FOUR-PEAT

All of those four fingers raised by members of the CU Men's Cross Country Team signify their fourth straight PAC-12 Championship!  The success of Coach Mark Wetmore's teams over the years rivals that of the legendary John Wooden.  And for such outstanding accomplishments, the Boulder Daily Camera devoted a very short blurb with no pictures, no names, not much of anything - you will be reading a lot more here than in the local paper.  And an equally egregious irritation is the ridiculous amount of ink given to the CU Football team that is win less in the PAC-12, and with a grand total of 2 overall wins this season and no hope for another.

Here are some clips from the PAC-12 coverage of the Championship:

OAKLAND, Calif. – With all five of their scoring runners crossing the finish line in the top eight, the top-ranked COLORADO men captured their fourth-consecutive Pac-12 Men’s Cross Country title in Oakland on Friday morning at the Metropolitan Golf Links.

The defending NCAA and Pac-12 Champion Buffs scored 30 points to win the league crown. Colorado has been ranked the No. 1 team in the country all season, receiving all first-place votes each week. It is the first time since STANFORD won six in a row from 2000-05 a team has claimed four-straight league titles.

“I’ve been at this long time and we’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of good things happen to us,” said Colorado head coach Mark Wetmore said. “It feels great, but I always put it in big perspective and know that we have more work to do in the next couple of weeks … They had a great run and I'm really happy with them.”

The top-two individual men’s finishers were Ducks, with Eric Jenkins crossing in second place with a time of 23:34, behind Cheserek’s winning time of 23:23. The Cardinal’s Joe Rosa was third with a time of 23:37, and the next five runners were Buffs: Blake Theroux (4th, 23:42), Connor Winter (5th, 23:44), Ammar Moussa (6th, 23:49), Pierce Murphy (7th, 23:53) and Ben Saarel (8th, 23:54). Stanford’s Maxim Korolev (23:56) and Cal’s Chris Walden (23:57) rounded out the top 10, placing ninth and 10th, respectively.

MEN’S RESULTS

1. Colorado 30
2. Oregon 57
3. Stanford 60
4. Washington 87
5. UCLA 168
6. Arizona State 182
7. California 189
8. Arizona 206
9. Washington State 224

INDIVIDUAL MEN’S RESULTS
 
1. Edward Cheserek, ORE 23:23
2. Eric Jenkins, ORE 23:34
3. Joe Rosa, STAN 23:37
4. Blake Theroux, COLO 23:42
5. Connor Winter, COLO 23:44
6. Ammar Moussa, COLO 23:49
7. Pierce Murphy, COLO 23:53
8. Ben Saarel, COLO 23:54
9. Maxim Korolev, STAN 23:56
10. Chris Walden, CAL 23:57