Colorado left Verona with a pair of top-five team finishes and one standout performance that stole the day.
At the Nuttycombe Invitational on Friday morning, the No. 6 Buffaloes men finished second and the No. 16 women placed fifth, with Meshack Kipruto powering the men’s side by winning the championship race and resetting the standard on Nuttycombe’s Thomas Zimmer Championship Course. His time of 22 minutes, 30.1 seconds broke both the meet record and the 8K course record.
Kipruto’s run gave Colorado a clear headliner, but the rest of the men backed it up well enough to keep the Buffaloes firmly in the hunt. Isaiah Givens finished 14th in 22:52.2, Jake Liebert was 21st in 23:07.7, Lukas Haug took 26th in 23:12.1 and Jack Graffeo placed 31st in 23:16.0. Stephen Ndugu and Peter Bii also scored for Colorado, finishing 106th and 136th.
Colorado’s 93 points trailed only New Mexico, which won the men’s title with 59. BYU finished third with 146, followed by Arkansas with 208 and Florida with 221.
“The men were very good today,” Head Coach Sean Carlson said. “[Kipruto] as a true 19-year-old freshman winning this meet is incredibly impressive.”
The women put together their own solid showing behind Sheylah Kurgat, who led the Buffaloes with a seventh-place finish in the 6K championship race at 19:24.3. Adrianna Buitelaar came in 16th at 19:38.8, Abbey Mathison was 21st in 19:43.7, and Holly Barker finished 51st in 20:18.7. Bella Jacobsen, Jessie Secor and Emma Hoffman also crossed for Colorado.
West Virginia won the women’s team title with 66 points. Florida was second with 111, Northern Arizona third with 130, New Mexico fourth with 157 and Colorado fifth with 166.
“The women ran fantastic,” Carlson said. “We're really proud of where they are and where they continue to go.”
Colorado will next head to Stillwater, Okla., for the Big 12 Championships on Saturday, Oct. 31.
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