Grizzlies sweep DII South Central Region

Nov 23, 2014

Adams' Tabor Stevens trades strides with Derek Alcorn and Phil Schneider of Mines in Saturday's NCAA DII Regional action. Photo by Ben Hershelman.

It is no secret that in the world of collegiate distance running, Colorado represents the top of the mountain in NCAA Division II. Since 1992 when Adams State won its first DII men’s national title, either ASU or Western State has won all but three of the DII national titles. The women’s division is little different. Since 1992 either ASU or WSU has won 18 national championships.

The success of division two programs in Colorado is not limited to Western and Adams. In recent years other Colorado teams have made serious gains as well. The Colorado School of Mines had been a program on the rise for years under former coach Art Siemers. When older brother Art stepped into the position at Colorado State, younger brother Chris stepped in and the Orediggers have not skipped a beat. Their rise was reflected in their second-place finish at last season’s national championships.

In discussing his team’s rise, Mines varsity runner Daniel Mahoney added, “We have been putting in consistent hard work every day. We have increased our mileage a lot this year under Chris. He is a high mileage kind of guy. Everyone in the top seven has been putting in 100-mile weeks.”

Adams State entered the men’s race Saturday at Washington Park in Denver as the top ranked team in the country. Mines came in ranked third, Western State ninth, West Texas A&M 17th and Colorado Mesa 21st.

For those not accustomed to NCAA meets, one of the most interesting things about watching a race is how tight the pack stays together for so long. When the gun blasted, a peloton of men hung stride for stride for nearly 2000 meters. At the front of the pack was a neatly packed pocket of Oredigger blue and an equally intimidating clutch of Grizzly Green. ASU and Mines has finished a scant five points apart at the RMAC meet two weeks ago, and neither appeared to have forgotten that.

The first individual to make a move was former Green Mountain Ram turned WSU Mountaineer, Ian Butler. Butler surged about 30 meters in front of the pack followed shortly by the ASU pack and the Mines pack. Roughly halfway through the race, with Phil Schneider and Derek Alcorn from Mines out ahead of ASU’s Kevin Batt and Canon City product Tabor Stevens, it looked like Mines might have taken over the race.

ASU had other ideas in mind. A program with the clout of Adams State does not disappear easily in to the night. Over the second half of the course, Stevens and Batt continued their surge until they had overtaken everyone from Mines and eventually Butler from Western as well. Once they took over there was no question as to which two runners were going to cross the line first.

In the finish chutes, things got real interesting. With their 1-2 finish ASU had the early advantage, but Schneider, Alcorn, and Nathanael Williams from Mines went 3-5-6. The Grizzlies countered with Jack Espeset and Matthew Daniels in 7th and 8th. Mines responded next by completing their scoring with two Coloradans, Marty Andrie from Smoky Hill and Seth Topper from Colorado Springs Christian, in 13th and 14th. With five runners in first it looked like Mines day may have finally come. That was until ASU’s Chad Palmer, originally of Alamosa High School, ran across in a pack at 20th. The final tally was ASU 38, Mines 41.

On the close finish Mines Marty Andrie quipped, “After today we are still going to be hungry going in to nationals. We really want our first national title. Overall our school in all sports has never won a national title. We really want to be the first ones to do it.”

For those unfamiliar with the process of how teams advance from the South Central Regional race to the national championships, twenty teams compete and the top six advance to the national championships in Kentucky on December 6th.

Also advancing to nationals from Colorado is a very strong Western State team. Behind two Jeffco alums Ian Butler (Green Mountain) and Adam Sinda (Pomona), the Mountaineers finished third. Sinda added on his team’s performance, “Our race was very well done, very well executed. We had a plan to stick behind Adams and Mines and be confident together as a team and we had a general good tempo day, so I was very excited about the performance of the team. Going into Nationals we are confident in how we are racing, and we have a shot if we execute correctly.”

Only West Texas A&M broke in to the Colorado domination Saturday, finishing fourth to advance. Rounding out the Colorado contingent was University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in fifth and another Colorado team on the rise in recent years, Colorado Mesa. The Mavericks needed a huge day to propel past seventh-place Metro State and punch their ticket to Kentucky.

While the women’s race also had a high number of ranked teams in Adams State (2nd), Western State (6th), UCCS (11th), Midwestern State (17th), and West Texas A&M (21st), the race to the team title was not nearly as competitive.

ASU led wire to wire. The grizzlies, led by Evergreen alum Maura O’Brien, went 1-2-3-7-8 to finish with a scant 21 points and the regional title. Lauren Martin of Alamosa High School fame spoke on her team’s ambitions for the race: “Our plan was to run as a girls’ team and try to get us all together in the top five. We all still ran really well, and we were able to achieve what we wanted to.”

Martin is also feeling pretty good about her team’s shot at a national title in two weeks. “I like where we are. Grand Valley has a really tough team, and they are going to be really hard to beat. But we are pretty tough too.”

The really big headline on the day was the dominating performance of the women’s teams from Colorado. Western State as expected finished second to advance to nationals. After the Mountaineers, the unranked women’s team from Mines rose to third. Unranked Metro State, racing on their home course, advanced in fourth. UCCS finished fifth, and, perhaps in the upset of the day, unranked Colorado Mesa upended Midwestern State and West Texas A&M to advance their women’s team to nationals. This will be the first trip to nationals for the CMU program on the rise.

For those who follow or coach cross country in the Centennial state, the best part of Saturday was seeing the vast number of Colorado high school alumni forming new teams and pursuing collegiate running careers at the highest level. One example of that, Heather Bates, a former 5A state champion and now running for UCCS, articulated on her team’s advance to nationals, “I really have learned to appreciate my teammates. I have learned so much from them. It has been so much fun. Now we are moving on to nationals, and I can’t wait to be there with them.”

With so many high powered Colorado teams advancing to nationals, it looks like there is going to be a decent pile of NCAA hardware residing in our great wide rectangle very soon.

Top 20 Colorado Finishers - Men

Place	Name	Team	Time	High School
2	Tabor Stevens	Adams State	31:45	Canon City
4	Ian Butler	Western State	31:57	Green Mountain
11	Adam Sinda	Western State	32:38	Pomona
12	Daniel Vavrik	Colorado Mesa	32:39	Arapahoe
13	Marty Andrie	Colorado Mines	32:41	Smoky Hill
14	Seth Topper	Colorado Mines	32:43	Colorado Springs Christian
17	Michael Cernoia	Western State	33:03	Pueblo West
18	John Patterson	Western State	33:07	Fort Collins
20	Chad Palmer	Adams State	33:10	Alamosa
24	Dan Mahoney	Colorado Mines	33:26	Jefferson Academy
28	Dominic Cabada	Adams State	33:32	Boulder
29	Eli Hemming	Metro State	33:34	Ponderosa
30	Jackson Sayler	Adams State	33:37	Evergreen
34	Luke Dakin	UCCS	33:44	Monarch
39	Shane Niksic	Colorado Mesa	34:01	Conifer
43	Matt Winfrey	UCCS	34:05	Arapahoe
46	Michael Warburton	Metro State	34:08	Ponderosa
47	Blake Graf	Colorado Mesa	34:08	Mountain Vista
48	Alex Nelson	UCCS	34:10	Arvada West
51	Mitchell Klomp	UCCS	34:25	Pueblo South

Top 20 Colorado Finishers - Women

Place	Name	Team	Time	High School
1	Maura O'Brien	Adams State	22:15	Evergreen
3	Lauren Martin	Adams State	22:31	Alamosa
4	Heather Bates	UCCS	22:31	Pine Creek
6	Cali Antolini	Western State	22:59	Mesa Ridge
7	Tayler Warren	Adams State	23:00	Evergreen
8	Melissa Roberts	Adams State	23:00	Lyons
9	Torie Weprin	Western State	23:01	Centaurus
15	Amy Penn	Western State	23:14	Liberty
16	Breanna Hemming	Metro State	23:22	Ponderosa
18	Maddie Kruger	Fort Lewis	23:31	Lewis-Palmer
20	Molly Reicher	Colorado Mines	23:40	Mountain Vista
23	Samantha Bauer	UCCS	23:41	Liberty
33	Hanna Barringer	Colorado Mines	23:08	Chaparral
34	Jamilah Rashid	Metro State	23:09	Abraham Lincoln
35	Katherine Judge	Fort Lewis	24:09	Niwot
37	Kirsten Farquhar	Colorado Mines	24:12	Rampart
38	Emily Bryant	Fort Lewis	24:27	Pagosa Springs
47	Tess Skoe	Colorado Mesa	24:30	Montrose
55	Molly Klotz	UCCS	24:45	Longmont
56	Brooke Genovese	Colorado Christian	24:45	Grandview