I personally am not impressed with Lannana at all for winning a title. First off, in my opinion Oregon has some huge advantages that no other school has. The fact that Phil Knight backs them up is a huge recruiting tool. Oregon has such a rich tradition in distance running with very powerful alumni. They simply DECIDED that they wanted Oregon to be good again so they bought Lannana and brought in Rupp thanks to Salazar. Without Rupp, Oregon would not have won nationals. He trained with a professional coach (who also happened to be his high school coach) for a year before coming to Oregon. Nike funds Oregon so much and they bring in Lannana along with Rupp, plus their popular reputation thanks to PRE and Bowerman, what high school elite who lives on the west coast wouldn\'t choose to go there?
I am not bashing Oregon or saying things are unfair, because they deserve what Nike gives them. They were created by all Oregon runners. Of course those guys are going to want to donate money and support their University. I would do the same. But its not like Lannana built his team by himself. He did not recruit Rupp. He doesn\'t even coach Rupp! Lets face it, Oregon only had 5 good runners at nationals, without Rupp they would have had to score Acosta and that adds a TON of points!
Colorado does get talent, but not nearly to the extent Oregon does or Wisconsin for that matter. When you have the talent Oregon has, running from the front is the smartest probably most years because these guys belong up there. Many of the CU runners are not talented enough to go out in front so they focus on running a more even pace and moving up. So many guys in college are stupid and do not know how to race and go out way too fast. Running even is the most efficient way to run but if you are not talented enough to run 4:50\'s or under the whole way that places you in dead last almost.
I think Wetmore is an excellent coach who teaches his runners to run the smartest race they can run. It will pay off when stacked teams like Oregon are vulnerable, but it will be difficult for him to beat a team that is that much more talented when they have 5 runners execute perfect races (which was the case this year). Wetmore defeated two STACKED wisconsin teams when they were vulnerable. I hope every high school kid who breaks 9 doesn\'t automatically go to Oregon because that makes NCAA XC a lot less interesting. We need to mix it up more!