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Josh Rohatinsky wins the 2006 NCAA Cross Country title.
"Ever since Friday, people have been telling me, 'It's muddy, it's perfect for you,'" said University of Colorado coach Mark Wetmore, alluding to the 2004 NCAA Cross Country Championships at the same Terre Haute course, where mud and a soft course helped Colorado close strong in the last miles to upset favored Wisconsin for the title. "I don't know," Wetmore continued. "Boulder is a desert." After a near-repeat at this year's championship, including the mud, the favored Wisconsin squad, and the late Colorado victory, the Buffaloes' reputation for being "good in mud" will be hard to shake. Wetmore suspects a deeper reason. "There's no Jorge [Torres] on this team, no Dathan [Ritzenhein], no Adam [Goucher], or if there is, I haven't brought it out yet. Every team has their own necessity, due to their talent and how they train. We're pretty good at sticking to what works for us," he explained, alluding to Colorado's traditional altitude-trained late-race strength. "We can't go out in 4:25. We just have to hope we can bring it back from whatever our deficit is in the last two kilometers."
And with the course as soggy as it was, and already chewed up from the women's race, it was no surprise to anyone that the lead pack was large at halfway and remained so well into the second of two 5k circuits. When BYU's Josh Rohatinsky moved around the 7k mark, though, it was clear that even the relatively slow pace in the chopped-up ground was sapping the energy of the leaders. Rohatinsky broke the pack up immediately, with Stanford's Neftalem Araia covering the move and the rest spreading out behind. Rohatinsky pulled away from Araia in the last kilometer, and though Araia pushed hard to catch him in the final straight, "He was still pulling away from me," he said afterward.
"The first 4k or 5k, to be honest, I didn't feel very good," said Rohatinsky. "[BYU] Coach [Ed] Eyestone said he had a feeling something would happen around 7k. If I'm in contact with 2k or 3k to go, that's when I'm dangerous, and luckily for me, that's how it worked out. When we were coming around the last corner, I took a peek behind me and saw nobody was there. Then I took a peek on the straightaway, and saw Nef was 20 or 30 [meters] behind, and I told myself, 'Just don't fall down.'"
"For me, it gave me the confidence that I can win big races like this," Rohatinsky continued, saying his next major race would be the USA Cross Country Championships in Boulder in February.
In winning, Rohatinsky became the first NCAA Cross Country Champion coached by a NCAA cross country champion. Eyestone was BYU's last male champion, winning the meet in 1984.
Utah had a good day in the men's race, with third place going to Jess Baumgartner of Southern Utah University. So unknown reporters had to ask the spelling of his name, the junior explained that he had shadowed Rohatinsky in so many races this fall, he figured he would follow the same strategy in Terre Haute. When Rohatinsky and Araia broke away, he followed, splitting the gap between them and the chase pack. "I was chasing Nef, and I just ran out of room," he said. "I knew I could be up there," explained Baumgartner. "I'm excited for what will come next."
Colorado (94) upended Wisconsin (142) by 48 points, after many coaches in Sunday's press conference discussed their chances in an otherwise-even field where, Wetmore said before the race, Wisconsin was "half a head taller." Many observers pointed to the implosion of Wisconsin's track champion Chris Solinsky, who finished 73rd and scored 49 points for Wisconsin, as the biggest factor. But Solinsky would have to have placed first or second for Wisconsin to win outright. Moving Solinsky to first and leaving everything else the same subtracts 48 points from Wisconsin's score, but adds three as Solinsky displaces three of his own teammates, bringing Wisconsin to 97; Colorado would lose five points to score 99. To extend Wetmore's figure of speech, if Wisconsin was taller, Colorado stepped up.
The "even field" materialized in the lower places, with Stanford, Oregon and Arkansas finishing with 195, 196, and 196 points respectively; Iona, in third, had 172.
Posted by Parker Morse at 11:46 a.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2006 NCAA Cross Country