Rams head to Mountain Regional with Confidence

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The plan for Art Siemers and his team is simple on Friday.

"We have a goal, and that's to make it to the NCAA Championships, nothing short of that," the CSU cross country coach said. "We were ninth (in men's) the last two years in it, fourth in the Mountain Region and experience is going to be on our side."

The Colorado State men's and women's cross country team is preparing to enter the NCAA Mountain Regional on Friday in Salt Lake City. With a mix of experience from their nationally ranked men's team, paired with talented individuals such as redshirt senior Forrest Barton, the Rams are confident and feeling a sense of familiarity when competing against some of the top-ranked teams in the country.

"We can't get intimidated that the top three teams in the nation will be there," Barton said. "We compete against these teams every year, so we understand how tough our conference is, but we also know that we train at the same level. I think we'll be a lot closer with them than most people are expecting from us."

Barton and other leaders on the men's team, such as redshirt junior Jacob Brueckman, have been around campus since their freshman year and they understand what it takes to build a strong culture from within.

"At the end of the race it's always about the team over your individual performance," Brueckman said. "It's been important for us to get the message across to our young guys, expressing how much this regional meet means. We can't have soft leadership, and getting our freshman experience in the regional early in their careers will help us out in the future."

This team has created a strong foundation with a winning expectation, and they know how to hold a standard for excellence during the championship season.

After being ranked in every poll for the prior 27 weeks, then dropping out of the top 30 during week four of the season, the team took that quite personally. The Rams single-week tenure of not being nationally ranked ended quickly.

With Barton's low score and impressive second-place finish in the Mountain West Championships at Logan, Utah, he was awarded All-Mountain West first-team honors and was a large contributor in the Rams jumping 12 spots from No. 38 back up to No. 25 in the national poll.

"My mindset going into regionals is the same as the conference championship in Utah," Barton said. "I knew I had a chance to win conference, so I went out and gave it everything I had. Now that I know the team has a chance to make nationals, that's become my biggest focus and priority heading into Friday."

With the men's and women's cross country teams both seeing some advancement in the regional rankings these past few weeks, they're looking to put on a strong performance, and it's going to take everyone to reach their goal of qualifying for the season's final meet.

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