Against some of the fastest competition in the country, the Buffs women earned second and the men third in the “white races” at the NCAA Pre-Nationals Meet.
Sophomore Laura Tremblay, who finished 24th overall in the race last year, moved up 22 spots to become this year’s runner-up.
With a time of 20 minutes, 10.1 seconds in the 6-kilometer race, Tremblay was only two seconds behind the race winner, Stony Brook’s Lucy Van Dalen on Saturday morning.
Redshirt freshman Shalaya Kipp and junior Emma Coburn also ran well placing 12th and 14th, respectively. Coburn’s time of 20:40.7 was a personal record for the course by almost 40 seconds.
Also scoring for Colorado, were senior Laura Thweatt in 26th place and junior Katie Cumming in 69th. The women’s combined score of 123 points was good enough for second place, just 23 points behind first-place Georgetown.
On the men’s side, sophomore Joe Bosshard earned seventh overall with a time of 23 minutes, 49.1 seconds in the 8-kilometer course.
Junior Andy Wacker was close behind with a time of 24:07, placing 17th.
Sophomore Aric Van Halen and junior Christian Thompson also ran well, scoring for the Buffs in 22nd and 30th place respectively.
The Colorado men, with a combined score of 140 points, earned third place behind Oklahoma and BYU.
“I think we ran at least what we were hoping to; maybe even a little better,” said Head Coach Mark Wetmore in a news release.
While the varsity runners competed at Pre-Nationals, the developmental squad competed at the Fort Hays State Tiger Open in Fort Hays, Kansas on the same morning.
The women, earning second as a team, saw strong showings from sophomores Liz Tremblay, Courtney Bouchet and Nikki Look, who earned 10th, 12th and 13th place respectively.
The men’s team earned third place, led by Nathan Rice in 17th overall.
“We had some good stuff today in Terre Haute and in Fort Hays,” Wetmore said.
The Buffs compete next at the Big 12 Conference Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Saturday, Oct. 30.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Caryn Maconi at Caryn.maconi@colorado.edu.
