Rocky Mountain Shootout

Did Ritz ever run that race?

Buff fan (but not buff fan) wrote:

If interested, the 2nd page of the following shows the list of all the top times-

http://www.cubuffs.com/fls/600/cross_country/2014_Info_Guide/44-45_rocky_mountain_shootout.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=600

Per the link I provided, he has one time showing for the Shootout- a 24:47 in 2001.

Skeptic/Sceptic wrote:

Anyone know what's going on with Saarel?

He ran 24:43. That's not exactly shitting the bed out there. He's on an insanely capable team is what happened, and I don't think he pushed as hard as his 'mates in the last mile.

It was interesting to see Morgan Pearson running unattached and go straight to the front from the gun. He had a sizeable gap on the rest of the pack for most of the race, until he got caught in the last mile. Working out in front by himself, with the pack of 6 working together to catch him. It no doubt made for some fast times with a person to chase. I wonder as well if Wetmore plans to redshirt him in hopes of keeping this group together for another year. I believe in years past, they have used this race to see where people were at, determine who will be contributing, who will not, and who will be redshirting. Even from the CU website article, Wetmore talks about "putting in uniform" one of the freshman women runners who ran well, so I don't think running unattached at this meet means for sure you will be redshirting the whole year. Last year, both Pearson and Saarel ran unattached here before finishing out the season on varsity. It definitely looked like Pearson was running with something to prove though. I'm sure he wants to be on this team and fighting for another national title this year and not leave it to chance next year. With these times on this course, they look better and deeper than last year's team and a good shot to repeat.

Of the three seniors in the top 7 (Pearson, Theroux, and Hurysz), only Pearson hasn't used a redshirt year, and out of the entire top 7 only Pearson and Saarel haven't used one, so it seems that Pearson would be the obvious choice to sit out this year. Brings up an interesting debate about whether to sit a guy out who would clearly be a top 7 runner (and very possibly a top 5) in order to keep a core group together for another year. You only need five to score, but a lot of things can go wrong throughout a season or even in one race. Worth risking a national title this year in hopes of going for a possible three-peat in 2015? I guess we'll see how it plays out this season. My guess is that he won't run at Pre-Nats (or run unattached) and they'll wait until before Pac-12s to make a decision. If the rest of the group stays healthy and appears fit, they may not need Pearson this year. Not sure how the whole timing works out with declaring a redshirt year, but that would seem to make the most sense. The fact that they had four different number one runners in the big races of last season, plus now their number one runner from 2012 is crazy and speaks tons about their depth.

Game over wrote:

The #1 men's squad went bonkers today and put 7 under 25 min. That is 7 top 20 times on that course. Generally, sub 25 has equated to better than 30th at nationals.

Anyone who has raced on the course knows how fast sub-25 is, especially for sea level guys. CU's strongest teams in the past have around 3 under 25. This year there are 7. I'm very impressed.