Greatest College Cross Country Team of All Time

UTEP early '80's or Stanford around 2000.

wow, you must be really young.

arkansas

adams state

washington state

utep

UTEP scored 17 points in 1981 NCAAs.

Mathews Motshwarateu 1, Michael Musyoki 2, Gabriel Kamn 3, Suleiman Nyambui 5, Gidamis Shahanga 6

Colorado, no. They didn't have goucher on the team with the torres. They didn't even win it gouchers senior year.

Wisco? come on. maybe best post collegiate stars on one team but they weren't that great.

Could be Stanford 2003 or 1981 UTEP. Both teams beat the field combined.

Lorenzo the Magnificent wrote:

UTEP scored 17 points in 1981 NCAAs.

Mathews Motshwarateu 1, Michael Musyoki 2, Gabriel Kamn 3, Suleiman Nyambui 5, Gidamis Shahanga 6

This the correct answer. Whoever mentioned the Stanford team from 2003, no friggin way. End of thread.

The 1979 Oregon team that finshed second to UTEP was much better than the 2003 Stanford team.

Can't discount Stanford too easily. 2003 was a more competitive era.

Adams State scored 15. You don't get much more dominant than this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512aYJvzlvL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

1979 not as competitive as 2003. That's arguable.

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/special-articles/314

break it up wrote:

The 1979 Oregon team that finshed second to UTEP was much better than the 2003 Stanford team.

You bet. Those UTEP and Oregon teams between '79-'81 were the most formidable XC teams the NCAA has ever seen. We've seen some decent teams over the last 10 years, but none could have beaten those squads.

On paper the 1979 Oregon team might have been better but probably not much better and had much better competition at NCAA Cross. The 2003 Stanford team was probably much deeper but their dominance in that race is a combination of a weaker year than the late 70's and early 80's, and the fact they really nailed it as a team that day.

[quote]categorically wrote:

Can't discount Stanford too easily. 2003 was a more competitive era.

You can't be serious?? Or just maybe a troll looking for a bite - I don't know. If you really beleive this, you seriously need to revisit history. Trust me, I've been paying close attention to NCAA XC for the last 40yrs and there has been no period over the last 20yrs that was close to being as competitive as the '79-'81 era.

All posts here are good-- but as far as the "on paper" aspect of the discussion-- given their best days, conditions, which team would beat the others? My money still goes to the 2004 Badgers. The PRs for that team are pretty unbelievable, and they have six really solid runners. So I'll ask sincerely, out of curiosity-- what am I missing about the UTEP team?

Thank you, Alan Scharsu. #4 vs UTEP.

-OGH

What were the PR.s of the Wisconsin guys in the fall of 2004. Bairu, Solinsky, Withrow, Eagon, Lockhart, etc?

The '79-'81 UTEP team were loaded with NCAA champs, world class Olympians. Multiple times NCAA champs. I'm not certain but I would bet they had 5 guys under 28:20 for 10k with two that were NCAA champs. Google each name in that top 5 seperately to find out.

As far as I know of the 1979 Oregon team, Salazar was the defending cross champs and ran 13:22 and around 27:40 in college (1980 US Olympian). Chapa ran 7:37 for the AR in the 3000 and 13:19 in 1980. Clary was a 13:35-13:40 runner who made the Olmpic team in the 5000 in 1984. McChesney made the US Olympic team for 5000 in 1980 and still has the Oregon school record for 5000. Ken Martin was a sub 8:30 steepler and plus a future 2:09 marathoner when the world record was just under 2:07. That team also had Jeff Nelson who ran 8:36 for two miles in high school and 13:44 as a freshman that following spring.

Wisconsin was incredibly loaded but in this era of the oversized indoor tracks and set-up Stanford time trials I don't rank them to the status of the Oregon team who were loaded with Olympinas, future Olympians, and 3 (at first) to 5 runners who were world class to just outside world class for their era.

How awesome would it be if we could some how race all of the great teams and individuals against each other in their prime?

Can you imagine all of the greats on the line?

I suppose that one can dream.

and they will be beaten by a Kenyan Middle School Team!

break it up wrote:

As far as I know of the 1979 Oregon team, Salazar was the defending cross champs and ran 13:22 and around 27:40 in college (1980 US Olympian). Chapa ran 7:37 for the AR in the 3000 and 13:19 in 1980. Clary was a 13:35-13:40 runner who made the Olmpic team in the 5000 in 1984. McChesney made the US Olympic team for 5000 in 1980 and still has the Oregon school record for 5000. Ken Martin was a sub 8:30 steepler and plus a future 2:09 marathoner when the world record was just under 2:07. That team also had Jeff Nelson who ran 8:36 for two miles in high school and 13:44 as a freshman that following spring.

The PR's of the Stanford guys aren't way off that.

Luchini 13:25 in college

Hall ... well, just for starters 13:22 to win NCAA one year

Dobson 13:22 in college (2nd only to teammate Hall at NCAA), 8:32, 13:15 later

Robison 3:35 in college, NCAA 1500 champ, 13:40

Sage: 1500 NCAA champ, 3:39 in college

Tenforde ran 28:23 that spring