Wetmore Named Men’s National Coach Of The Year
NEW ORLEANS — University of Colorado head coach Mark Wetmore has been named the USTFCCCA Bill Dellinger Men’s National Coach of the Year after guiding the men’s cross country team to its fifth NCAA Championship since 2001.
This is the third time Wetmore has been named the national men’s coach of the year; he was honored in 2006 and ’13 after the Buffs won team titles. Wetmore also won the award twice on the women’s side after directing the CU women to the team crown in 2000 and ‘04.
CU’s men entered the meet as the top team in the country and lived up to the hype as it did all year. This edition of the Buffaloes is the first team in the 18-year history of the USTFCCCA polling archives to be unanimously ranked No. 1 for the entire season and win a national title.
A year after winning with the highest score in NCAA history, Colorado’s 65 points this year were the lowest in nine years. The Buffs placed all five of its scorers in the top 35, three in the top 10, to earn All-American honors. The team runner-up, Stanford, tallied 98 points and Portland was third with 175.
Junior Ammar Moussa led the team with a fifth-place finish, while sophomore Ben Saarel was seventh overall. Senior Blake Theroux was also in the top 10, finishing ninth. Junior Connor Winter was 24th overall and junior Pierce Murphy was 35th. Moussa and Winter earned their first All-American honors with the finish, while this is the second honor for Saarel and Murphy. Theroux became just the 11th Buff in CU history to earn the honor three times. Senior Jake Hurysz finished just outside of the top 40, 41st overall, and redshirt freshman Adam Peterman was 202nd.
Wetmore’s men’s teams have won five national championships in his 20 seasons as the head coach, more than any other program in that period. In total, he has led his men’s and women’s teams to a combined seven NCAA team titles. The 2014 championship is the 27th in CU history and the 470th in Pac-12 Conference history.