Colorado State University Athletics
Quotes
5/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Outdoor Track & Field
May 17, 2008
CSU Head Coach Brian Bedard
Mountain West Conference track and field championships
Post-meet quotes
On the overall performance of the women, who captured CSU's first-ever championship in Mountain West Conference outdoor track and field:
"They really, really put it on the line. And that was from start to finish, really from the first event to the last. There was no let-up in these girls at all. They just kept the accelerator down and didn't look back. They were a really determined group. And I don't know if we could have had a more perfect meet. We scored everywhere we were supposed to, and then some. When that happens, it's really special, because we've been on the other end of it where maybe we missed an opportunity or two, and there was none of that.
"I told the girls afterward, `I don't know if you fully understand the importance of this. You've made history for Colorado State.' This is history. We've never won a conference championship on the women's side, in the WAC or the Mountain West Conference. I said, `This is history-making, and I don't know if you know the importance of that, but I do. I've been here 20 years and I've had to live through some tough performances at the conference meet, getting beat up by BYU and some of the other teams. This is big.'
"We may have had only an event or two where we didn't score a point. Almost every athlete scored for us. The team unity, and camaraderie, just the will to compete. I hate to single anyone out on this thing. I told them in the team meeting, this is a team effort. Although, Emily Pearson had a fantastic meet; she was the high-point award winner. Janay DeLoach, Katie Lloyd, our team leaders really stepped up and competed, and showed the younger athletes how to compete. That's what it takes."
On whether there was a point when he knew the women had clinched the championship:
"Well, probably right before the women's 5,000, we were up by 40, I think, at the point. We were in good shape then with only two events left. The pole vault was still going on and the 5,000 had just started, and we knew our women would do well in the 5,000. Heck, Kristen Hemphill went out and won that. So, it was pretty much a slam dunk at that point.
"We had a good feeling all along. We had a good lead after the first day of competition. We had a lot of folks in finals. You could just look across the track and see who was doing well, and that we were scoring quite a few points. I heard some of the other teams' coaches pretty much saying it was over. But you don't know until you look on paper and they tally everything up. We had a good indication looking at some of the results."
On highlights of individual performances:
"Missy Faubus, discus champion. Janay DeLoach, her performance throughout this whole meet as a team leader. She placed really well in the 100 (second), then came back and ran a leg of a mile relay. She had a really good meet here, a lot of points for us. Katie Lloyd scored in hurdles, scored in the high jump; she had a great meet for us. Again, that was the senior leadership stepping up. And Emily Pearson, high-point award winner, 26 points, she really stood out. Our 4x100 relay broke a school record and hit a regional mark. That was fun to see.
"Another highlight was our women's 5,000/10,000-meter runners, especially the 5,000 runners. They were running in probably 86 degrees, high humidity, tough conditions and they competed really well. Kristen Hemphill won that. That's definitely a highlight for us."
On men's team performance:
"We ran out of bullets. We had some outstanding performances on the men's side, just not enough of them."
On men's highlights:
"Drew Morano's performance, Ryan Friese getting second place in the 800. He was leading probably with 20 meters to go and, you know this is a kid that's a converted 400-meter runner, a triple jumper, running the 800 for the first time, and really running in a fast, fast final in the championships. The 800's pretty stacked in our conference. To see Friese almost win the darn thing, I thought that was a great effort. Nnamdi (Agwu) in the triple jump was second; that was a good effort there. Nigel (Joseph) placed third in the sprint hurdles and third in the 400 hurdles. That was a nice highlight for us.
On other individual awards earned by CSU:
"I got Coach of the Year, for the women. Pearson with the high-point award was the only other winner."
On plans to celebrate:
"We're just going to hop on a flight and get back home. We celebrated when they were handing out the awards. I did a little team speech at the end. Just a lot of thank yous, to our athletes and to my staff. I just really appreciate the effort they put in. I got a great staff. I'm really proud of them."
On what's next for CSU:
"We have an NCAA regional meet in two weeks (in Nebraska)."
On plans over the next few days:
"Most of these athletes worked so hard. We're just going to take some time off, get some rest, probably until Wednesday, when we'll get started again."