Women Win Cowboy Jamboree, Men Place Third

STILLWATER, Okla. — The Colorado women's cross country team stampeded to victory at Oklahoma State's Cowboy Jamboree Saturday morning, placing seven runners in the top 12.
 
The Buffaloes, who are currently ranked eighth in the USTFCCCA Poll, scored 30 points in the team race with their five scoring runners all placing in the top 10. The runner-up, Oklahoma State, recorded 35 points as the No. 23 team in the country.
 
The men's team also did well and recorded a third-place finish behind Northern Arizona (41) and OSU. The Buffs and Cowboys both recorded 64 points but after the tiebreaker, the Buffs moved to third.
 
CU's men entered the meet ranked 12th overall behind top-ranked NAU and sixth-rated OSU. Tulsa was ranked higher than the Buffs heading into the race at eighth and finished fifth behind Texas, which is receiving votes in the poll.  
 
WOMEN'S RACE:
The CU women ran a very nice race. The Buffaloes were always in the front of the pack with a group of OSU runners and just seemed to be very comfortable. CU and OSU were by far the best two teams in the field as the third-place team, Utah Valley, recorded 114 points.
 
"In this field, we would have been disappointed to not be very high up," head coach Mark Wetmore said. "It was not a very deep field. The Oklahoma State women were a little better than what we thought and were probably beating us with a kilometer to go but some of our women came up well on the final hills and we got the win.
 
"We ran times that are faster than what I expected us to, which is a little confusing because the grass is full and it was a hot day. But Coach (Heather) Burroughs and I will go home and pour over the results. Overall it was a good day. It was what we needed."
 
CU was led by redshirt Emily Covert for the second consecutive race. She finished third overall in 20:39.6.
 
"Emily has worked very hard in the last year and a half to battle back into good shape," Wetmore said. "She is not into her best yet, not the best she has in her, but her work ethic, her patience and her vision will have her in a very good place in six weeks."
 
The Cowboys took three of the top four places. Taylor Roe won the 6-kilometer race in 20:25.9 and Gabby Hentemann was second in 20:36.8. Behind Covert was OSU's Molly Born in fourth (20:41.1).
 
But five of the next six positions belonged to the Buffs. Abby Nichols, who was running her first race of the season, finished fifth (20:47.1) and India Johnson was sixth (20:54.8). Rachel McArthur crossed the finish in seventh (20:59.4) and was followed by OSU's Kelsey Ramirez, who took eighth (21:09.7) and broke up CU's pack. Kaitlyn Barthell was CU's fifth scorer, finishing ninth in 21:19.0 and Hannah Miniutti took 10th overall for the Buffs (20:20.3). Annie Hill was CU's seventh runner, finishing 12th (21:27.7).
 
This was the first time Johnson and Miniutti raced in uniform for the Buffs and Wetmore was happy with their performances.
 
"I'm very pleased with them in uniform for the first time," he said. "India is a graduate transfer student from Michigan State. She was a good runner for them and is a good runner for us. Hannah is a true freshman. We are always a little reluctant to break them out, but there is a space in our team after about eighth and we run 10 at conference, so Heather and I put our heads together and concluded it was time to suit her up. She lived up to our aspirations."
 
MEN'S RACE:
The men's field was tougher and despite losing the tiebreaker, it is still a good showing for the first races of the season for the CU men.
 
"This is a good outcome for this race," Wetmore said. "We came in as the fourth-ranked team; Oklahoma State and Tulsa were both ranked ahead of us. NAU is really good."
 
It was not a surprise to see Eduardo 'Lalo' Herrera leading the Buffs individually. He finished as the runner-up in the loaded field, finishing his 8k race in 23:36.8.
 
"He is back where he was a year ago, maybe a little bit ahead of where he was a year ago," said Wetmore. "He's been training really hard. He was patient today. The front guy is running in his hometown, so Lalo just let him go this time. They'll face each other a few more times."
 
Isai Rodriguez won  
 
Finishing behind him were some new faces for the Buffs. Brendan Fraser was eighth to record a top-10 finish in 23:55.3 and Stephen Jones was 12th (24:02.1). Andrew Kent was fourth for the Buffs, finishing 20th in 24:13.1 and Charlie Sweeney rounded out CU's score, placing 23rd (24:21.8). All four made their CU cross country debuts in this race and it was a pretty good debut for each.
 
"Brendan Fraser was brilliant," Wetmore said. "Stephen Jones, Andrew Kent and Charlie Sweeney were good for us. There are a couple of little things to fix and we're going to be an even better team in six weeks."
 
UP NEXT: The Buffs will be back in action on October 15 for the NCAA Pre-National Invitational in Tallahassee, Fla.  
 
"Now we disappear into a block of hard work," Wetmore said.
 
 
Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree
Stillwater, Okla. (OSU Cross Country Course)
 
Men's Race (8k)
Team Results
1. Northern Arizona 41; 2. Oklahoma State 64; *3. Colorado 64; 4. Texas 98; 5. Tulsa 125; 6. Unattached – OSU 175; 7. Unattached Colorado 204; 8. Utah Valley 205; 9. Kansas State 294; 10. Incarnate Word 360; 11. Texas Tech 363; 12. Northwest Kansas 367; 13. UT-Arlington 385; 14. Oklahoma City 391; 15. Oklahoma 434; 16. Oklahoma Christian 444; 17. Kansas City 540; 18. Clarendon College 578.
*lost tiebreaker
 
Individual Results (Top 10 Individuals)
1. Isai Rodreguez, OSU, 23:05.77; 2. Eduardo Herrera, CU, 23:36.80; 3. Abdihamid Nur, NAU, 23:40.31; 4. Nico Young, NAU, 23:41.27; 5. Drew Bosley, NAU, 23:44.13; 6. Alex Maier, OSU, 23:45.73; 7. Haftu Knight, Texsa, 23:54.20; 8. Brendan Fraser, CU, 23:55.28; 9. Yaseen Abdalla, Texas, 23:57.46, 10. Victor Shitsama, OSU, 23:58.55.
 
Individual Results (CU Athletes Only)
12. Stephen Jones, 24:01.02; 20. Andrew Kent, 24:13.04; 23. Charlie Sweeney, 24:21.77; 33. Ethan Powell, 24:38.16; 38. Alex Hornecker, 24:53.71; 42. Hunter Appleton, 25:03.26; 49. Josh Torres, 25:15.35; 61. Noah Hibbard, 25:26.83; 94. Paxton Smith, 26:14.39; 129. Jonathan Horton, 27:04.45.
 
Unattached CU Runners:
35. Austin Vancil, 24:43.57; 45. Charles Robertson, 25:08.20; 47. James Overberg, 25:10.60; 54. Shaw Powell, 25:19.65; 56. Kashon Harrison, 25:20.75; 62. Alex Baca, 25:27.15; 75. Lukas Haug, 25:43.57; 90. Zack Gacnik, 26:06.64; 99. Ryan Lindrud, 26:20.78; 101. Jake Derouin, 26:22.39; 104. Grady Rauba, 26:25.12; 105. Josh Medina, 26:27.91; 113. Charles Welch, 26:38.99; 142. Ben Green 27:43.51
 
 
Women's Race (6k)
Team Results
1. Colorado 30; 2. Oklahoma State 35; 3. Utah Valley 114; 4. Tulsa 127; 5. Unattached – OSU 155; 6. Texas 166; 7. Kansas State 188; 8. SMU 192; 9. Incarnate Word 299; 10. Texas Tech 313; 11. Kansas City 349; 12. Arkansas Tech 351; 13. UT-Arlington 372; 14. Oklahoma 383; 15. Oklahoma Christian 423; 16. Oklahoma City 426.
 
Individual Results (Top 10 Individuals)
1. Taylor Roe, OSU, 20:25.88; 2. Gabby Hentemann, OSU, 20:36.73; 3. Emily Covert, 20:39.58; 4. Molly Born, OSU, 20:41.58; 5. Abby Nichols, 20:47.05; 6. India Johnson, 20:54.75; 7. Rachel McArthur, 20:59.31; 8. Kelsey Ramirez, OSU, 21:09.63. 9. Kaitlyn Barthell, 21:18.97; 10. Hannah Miniutti, 21:20.25.
 
Individual Results (CU Athletes Only)
12. Annie Hill, 21:27.64; 19. Elizabeth Constien, 21:45.87; 36. Alisa Meraz-Fishbein, 22:46.08; 39. Carley Bennett, 22:49.24; 50. Anna Shults, 23:2.74; 65. Bailey Nock, 23:35.98.
 
Unattached CU Runners:
41. Bella Longo, 22:51.79; 53. Karina Anderson, 23:07.31; 54. Camille Jackson, 23:15.02; 59. Whitney Valenti, 23:25.95