmouth's Tom McArdle right at the finish to come in 15th and CU's #5, Sean Smith (who finished in 47th) had the same finishing time as two other runners), it was great to see Stanford coach Vin Lananna completely unapologetic about his team's strategy and very satisfied with the way his team ran after the race.

 "I think the guys did a really, really good job. I think it was a difficult way to run the race. But because we knew we didn't have the front fire power (of Colorado), what we needed to do is make sure we got into a position (to win) relatively early, which we did.  I think we may have gone out a little harder than we would have liked," commented the amazingly upbeat Lananna despite the agonizingly close one-point loss, "but that's the only way for Stanford to win and we'll always run that way.  So I'll tell you for NCAAs at Indiana State next year, that's our race strategy.  We will go out and we'll go hard and put ourselves in a position to win the race every time we go out and compete."

Lananna repeatedly made sure everyone realized he was pleased with the way his team ran. Going into the meet, he thought if things went well they could score in the "high 80s" and they did almost exactly that as they ended up with 91 points.  

"For a young group of kids, I think (my team) did a really great job," said Lananna about his squad that featured no seniors and only one junior.  "My hat is certainly off to the University of Colorado. They did a great job. They also are a young, impressive group. It was a great competition.  I hope the spectators and crowd enjoyed it."

Lananna was very pleased in particular that his 5th man crossed the line in 37th place (compared to 47th for CU's 5th), saying, "That was a good as I though we could get. The key was to get 'em in earlier (up front)."   

When asked if he was bit worried about seeing Grant Robison go out so hard early in the race, Lananna was his usual honest, self.

"Hell yeah," Lananna said in a response that drew many chuckles from the press corps. "I think it clearly was a case of Grant's first time of being at the NCAAs. Even though we talked about not red-lining it, he was at the red-line at 2.5 miles. And when you do that, you pay the price," said Lananna before adding with emphasis. "But you know what? I'll take it anytime. Those kids ran tough. Don Sage was outstanding - Luis Luchini charging like crazy - and Grant was hurting for a long time in that race, and I give him a lot of credit for hanging on and doing what he did."

The 2001 NCAA championships are likely to be remembered for a long-time.  It was truly an exceptional meet. Boaz's convincing win won't be forgotten but the meet likely is to be remembered for years to come primarily for the narrowest of all possible team battles between Stanford and Colorado - two of the giants in men's cross country.  You couldn't have asked for anything better.  Colorado edging Stanford by a single point with the third giant - Arkansas (118 points)- not too far behind.

It was a great sight to see and it also was great to see two of the sports coaching legends in Wetmore and Lananna completely unapologetic about their contrasting strategies.  It also was great to see Wetmore conclude his press conference by defending Lananna against a member of the media who was trying to get Wetmore to second-guess Lananna's strategy.

 "Probably for every team that feels that (they went out too hard), there's another team that went out too slow and got buried," said Wetmore.  "I think it was (BYU coach) Patrick Shane who said yesterday, 'You have to know your personnel. You have to know how you train. You have to run to your own style.' And Vin knows how to manage his talent. He's beaten us here (at NCAAs) more than we've beaten him here. And so he'd better dance with the guy that brung him - or some backwards Palo Alto saying like that, " concluded Wetmore to a tent full of laughter.

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