By now, you’ve probably heard what the Colorado men did over the weekend. Running at their home meet, the Rocky Mountain Shootout, the Buffs captured the top-6 spots in Boulder, seven if you count Morgan Pearson’s fourth place finish running unattached. At a race not contested against ranked D1 squads, the performance may not initially come off as impressive as it truly is. While everyone expects Colorado to dominate this meet, it is the manner that they did it on Saturday that has us saying ‘wow’. 

Check out the new Saucony Flo50 rankings. 

Boulder sits at 5,430 ft, so obviously the times won’t be as fast as those run at sea-level, but Mark Wetmore’s squad still had seven men under 25 minutes, ridiculous given the altitude. How ridiculous? Well, Blake Theroux’s 24:23 winning time was good for #3 all-time on the course, while Pierce Murphy (24:24) and Ammar Moussa (24:28) followed closely, running the #4 and #5 times ever, respectively. 

Excuse me while I wrap my mind around this. The Buffaloes peppered the record books on Saturday, and now five of the ten fastest Rocky Mountain Shootout times ever are held by members of the 2014 squad. The only two men who have run faster? That would be Jorge Torres (24:07) and Adam Goucher (24:12) both of whom were NCAA champions and Olympians.  

All this insanity had us wondering how the current Buffaloes compare to other great Colorado squads from the Mark Wetmore era. Under Wetmore, the Buffaloes have won titles in ’01, ’04, ’06, and 2013, with those first two teams scoring 90 points to take home the title. While Colorado won last year with 149 points, the highest winning score ever, this year’s team appears poised to claim the title of “Best Colorado Team Ever.”

The current Saucony Flo50 rankings has four Buffs in the top-25, that being Theroux (#6), Murphy (#7), Moussa (#10), and Ben Saarel (#13), with Morgan Pearson and Jake Hurysz coming just short of a top-25 ranking. Could the Buffs have five or even six runners finish as All-Americans in Terre Haute this year? They had four last year, and that was without 2012 All-American Hurysz. This team IS the best group Colorado has ever seen, and as Blake Theroux put it, “if other teams look at these results, they’re gonna be scared.” Here’s a comparison of Colorado’s 2004 National Championship team and this year’s aforementioned squad. 

2004 Buffaloes                                                   2014 Buffaloes (Projected)

1. Brent Vaughn (4th at NCAAs)                       1. Ben Saarel (9th NCAAs 2013)

2. Bret Schoolmeester (5th at NCAAs)              2. Blake Theroux (23rd 2013, #3 All-Time)

3. Jon Severy (21st at NCAAs)                          3. Morgan Pearson (17th NCAA XC)

4. Stephen Pifer (44th at NCAAs)                      4. Pierce Murphy (39th XC, #4 All-Time)

5. James Strang (49th at NCAAs)                      5. Ammar Moussa/Jake Hurysz  

Total = 90pts    

Basically, the 2014 Buffs are and will be the best Mark Wetmore team ever. With four returning All-Americans from last season and Jake Hurysz and a resurgent Ammar Moussa, this team could see six runners garner All-American honors this November. Our current Saucony Flo50 list has four Buffs in the top-25, but that should change after Pre-Nats, where we believe a minimum of five will find their way on the list. If Colorado can stay injury-free this season, they should destroy that 90 point total set by the ’04 squad, and go down as one of the best NCAA teams ever.