2000 Men's Cross Country Season in Review

With a pair of talented seniors leading the way, the Nebraska men's cross country team made its mark in Husker history in 2000. Not only did the team finish in the top half of an extremely competitive conference, but the Huskers also qualified for the national meet for the first time since 1997.

"The men really had a fine finish by qualifying for the NCAA Championships," Coach Jay Dirksen said. "Going into the season, they were a team that was a little bit hard to figure out just how good they would be, because we were pretty young and we had a lot of question marks about how we would do."

Dirksen knew he had a special runner in senior Marcus Witter, a proven competitor and the Huskers' top runner the previous season. What Dirksen didn?t know was how much or how quickly the rest of the squad would improve.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how quickly senior Aaron Carrizales transformed from a solid runner to one of the top runners in the region.

"He had shown some indication as a junior that he might run well as a senior,? Dirksen said, ?but I don?t think anybody would have guessed he would run as well as he did."

Carrizales improved by leaps and bounds in 2000. Free of nagging aches and pains that plagued him early in the season, Carrizales quickly moved up in the Husker lineup, highlighted by a sixth-place finish at the regional meet, the highest finish by any Husker.

"To beat Marcus, who was our number one runner the year before, that really shows how much improvement he made," Dirksen said.

However, the Huskers' greatest strength may have been the improvements each runner made throughout the season.

"Our team just kept improving and they were a pretty decent team at the end of the season," Dirksen said.

The Huskers started the season with a strong showing at their only home meet, the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational on Sept. 16. Although Air Force edged NU for the meet title, the performance of several Huskers left Dirksen optimistic about the season. Highlighting the event was Kyle Wyatt?s 17th-place finish, the highest finish by a Husker freshman since Witter?s 13th-place finish in 1997.

A week later, Nebraska traveled to St. Paul, Minn., for the Roy Griak Invitational. Competing against nine ranked teams, including 1999 NCAA runner-up Wisconsin, the Huskers fought to an 18th-place finish among 31 teams.

After a week's rest, Nebraska hit the road again, traveling to Orono, Maine, to compete in the Murray Keatinge Invitational on Oct. 7. With five runners finishing among the top 10, the Huskers tallied 31 points en route to their first meet title of the season.

Several Huskers had strong showings, including Witter, who finished the five-mile course in 23:57.2 to claim runner-up honors. Witter was honored by the conference as the Big 12 Runner of the Week, the second such honor in his career. Another Husker who continued to impress was Mike Kamm. For the third straight meet, Kamm was the second Husker to cross the finish line, completing the Maine course in 24:37.7 to finish third, earning the highest individual finish of his career.

In preparation for the national meet, which would be held on the same course, the Huskers headed to Ames, Iowa, to compete in the Memorial Classic hosted by Iowa State. The meet featured many of the nation?s best runners, highlighted by six teams with top 10 rankings in the 53-team field.

With a 16th-place finish, Nebraska confirmed that it could indeed compete on the national stage, and the team was rewarded with its first national ranking of the season, cracking the polls at No. 23. Several Huskers also participated in the B race, where Eric Rasmussen and Paul Wilson both finished among the first 40 competitors.

In light of their performance at the pre-NCAA meet, the Huskers entered the Big 12 Conference meet at Colorado with a newfound confidence. As was the case for much of the season, Witter and Carrizales led the Huskers, by finishing within three seconds of each other, in 11th and 13th place, respectively.

"We had a strong 1-2 punch up front and that really helped us as the year went on," Dirksen said. "As our younger athletes got better, Marcus and Aaron carried us up front."

Nebraska was also bolstered by the performance of several underclassmen, including Jed Barta, who ran one of his strongest races of the season in Boulder. The third Husker to cross the line, Barta finished behind only Witter and Carrizales, helping Nebraska to a fifth-place finish overall.

Although several athletes ran well, Dirksen felt the Huskers could have placed among the top four. The team used the disappointing finish as motivation for the NCAA Midwest Region meet, which would determine whether or not the Huskers would compete at the national meet. The top two teams from each of nine regions would earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. Thirteen at-large teams would also be chosen to compete.

With the season on the line and with one last chance to participate in an NCAA Championship meet, Nebraska?s seniors stepped up by finishing within two seconds of each other. Unlike previous meets, it was Carrizales who was the first Husker to cross the line, finishing sixth and securing an individual berth to the championship meet. Witter crossed the line in seventh-place, the highest individual finish of his career in a postseason competition.

In addition, the Huskers third through fifth runners finished within nine seconds of each other, helping the Huskers to a fifth-place team finish. Although the team's finish didn't appear to be enough to extend its season, Dirksen was pleased with the team?s performance, especially the race Ian Gray put together. Usually among the Huskers' top five runners, Gray was able to stay with the lead pack for four kilometers, indicating to Dirksen that in time, Gray had the potential to be among Nebraska's lead runners.

Dirksen and the team left the meet thinking their season was over. Although Carrizales' sixth-place finish guaranteed him a place at the national meet, the team's fifth-place finish did not appear to be enough to extend its season. But after analyzing the results of the other regional meets, Dirksen believed his team had accumulated enough wins over ranked teams to garner a place at the national meet, so it wasn't a huge surprise when he received a phone call from the NCAA selection committee informing him of Nebraska's inclusion. Nebraska was one of five Big 12 teams to qualify for the national meet, a clear indication of the strength of the conference.

"That means you"re a pretty good team when you get that far down in the region and still have a good enough record against common opponents to get an at-large bid," Dirksen said. "A lot of teams are misled by looking at our conference finish and even our regional finish, as to how good we were. This is traditionally one of the strongest conferences in the nation and a lot of people were shocked that we even qualified for the national meet. There was probably a little luck involved there, being at the right meets and defeating the right people."

Three years had passed since Dirksen last accompanied a men's team to the national meet, when All-American Cleophas Boor helped the Huskers to an 11th-place finish. Battling frigid temperatures and gusting winds, the Huskers finished 26th in 2000, becoming only the eighth Nebraska team to participate in an NCAA meet.

"Our strength was that we made big improvements throughout the season and we had two top runners up front," he said. "The thing that probably helped us the most was having two guys that were really high at the end of the year."

Although Nebraska lost some talented seniors, the Huskers' return five runners with valuable NCAA experience, which should help the team in its quest for a second consecutive NCAA berth.