http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/cu_cross_country/article/0,1713,BDC_2450_3544888,00.html
By Camera staff report February 13, 2005 SEATTLE â Facing high-level competition for the first time since the NCAA cross country championships, the Colorado distance runners launched an assault on the record book Saturday at the Husky Classic indoor meet, led by Brent Vaughn and Christine Bolf. Vaughn, a sophomore from Aurora, finished a close second to Wisconsin's Matt Tegenkamp in the men's 5,000-meter run, posting an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 13 minutes, 38.30 seconds that left him just 0.07 off Adam Goucher's school record. In the women's 5,000, Bolf battled with two-time NCAA 10,000 champ Alicia Craig on the way to a 21-second personal best of 15:56.56, the second fastest time in CU indoor history. "Racing in Seattle, like racing at Mt. SAC or Stanford during the outdoor season, is a really unique opportunity to run fast," said CU middle-distance coach Jay Johnson. "Nearly everyone in the events 800 and up set an overall personal best today or at least ran faster than they ever have for this time of year." In vaulting into second place on the all-time CU 5,000 list with a 39-second PR, Vaughn moved past Jorge Torres and Dathan Ritzenhein â and did it, for the most part, on his own. "Brent was really courageous in leading probably 90 percent of the race," Johnson said. "No one helped him out, and there must have been six Wisconsin guys running behind him in a line." The race also saw CU's Jon Severy (14:10.53) and Austin Baillie (14:13.95) record NCAA provisional qualifying marks and become the CU's seventh and ninth-fastest all-time indoors, respectively. Payton Batliner (14:17.38) just missed cracking the top ten. In the women's 5,000, Bolf tucked into the back of the lead pack through the race's early stages while Stanford's Sara Bei set a quick pace up front. At the two mile mark, Bei stepped off the track, and 600 meters later Craig began a long drive to the finish. Having worked her way through the field, Bolf gave chase and closed to within two seconds of the Stanford junior down the final straight-away. Craig (15:54.72) and Bolf easily bettered the automatic qualifying mark of 16:10 for next month's NCAA indoor champions in Fayetteville, Ark. "I wasn't expecting to run that fast at all," said Bolf, who now trails only Sara Slattery on the CU all-time indoor list. "I'm excited about running under 16 minutes, but I'm even more excited that I felt good doing it and that it wasn't an all-out effort." In the men's mile, sophomore Stephen Pifer fell just short of becoming the first Buff under 4 minutes indoors, running a PR and provisional qualifying time of 4:02.04 in a race marred by a sluggish second 400 of 63 seconds. The Buffs also had an event winner on the day in junior Bret Schoolmeester, who opened the men's 3,000 with a blistering 4:12 mile and held on to win in a provisional qualifier of 7:59.42. Pifer, doubling back with less than three hours rest, took 6th in 8:05.90. Freshman Hugh Charles also had a big day, bettering the NCAA provisional standard in the 60 (6.91) and long jump (24-51/2). ENDS
