Running with the Buffaloes

by Chris Lear

  CU gathers at the starting line to begin their warm up. Valenti, Slattery, and Elmuccio are here, and they notice, across the far side of the course, what they missed last night under the cover of darkness: the majestic Wasatch mountains. The breathtaking mountain range is similar to the Flatirons in Boulder in that the mountains rise directly from the plains. The Wasatch range differs in that it appears more massive than the Flatirons, and its snow-capped barrenness makes it appear more inhospitable and foreboding.

  Fortunately, the men will not have to scale the mountain in the race today. The East Bay Golf Course lies several miles from the foothills, and the race course circles the perimeter. Despite the proximity to the massive mountains, the course is as flat as the Collindale Golf Course in Ft.

  Collins. The only natural obstacle appears to be the turf itself. Although Off and running at the Mountain Regional.

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  manicured, the course’s benevolent appearance disguises its greed. It is saturated with water. The soggy turf sucks up energy with every step, without returning a thing.

  There is more pomp and circumstance today than at any other meet thus far. The teams wait in a pen as an emcee introduces each team. Each competitor trots out to the starting line as his name is announced. The introductions do not take long, since there are only fourteen teams in the race chasing the two coveted automatic bids to Nationals. Goucher and CU receive the most laudatory introductions, befitting the man who has won this race every time he has competed in it and the team that has taken home the blue ribbon seven years running.

  Roybal runs today with a little extra power in his pocket — literally.

  His brother Philip and his cousin Michael Bregoine killed a rattlesnake back home in New Mexico and sent the rattle to him to ward off evil spirits. He runs with the rattle in his shorts knowing each step he takes is for his brother as well.

  Philip, a senior at New Mexico State University, introduced Ronald to running when Ronald was in high school. Philip was talented enough to earn a track scholarship to college, and the brothers often fantasized about running against each other this year. But, last year, when Ronald was in Guadalajara, Mexico, his mother called him and told him he had to come home immediately, for Philip was sick. When Roybal joined his family at his brother’s bedside in a New Mexican hospital, he was informed of the severity of Philip’s ailment. Philip had a blood clot that was making its way to his heart. If the medication did not work fast enough to dis-solve the clot, the clot would move to his heart, and he would die. Philip was ordered not to move, and all the family could do was wait, and pray.

  To the family’s relief, Philip survived. But as a result of the ordeal, Philip can no longer run. Now, Ronald runs for them both.

  Perhaps the man with the most at stake is Batliner. Wetmore thinks he can improve more relative to his teammates, and he is looking for him to be a top-five guy on the team today. Wetmore is realistic about what Batliner can do, “He’s not gonna be a top-twenty guy [at Nationals], but he was twenty seconds off our fifth man last time [at Big 12’s], and he’ll probably be close to our fifth man this time.” On the starting line, Batliner betrays no anxiety.

  Neither does Goucher. Wetmore has told him to win as easily as possible. Goucher could just run with the guys and concede the race to Simonich, but Wetmore doubts that will happen. “The possibility is slim that he’ll run with the guys. The likelihood is that if he’s on the line, he’s gonna run to win. There are certain things he doesn’t like to do, one of which is deliberately take it easy.”

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  But early on, Goucher takes it easy. Matt Poulson of BYU and Jeff Simonich of Utah assume the early pacing chores with the field bunched closely behind them. Unbeknownst to the Colorado guys, Simonich is ailing, suffering from plantar fasciatis in his right foot. He received a cortisone shot in his foot last week so that he could compete today. Simonich is also content to run as easily as possible today, and so, at the mile, the pace is a controlled five minutes for Goucher and Simonich.

  Simonich is compact in build and stride. Standing maybe 5′8″, he takes the short, efficient steps characteristic of 10,000-meter runners.

  His head does not budge and his face looks relaxed. His sunglasses shade any anxiety his eyes may reveal. Behind the duo, all the CU guys except Johnson pass the mile in a tight pack in the twenties, only seconds behind Goucher. Johnson bides his time a little farther back.

  Ten minutes in, Simonich and Goucher break from the pack and jump out in front, running stride for stride. Behind them, Northern Arizona has a three-man pack running ahead of Roybal, Ponce, and Friedberg. Reese and Batliner are farther back.

  At two and a half miles, Simonich turns to Goucher and says, “You’re not even breathing; let’s go.” Goucher does not respond, to Simonich’s disappointment. “It was just dead silence. I was thinking, ‘I gotta talk to him a little, try to slow him down.’”

  Goucher and Simonich pass three miles together in 14:47, and

  Goucher appears startled when he hears the time. He takes off, and three quarters of a mile later, he leads Simonich by forty meters. Later he says, “I was like, this is stupid, it’s time. He [Simonich] came with me for maybe 100 meters and that was it. That was the last I heard of him.”

  The speed in which he dropped Simonich — an All-American last spring in the 5000 meters — was astonishing, and it left Simonich in awe.

  “I don’t know how he does it,” Simonich says afterwards. “Most guys, you can tell when they move. With him his stride just lengthens out. I thought it [pulling away] would hurt him, especially in this soft stuff, but he just took off.” Slowly squeezing it down — that is how Wetmore and Goucher refer to it, and Goucher does it better than anyone.

  After his big move, Goucher coasts the rest of the way, winning in 30:43 — 42 seconds ahead of Simonich. Goucher is unfazed about his dominating performance. “It was OK,” he says. “As it is, I still haven’t gotten fired up for a race yet. There’s no one here who can push me, so I ran smart and still got a decent workout.” He is already looking ahead to next week. “I haven’t been pushed, even at Pre-Nationals. I caught him at four, he passed me, and I thought, ‘You know, I’m in the middle of a 100-mile week.’ We’ll see at Nationals.”

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  The team battle is much closer. At three miles, NAU was dominating the race, with guys in the fourth through seventh positions. But CU was still holding their hand at that point. CU has been training to run a 10k race all season, and in the last 2000 meters they move up through the field.

  Despite panicking and moving a little too soon, Friedberg is the second Buffalo across the line, in fifth place. “I picked it up in miles three, four, and five, running closer to fives [minute miles]. The first two were about 5:08, and mile six I think was a little slow . . . I made a bad gamble.

  With a mile to go, I thought I could just keep rolling ahead and they would just die, but they didn’t die. I moved too early. It ended up coming to a kick anyway, so why did I take the lead?” Friedberg raced Billy Herman and Steve Ozaduik of NAU to the finish, beating out the latter.

  Emry Carr of Idaho State finishes seventh before Reese and Batliner cross the line in eighth and ninth — remarkable performances for the two less-than-healthy seniors. Reese is glad he had Bat to run with, and that he survived the race intact. “You know how you need someone to leech off of? It’s like I was expending too much energy. Thanks to Bat [running with him], I was getting there, getting there. I’ll be happy if I can walk tomorrow.” There is a little swelling in his knee, and he immediately gets some ice on it.

  Batliner, meanwhile, is cautiously optimistic about the race, knowing what lies ahead of him. “I
feel great. I finally ran with the guys. But as good as I feel today, I’m scared for next week. It’s just a whole different race.

  You’re hurting the whole way.”

  Roybal completes the Buffaloes’ scoring when he finishes twelfth. Although both Batliner and Reese passed him with 800 meters to go and beat him to the line, he feels good about his race. He says, “I felt bad the whole race, but with 800 meters to go, I could still push it. Tom and Bat passed me, but I still had enough energy to go with them. I had an awesome kick, I just felt really, really strong. Now I need to do all the little things — stretch, drink a lot of water. I felt tight all week.”

  Johnson was their sixth man at Big 12’s, and he is their sixth man again today. Coming off of the flu, he runs conservatively early and finishes a solid 30th. He continues to improve, yet he has yet to have a race that fully meets his expectations. He says, “I thought I’d catch more people, but I didn’t. I want to race differently next week. I want to be in it a little more. It’s hard to tell how you feel after being sick. If I wasn’t sick, I’d be pissed. I’m greedy, so I wish I was just a little more in it.”

  Ponce is the only Buffalo to have an off day. Seeing his teammates move in front of him, Ponce slowed, finishing as the seventh man, in 35th place. “Today,” he says, “after the mile, I was really tight. I picked it up a RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

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  bit, and my shin was really hurting, so I slowed it down. I said, ‘Hey, I better wait till next week.’” Ponce was CU’s third man at Big 12’s, and with him ailing, the others had no room to slack. But they did their job; and as a result, CU won their eighth consecutive district crown.

  Wetmore is pleased that CU has won the race, but he cannot praise his runners’ performances until he has had an opportunity to analyze the results. “What does it tell me? Well, how much did Goucher beat Simonich and Herman by at Pre-Nationals? Where were the other guys then, and today?” CU has survived the cut along with thirty other teams, but he knows that this battle of attrition is among themselves as much as it is against their adversaries. “The story of our team,” he says, “is we’re down to five guys. From fifteen we’re down to five. We gotta get one more week out of those five guys. But Bat’s getting better, Tommy’s OK.

  Oscar, hopefully next week he can say, ‘I can rest all of indoors if I need to.’ We got what we needed. We got a good run out of Gouch, a good run outta Bat, and a set of plane tickets.”

  At the awards ceremony, with CU assembled in front of the crowd, the announcer begins: “It’s been a long season, but a good one for CU.”

  He then asks for a moment of silence for Chris Severy. The CU men stand arm in arm with Wetmore in the middle of them. And in that moment, with heads bowed, the members of the squad take the time to reflect on their lost comrade, and the painful, costly, convoluted path each has taken to get to this point, a week away from their destiny. Without one another, one wonders if they would have the strength to stand at all.

  NCAA MOUNTAIN REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY MEET

  PLACE

  NAME

  UNIVERSITY

  CLASS

  TIME

  1.

  Adam Goucher

  Colorado

  Sr.

  30:43 CR

  2. Jeff

  Simonich

  Utah

  Sr. 31:25

  3. Matt

  Poulsen

  Brigham

  Young

  Jr. 31:41

  4. Billy

  Herman

  Northern

  Arizona Jr. 31:45

  5. Mike

  Friedberg Colorado

  So. 31:46

  6. Steve

  Ozaduik Northern

  Arizona So. 31:47

  7.

  Emry Carr

  Idaho State

  Jr.

  31:54

  8. Tom

  Reese

  Colorado

  Sr. 31:55

  9. Adam

  Batliner Colorado

  Sr. 31:56

  10.

  Zachary James

  Southern Utah

  So.

  31:57

  12. Ron

  Roybal

  Colorado

  Jr. 32:10

  30.

  Jay Johnson

  Colorado

  Sr.

  32:56

  35. Oscar

  Ponce

  Colorado

  Jr. 33:00

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  Monday, November 16, 1998

  Balch Gym

  8:30 a.m.

  Fired Up!!

  Wetmore is hunched over in his chair, staring at his monitor, scanning the weekend’s results. That his computer functions at all is a mystery to him.

  He took it to get fixed when it crashed on him last year and the techni-cians told him, “If it was alive it’d be dead.” Wetmore explains, “Like Goucher and his meals, something always seems to go wrong with my electronics.” But since it is working, “I’m wasting time, seeing who gets to go.” “Ha!” says Wetmore. “Look at this: Tennessee-Chattanooga gets to go!” He checks out the Midwest Regional results and sees Oklahoma State has easily captured the title, and that Iowa State finishes way out of contention. He really gets a laugh out of the latter. “I get a kick out of Iowa State. They got four Africans and they suck. Their first African was Philemon Too in 17th. That’s cool.” So much for buying a championship.

  The teams that figure to be the Buffs’ greatest competition all ran superbly over the weekend. In the extremely challenging west region, second-ranked Stanford and third-ranked Oregon romped past their competition.

  Previously unranked Washington State surprised the pollsters, finishing third, four points ahead of the seventh-ranked Arizona squad. Abdi Abdirahman of Arizona established himself as one of the NCAA favorites by winning the individual title by six seconds over Stanford’s Brad Hauser.

  Stanford’s team victory, meanwhile, is a tribute to the team’s astounding frontrunners and great depth. Their fifth man, sophomore Thomas Murley, was only a minute behind Brad Hauser in fourteenth place.

  Unlike the Buffaloes, who face relatively easy competition in their district, the Cardinal cannot afford to have their guys relax and ease up like Ponce did, or they risk not qualifying for Nationals. But any fantasy that Wetmore has about CU gaining an advantage from having an easier path to Nationals is just that: a fantasy. “Every year,” he says, “I get de-ceived into thinking that [the districts] will tire them out. Vinny [Lananna, the Stanford coach] knows what he’s doing, he knows what to do to hold them back.” The defending champion Stanford Cardinal are one of the three favorites to win the team title.

  The primary question on Wetmore’s mind as he scans each team’s results is: How hard did they have to go to qualify? For the number-one–

  ranked Razorbacks of Arkansas, the meet had all the drama of an inter-squad competition. They are the only team in the South Central region to even be ranked in the top 25, let alone the top ten. Arkansas’ Michael Power, Andrew Begley, and Sean Kaley swept the top three spots and Eric RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

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  Zack and Murray Link finished in seventh and eighth to lead the Hogs to a dominating 21 to 105 victory over a Tulane squad that received no votes in the last coaches’ poll.

  The toughest region teamwise was the Great Lakes Region. Going into Saturday’s race a remarkable seven teams, led by the sixth-ranked Wolverines of Michigan, were represented in the top 25. A strong Michigan State squad upended the Wolverines, but of greater interest to Wetmore was the individual battle. Butler’s Julius Mwangi won the crown by ten seconds over Michigan’s Todd Snyder. Wetmore is not sure how much that took out of him, but, he says
, “If this guy’s coach is smart, he said, ‘Just win. You gotta race again in a week.’”

  James Madison pulled the upset of the weekend by upending the NC

  State Wolfpack to win the Southeast Region, while a resurgent Princeton program earned their spot at NCAA’s by upsetting the thirteenth-ranked Georgetown Hoyas for the second consecutive year to win the Mid-Atlantic Region.

  After perusing all of the weekend’s results, Wetmore views Arkansas as the favorite, followed by Stanford and Oregon. Then, he says, “There’s a big gap. Everyone’s racing for fourth, including us.” Wetmore knows, though, that his team could place as high as third if they continue to improve. At the conference, there was a 17-second spread from CU’s second to fifth man. On Saturday, there was a 24-second spread at 10k.

  “That’s not bad,” says Wetmore. “Especially since Oscar shut down and just finished. If he can be where he was, with Bat in there, I guess we’re a better team than we were a month ago.” But if they are to place better than fourth next week, Ponce has to “swoop up and save our ass.” In other words, he has to pull a Roybal.

  Will Wetmore rah-rah Ponce and the boys? No. Now more than

  ever, his biggest concern is getting them to the line feeling good, with a calm mind. He says, “Sometimes the kids get mad at me and say ‘You don’t inspire us to run out of our gourds,’ but I just don’t think you can squeeze the juice out of something that isn’t there.” He knows now what he will tell them: “You’re fine, you’re gonna be calm and cool. You’ll beat people who are better because you’ll outsmart them and outcool them.”

  “Outcooling the competition”: If the Buffs have a slogan on race day, and especially at Nationals when even the most seasoned veterans can run like freshmen, this is it. Staying cool is partially why Wetmore was against the idea of having armbands for Severy when they first discussed it, and he is glad that they have no plans to wear them at Nationals. He says, “They generally do what I want them to do. But it’s just not who we are — advertising. We don’t advertise. The second reason is I didn’t want them to say, ‘I dedicated this to Chris and I ran like shit.’ How would Reese have felt when he said he didn’t fight [at Big 12’s]? That’s why we’re 222