Greatest College Cross Country Team of All Time

Well the college team may be UTEP 1980-81 but there is no question who that over the last 40 years the greatest program has been Wisconsin. Only team to qualify for every single NCAA meet since they started District qualifying. Dan McClimon-Martin Smith-Jerry Schumacher-Mick Byrne.

Success year in and year out.

break it up wrote:

there is no question who that over the last 40 years the greatest program has been Wisconsin.

Program with the highest level of consistency. Greatest program over the last 40 years is the one that won the most titles, though. Arkansas.

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

Seriously people why are you still posting this ^^^^ was the answer.

UTEP's kenyan all star team was pretty incredible and probably gets the nod, but I think you are correct about the 03 Stanford team. I definitely put them ahead of any other team. That wasn't just a one year deal either as they were also pretty dominant in the 02 season.

cptjag wrote:

ON PAPER-- who's the best CC team ever? The late 90s CU Buffs with Goucher, the Torres bros, Slattery? Early 2000s Wisconsin-- Bairu, Solinsky, Tegenkamp, Nelson, Spiker, Lockhart?

Are you kidding or just unaware of history? UTEP had several times in the late 70's early 80's that would have easily beat the teams you list. One year (78?) that scored 17 points at the NCAAs. Heck, I doubt the Wisc team you list is even the best Wisc team ever. When they won in 1986 they had 5 great runners.

Wendell Gee 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.

1) Salazar did not run 27:40 in college. Never broke 28.

2) While this Oregon "team" was loaded, they never performed well all at the same time. Hence, you are assessing team potential, rather than performance.

Agree. Hacker, Easker, Fry, Stinzi and one or two more whose names escape me at the minute

I believe Ron Delany continued to run on the Villanova X-country team after he had won an Olympic gold medal in the 1500m. Any other teams have an Olympic gold medalist?

Mount Saint Mary's had Peter Rono.

pv runner wrote:

I believe Ron Delany continued to run on the Villanova X-country team after he had won an Olympic gold medal in the 1500m. Any other teams have an Olympic gold medalist?

CAMERON AGGIES 2012, hide and watch. We will destroy at jamboree

Adams State 1992 is the greatest ever.

And CU '98? Really? First of all the Torres bros weren't apart of that group and 2nd of all that team rode Goucher to a 3rd place finish.

Adams State College went 1-2-3-4-5 in 1992. Best ever.

I think UTEPs 17 pt team had their 6th and 7th runnersd finish 13th and 14th - or close to that.

Adams was a NAIA D2 team then. I think the Pat Porter, Sam Montoya, Dave Cuadrado teams of the early 1980s were better than the 1992 team.

UTEP (mentioned) was the best ever and they were NCAA Division 1.

pv runner wrote:

I believe Ron Delany continued to run on the Villanova X-country team after he had won an Olympic gold medal in the 1500m. Any other teams have an Olympic gold medalist?

George Mason '87 had world champ Abdi Bile, but NOT an olympic champ as you specified.

I Call BS wrote:

[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.

The 21st century has been the golden age of high school running, NCAA, and pro American running.