Buffs Close Out Season In Charlottesville

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Colorado cross country program competed in its final meet of the season at the NCAA Championships here Saturday morning at Panorama Farms. 

Two Buffs had All-American performances as the women’s team placed 19th with 446 points while the men’s team finished 25th with 551 points. 

NC State took the title by one point over NAU in the women’s 6K to start the morning while Florida’s Parker Valby won the individual title. In the men’s 10K, Oklahoma State won the team championship as Harvard’s Graham Blanks became the first ever Ivy League runner to win the men’s individual title.

Ella Baran led the Buffs with a 27th-place finish in 20:00.1. At the midway point, she sat in 82nd but made a huge jump in the next kilometer, jumping 33 spots to 49th. In the final stretch, Baran passed her teammate, Emily Covert, to finish inside the top-30.

Covert was Colorado’s leading runner for the first half of the race before Baran made her moves. She cracked the top-40 with one kilometer remaining, but dropped back down to 50 as she crossed the finish line. Covert managed to place 50th with a time of 20:12.6.

The only other Buff to finish in top-100 was Karrie Baloga who finished 82nd. She was followed by Katie Doucette in 175th and Samree Dishon in 218th to round out the Colorado scoring five.

In the men’s race, Austin Vancil did what he has done all season which is lead the Buffs across the finish line. He stayed in the 70-80 range for the majority of the race before he made a big push in the final two kilometers, moving up 29 spots. Vancil ended up finishing in 39th in 29:50.3.

The next four Colorado men to finish all came in a similar bunch. Noah Hibbard placed 142nd and was followed by Paul Stafford in 152nd, Isaiah Givens in 164th and James Overberg in 178th.

Both the men’s and women’s teams ultimately finished two spots lower than their rankings. 

RESULTS

WOMEN’S SCORING: 1. NC State 123; 2. NAU 124; 3. Oklahoma State 156; 4. Notre Dame 237; 5. Florida 268; 6. Tennessee 294; 7. Alabama 314; 8. Washington 323; 9. Arkansas 329; 10. Oregon 335; 11. Lipscomb 353; 12. Stanford 357; 13. Utah 375; 14. BYU 399; 15. Virginia 400; 16. Michigan State 410; 17. CBU 414; 18. Georgetown 419; 19. Colorado 446; 20. Iowa State 458; 21. Ole Miss 459; 22. Wisconsin 487; 23. Utah Valley 501; 24. Furman 503; 25. Harvard 504; 26. Boston College 567; 27. Syracuse 591; 28. Providence 619; 29. Colorado State…