I was a freshman at another school in the Big XII during that season. I was able to race Goucher once that year, probably losing to him by 3 minutes in an 8k and then also got to see him as a spectator at Nationals. In my mind he was the only nationally famous American college distance runner as the Internet was still in its infancy. Seeing him take down Julius Mwangi, who I believe beat him by a decent amount at Pre-Nats, was pretty amazing.
I actually held off reading that book until around 2003, not wanting to put conference competitors of mine up on a pedestal. Once I did read the book though, I thought it was amazing. 15ish years have passed since I read Running With The Buffaloes and no running book I've read since can match it. Any high school kid who's just finding a love for the sport would be inspired by it and those that competed all the way through college will find a lot of similarities in the book with their own team experiences. To this day, Colorado is my favorite collegiate team to follow and root for of any team that I don't have any personal connection to. Wetmore is also a living legend of running, my teammates were all fascinated in many ways by that guy even back in the late 1990's. Chris Lear, thanks for writing that book, an all-time classic for anyone involved in the sport.