Junior Todd Gulizia was a bit surprised after the first mile of the conference championship on Saturday.
He was running in the top ten, and some of the best runners in the country were nipping at his heels.
“It was different than we expected,” he said. “We went out hard, and a lot of other teams stayed back.”
The Nebraska men’s and women’s cross country teams followed orders from coach Jay Dirksen, and both went out fast at the Big 12 championships in Columbia, Mo., Saturday. They were eventually passed by some of the premier runners in the conference, but they managed to hold on and achieve the goals both teams set going into the race.
The race was full of hills and mud that made for slow times — and all the more reason to get to the front of the race early, Dirksen said.
“I’ve always known that if you have to play catch up (in those conditions) it can be difficult,” Dirksen said. “You’re better off spending your energy early.”
The women finished fourth, and the men finished seventh. Lara Crofford, the highest-placing Husker on either team, finished 16th, one second behind a 15th place finish and being named all-conference for the third year in a row.
But Crofford said missing the personal goal was futile when compared to the team’s finish.
“Everybody had a part,” she said. “In order to do well, you can’t just have one person do well, and that’s what happened.”
Dirksen said he credits both the men’s and women’s team places on strong performances from the runners near the end of NU’s teams. For example, Brad Doering, Gulizia, Anthony Oberle and Jesse Adams placed 30th, 38th, 51st and 61st respectfully, and Dirksen said they all ran some of the best races of their careers.
“Both teams are running really well at the right time,” Dirksen said. “That’s the measure of a good team. They achieved everything they could’ve at this meet.”
David Adams, a sophomore and captain of the men’s team, was leading the field more than two miles into the race. Just before the halfway point, the pack of the best runners in the conference, led by the four Oklahoma State runners who swept the first four places, caught up to Adams. Dirksen said Adams held his own with that pack for about two kilometers before he slipped and rolled his ankle in the mud.
The mistake cost him a shot at being all-conference, Dirksen said. Adams finished 22nd with a time of 25:42.25, by far his slowest time of the season. However, the top four finishers from Oklahoma State were the only runners who broke 25 minutes.
OSU easily won the men’s race ahead of the Colorado runners, who, along with the Cowboys, entered the race ranked in the top five nationally.
Texas Tech had four runners in the top 15 and won the women’s race. Colorado was the runner-up in both races.
Crofford and Dirksen said the women’s team gained confidence in the mud to take into the regional meet in two weeks.
“It made it really hard, but everybody had to deal with it so I didn’t really care,” Crofford said. “Now we need to get ready for (the regional meet). A lot of the work is behind us.”
ryanboetel@dailynebraskan.com
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