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Colorado's 2001 NCAA Championship men's cross country team.

Story by Michael Sandrock
Boulder Daily Camera
(Nov. 20, 2001)

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Fifteen minutes after placing second in the 2001 NCAA Cross Country Championships, Jorge Torres let out a scream that startled spectators and seemed loud enough to be heard back in Boulder.

He was quickly joined by teammates once they were told that the University of Colorado had unofficially beaten Stanford by one point, 90-91, to win its first-ever men’s cross country title.

Torres and his brother, Ed, along with fourth-place finisher Dathan Ritzenhein, Steve Slattery, Sean Smith, Jon Severy, and Aaron Blondeau hugged, whooped and hollered beneath the towering white pines and oak trees on the University of Furman golf course.

However, the Buffaloes had to wait another hour for film to be examined and official results announced. The public address announcer said it was Stanford, while the results board had CU. There were some tense moments among the CU entourage until an hour later, it became official -- Colorado 90, Stanford 91, and the Buffs had their team title.

It was the closest team finish since Villanova defeated Oregon by a point back in 1970.

“It feels great,” Torres said. “This is a real relief.”

“It has been a long, hard road,” said fifth-year senior Smith, who started his career as a walk-on. “I am going to remember this forever, and I am glad of all the other walk-ons who paved the way before me.”

Winning it all, said head coach Mark Wetmore, “is a thrill.This is the most exciting and dramatic sport in the world for those of us who know it and enjoy it. It is a relief to finish with a win.”

Arkansas was third with 118 points, followed by Northern Arizona (193) and Wisconsin (245). Colorado State was 22nd with 491 points.

The CU women, ranked No. 6 heading into the meet, placed eighth, paced by Molly Austin in eighth. BYU took the women’s team with 62 points, far ahead of North Carolina State (148), Georgetown (180), Arizona (194) and Stanford (206).

“The guys were inspiring,” said Austin, who was nearly last when she ran the NCAAs two years ago. “We saw how well they ran, and Mark told us to go out slow and build up. That saved me. You always have higher expectations, but I’ll take this. It was hot (65 degrees) out there.”

Austin clocked 20:51 for the 6 kilometers, with Arizona’s Tara Chaplin leading the whole way and finishing in 20:24. Jodie Hughes, hampered by an Achilles injury, was 40th (21:32), followed by Lesley Higgins (21:50) in 69th, Tera Moody (22:00) 88th, Natalie Florence (22:09) 100th, Hilary White (22:40) 161st, Anna Wright (23:29) 224th.

Jorge Torres was the 2001 national runner-up.

Colorado won the men’s title by running a tactical race that had them way, way back in the opening miles. Individual winner Boaz Cheboiywo of Eastern Michigan led a pack of three fellow Kenyans through a blazing first mile of 4:23. The rest of the field was quickly strung out behind them, and those runners from Stanford and Arkansas who went out too fast ended up faltering in the latter part of the race, opening the door for Colorado.

“It was hard to let Boaz go, but I had faith in my training,” said Torres, who was 4:38 at the mile. He led the chase pack and by two miles had moved into second. Cheboiwyo had 22 seconds on Torres at halfway, a margin Torres cut into slightly by the end.

Cheboiywo clocked a course-record 28:47 for the 10k, with Torres coming at 29:06. Ritzenhein was 29:11.

“Torres ran a great race," said Cheboiwyo, a schoolteacher from near Eldoret, Kenya. “I am happy to follow the other Kenyans who have won this NCAA race, and to beat runners like Torres.”

Said Torres, “I cannot be disappointed with second. Boaz is a tough competitor and proved he was better today. I had hoped to make it a one-on-one with myself. Would I have like to win? Yes, but there is always next year. I am proud of my race and our team. The most important thing was winning the team championship."

It took great runs by all five scoring Buffs to edge Stanford. Ritzenhein’s fourth was the best finish by a freshman since Adam Goucher was second in 1994. Ed Torres placed 15th in 29:47, Slattery was 28th (30:03), and Smith was 56th (30:27).

With a couple of miles to go, it looked like CU would be beaten, as Stanford runners were far in front. Wetmore stood at the spot marking one kilometer to go and yelled to his runners as they came by. He told Slattery, then in 45th place, that he had to pass 15 runners. He told Smith and Ed Torres they needed to pass 10 runners. And the Buffs did just that.

“It was rough out there,” Smith said. “Mark told me it was close, and I knew passing a couple of guys could make the difference. It is not easy to get guys; in the NCAAs runners don’t give up.”

Said Slattery, “I was about 100th place at the mile and thought there was no way we could do it. When Mark told me we needed 15 guys, I looked up and couldn’t even see 15 guys. I just started sprinting and guys started materializing.”

Like his teammates, Ritzenhein, who was 4:43 at the first mile, ran a smart race. He was back in 25th place at two miles before slowly moving up. At 8k he passed Arkansas’ Alistor Cragg and moved into third, before getting out kicked by Cragg in the final 200 meters.

“This is cool,” Ritzenhein said. “When I was in high school we took second three years in a row before winning. Winning it this year takes some pressure off. This was one of the hardest races I’ve ever run. It was so fast at the end.”