SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Oct. 29: Both Colorado men’s and women’s cross country teams celebrate winning their Pac-12 titles on Oct. 29, 2021, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by K. Mortensen/Pac-12 Photos via CU and Utah Athletics)
The Colorado cross country team traveled to Riverside, California, on Friday, Oct. 28, to compete in the 2022 Pac-12 Cross Country Championships. The women’s team defended their Pac-12 title and went back-to-back this year, defeating Utah in a tiebreaker that came down to the final 200 meters of the race.
Graduate student Bailey Hertenstein and junior Emily Covert remained neck in neck the entirety of the course, consistently switching leads. Near the 4k mark, Covert took the lead, with Oregon trailing close behind and Hertenstein in third. With 400 meters left in the race, Hertenstein passed senior Emily Venters from Utah to win the individual title. Hertenstein also set a new course record of 19 minutes, 11.3 seconds.
Teammate Emily Covert finished third in 19:23.8. Graduate student Ella Baran also claimed a top-ten finish after passing six runners to claim seventh in 19:33.3. Another notable finish to win the tiebreaker over Utah was graduate student Kaitlyn Barthell who finished 16th after passing another Utah runner.
After the race, Colorado and Utah were tied with 66 points. The NCAA has a policy for tiebreakers that is based on top comparable runners to decipher which team had the lower point total. Colorado had four of its top five runners crossing ahead of Utah’s top-4 runners, meaning CU’s top four runners equaled fewer points leading to the CU’s women claiming the Pac-12 Championship and the sixth Pac-12 title in program history.
Hertenstein’s final pass made it possible for the Buffs to come out on top of Utah and No. 9 Stanford.
“I don’t know that we’ve ever won an important race on a tied score and a tiebreaker in all my time at Colorado,” said head coach Mark Wetmore. “Bailey was down about 15 or 20 meters with 600 meters to go. Had that position not changed, we would have lost so not only did she catch the leader for the individual win, but she caught the leader to make the team win.”
The men’s team finished with 61 points which was too much, with the likes of Stanford having six runners in the top 10, leading to their impressively low point total. Stanford finished first with 22 points, followed by the Buffaloes and Washington, coming in third with 81 points.
Graduate student Andrew Kent finished fourth in 22:43.9. Throughout the race’s first half, the Buffs had seven runners in the top 20. Colorado finished with six runners in the top 20. Senior Austin Vancil finished in 12th in 23:07.6, followed closely by junior Noah Hibbard and graduate student Seth Hirsch. Hibbard finished his race in 13th at 23:12.6, and Hirsch finished in 14th at 23:13.6.
“We came here knowing that Stanford was very, very good. Knowing that we would need a miracle from us and a negative miracle from them. We didn’t get that. But we got a very good day for us,” said Wetmore. “A really good run for five or six of our guys. We know we’re better than 10th in the NCAA. We know that the women are better than 11th.”
The Buffaloes compete again in two weeks at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This competition will hopefully set the Buffaloes up to advance to the 2022 NCAA Championships.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Malaina Humphreys at mahu4741@colorado.edu.
