For the first time since 1985, CU cross country is no longer holding the Shootout at the Buff ranch. Kind of sad, are they getting to soft to race on their own home course now?
For the first time since 1985, CU cross country is no longer holding the Shootout at the Buff ranch. Kind of sad, are they getting to soft to race on their own home course now?
I think it's because they couldn't get any good teams to go race them anymore. In the past, local powerhouses such as the South Dakota School of Mines, Johnson & Wales, and DeVry University would send their A-squads. More recently those schools haven't even sent full JV contingents. CU has no fewer than 17 guys each year who can run 24:45 or faster on that course as long as it's been groomed properly. There's really no point.
It would be nice if they still had that time trial open to the public four weeks earlier, though.
It's a shame that we have two top 10 XC teams here in Colorado and we can never see them race in Colorado. It's impossible to be a fan.
Coloradoran wrote:
It's a shame that we have two top 10 XC teams here in Colorado and we can never see them race in Colorado. It's impossible to be a fan.
The CSU men would likely beat CU this year if both teams raced at full strength, and the Boulder folks couldn't have that. Maybe that explains the timing. CU will go up to that 5K thing at CSU to open the season and run without most of their top guys so they'll have an excuse if they lose.
One fewer hard effort for everyone. Look for the Buffs to shock the world this fall!
Anyone here run the Shootout when it was on the Lake Valley Golf Course?
In the mid 90's Adams State, Western State and CSU would all send their A squads (or most of them anyway) to this race and it was pretty epic, granted CSU was not as good back then, but still had some horses. I want to say around '94-'95 Adams State men actually beat CU on their home course but I can't remember for sure, I vaguely remember one of those years Adams State put 2-3 guys ahead of CU's #1.
If the PAC-12 would let in CSU like CSU keeps lobbying for then you'd see CU/CSU race at least one more time every season, though not in Colorado very often. Probably never gonna happen.
SaidBefore wrote:
Anyone here run the Shootout when it was on the Lake Valley Golf Course?
I didn't run it but watched a meet there that my GF ran. Pat Porter vs. Yobes Ondieki and Margret Gros dominated the women's race. CU prevailed over ASU but not by a lot.
The XC course is located in an area CU plans to develop soon ((South Campus). Also, Boulder and CU want to build a dam there to deal with flood mitigation. The Sept, 2013 flooding in Boulder was horrible and many existing structures are in the floodplain so the hope is that Boulder and CU can work together to get the CU south campus changed with some kind of dam there (current proposal is some kind of dam adjacent to US36 Table Mesa Park N Ride) and probably in return for flood mitigation the city and state will allow CU to build skyscrapers there.
They have wanted to develop that parcel for 20 years. They have never been able to come up with a plan that would appease the people's republic of Boulder. They don't want to see Green Space developed.
It's all the NIMBYs who want it 'preserved' as their own dog park without actually using their own tax money to pay for it. Every year at the Shootout there were dog turds scattered all over the course. CU should sell it to ag interests to turn into a cattle yard or pig farm. Better yet, turn it into a campground where all the homeless can live.
learjetfest wrote:
One fewer hard effort for everyone. Look for the Buffs to shock the world this fall!
Their schedule lists them going to the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational this year in late September (in addition to the usual Pre-Nats a couple weeks later). So, competition-wise anyways, actually a harder effort this year than just competing at the Shootout.
(Although, last year, they ended up adding the Joe Payne Invite at Notre Dame late in the scheduling process, and most of their "A" runners raced that, so about the same effort for them as last year. The Shootout last season mainly just had freshmen and "non-varsity" Buffs competing from the CU side.)
I remember racing goucher, ponce, roybal and later Torres... they had to split D1 from D2 scoring so Western couldn’t beat CU.. Goucher would win, then western with 27.50 Aish and co would fill the next places for Western.. Adams didn’t use to peak early and stayed quiet with Leslie and Hubbard.. those were the days..
Hilarious. If CSU could ever make the NCAA meet they could race CU full strength every year. C’mon.
WH Taft wrote:
Hilarious. If CSU could ever make the NCAA meet they could race CU full strength every year. C’mon.
CU was lucky CSUs #1 blew up last year at NCAAs. If he has even a mediocre finish, the Rams would have smoked the buffs.
If... and as my grandpa used to say, “if your aunt had you know what, she’d be your uncle.” If...
How about the fact Wetmore is lazy coach who only coaches the 5k and steeple, and won't spend one thin dime to generate any kind of competitive program.
critic 100 wrote:
How about the fact Wetmore is lazy coach who only coaches the 5k and steeple, and won't spend one thin dime to generate any kind of competitive program.
He's at a school where all they care about is that sport that causes Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Plus these days it seems many XC teams race exclusively on the Rupp-certified golf courses, unless it's for time trial/"workout for the A varsity team" purposes.