http://www.thedailycamera.com/buffzone/sports/22ssrock.html
By Mike Sandrock The Daily Camera The Olympic Games are considered the pinnacle of sports for most athletes. There is, however, one race that University of Colorado head track coach Mark Wetmore says is more competitive than the Olympics. That would be the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, set for this weekend in Dublin, Ireland. Nearly all of the best runners in the world will be competing in Dublin, one reason why Wetmore is proud that two of his undergraduates, junior Jorge Torres and freshman Dathan Ritzenhein, will also be racing. "These are in my mind the most competitive distance races in the world on an annual basis," said Wetmore. "The greatest 300 distance runners in the world will be there, and so to have two schoolboys in it is exciting and also intimidating." Torres and Ritzenhein made the U.S. senior team by placing a surprising second and fifth in the U.S. winter cross country championships last month. Torres races Saturday in the men's short course (4k), while Ritzenhein, bronze medalist in the 2001 world junior race, competes Sunday in the 12k. There will be a further CU connection in Dublin. Ex-Buff All-American Clint Wells (now coached by Arturo Barrios) will join Ritz in the 12k, while locals Sarah Toland and Janet Trujillo, both coached by Wetmore assistant Jason Drake, made the team in the women's 4k. In addition, Boulder's Colleen De Reuck will race in the women's 8k along with 2001 Bolder Boulder champ Deena Drossin, and CU recruit Erica Odlaug (like Torres an Illinois multi-state champ) will race in the junior 6k. While professional runners De Rueck, Drossin and Wells were expected to make the U.S. team going to Worlds, Ritzenhein and Torres were not. The two took a break after leading Colorado to its first men's NCAA cross country championships last November, and since resuming training the pair have been doing mostly long-distance "base" work. "The outdoor season is our focus," explained Wetmore. "They agreed not to compromise their collegiate responsibilities and our preparations for outdoors." Yet Torres was outkicked by less than one second in the U.S. trials race, while Ritz beat some of the best American runners and ended up roughly just 20 seconds behind the U.S. "Big Three" of Alan Culpepper, Meb Keflezighi and Abdi Abdirahman, all 2000 Olympic 10,000 meter runners. The reason Wetmore values the World Cross Country Championships so highly is that in the Olympics, the best distance runners are split up among events ranging from 1,500 meters through the marathon. In Dublin, "this is all the best runners in the world in the most original and natural circumstances, racing in two races." In the short-term, the coach added, making the trip through seven time zones might hurt Torres and Ritzenhein. On a long-term level, however, the two will "get off the plane next Monday bigger guys. They will have stood on the starting line with the monsters of their craft, and they will have beaten some of them. They will look at collegiate opponents differently after that." There are at least a dozen elite runners in town who have raced in the World Cross Country Championships, ranging from former marathon greats Frank Shorter and Steve Jones to Barrios, Adam Goucher and Alan Culpepper. None however, made it to the senior races as undergraduates. And that, said Wetmore, "makes this a little special. I want Jorge and Dathan to enjoy the weekend; this will be one of the few times in their life where there is no expectations for success." ### http://www.coloradodaily.com/display/inn_news/SPORTS/sports02.txt By Colorado Daily Staff Reports Dublin, Ireland - Colorado cross country runners freshman Dathan Ritzenhein and junior NCAA runner-up Jorge Torres are veterans among collegians in the sport of cross country, but will be what head coach Mark Wetmore calls "school boys in comparison "when they take on the world's best at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cross Country Championships in Leopardstown here Saturday and Sunday. The only two collegians in the championships, and first in the last quarter century according to Wetmore, Torres will be running in the men's 4k short race on Saturday, while Ritzenhein will take on the men's 12k long race Sunday. The two advance to the World Championships by virtue of their finishes in last month's U.S. Championships in Vancouver, Wash. Ritzenhein, who will be competing in his second straight World Championships as he was third a year ago in the men's junior (19 and under) race, finished fifth in the men's 12k trials and will represent the United States alongside former CU All-American Clint Wells in the longest race of the championships. Torres was the individual runner-up at the U.S. Championships in the 4k, finishing just one second behind winner Tim Broe, who opted not to compete at Worlds. "For collegians to be in this race at all is extremely rare," said Wetmore. "These will be the greatest 300 distance runners in the world... on the planet," he emphasized. While Wetmore anticipates that the tandem to surprise a lot of runners in the field, he has realistic expectations to where he thinks they will finish in their respective races. "My aspirations are that they survive to race again someday. The objective of this race is a compromise for pure preparation for the outdoor season. " "They'll return to Boulder bigger runners having stood on the starting line with the best racers in the world." Regardless of where they finish, that would make them, in their own rite, two of the best racers in the world. ### ENDS _____________________________________________________________ Sign up for a 6mb FREE email from http://www.spl.at Join the buzz, chat with us! http://chat.spl.at _____________________________________________________________ Run a small business? Then you need professional email like [EMAIL PROTECTED] from Everyone.net http://www.everyone.net?tag
