RamWire: Rams Intent on Closing the Gender Gap

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The setting would be considered odd for some.

Then again, there are long stretches of dirt to run on, perfect for Colorado State's cross country team. And the tall trees provide ample shade, welcomed on a late September morning in Fort Collins with the temperatures already in the 80s and climbing.

Sure, there are tombstones at Grandview Cemetery at the end of Mountain Avenue, but the runners don't seem to mind. They're not even alone, as others from the community have found the spot to be a place to put in a good workout.

Then again, the setting may be more than apt for the Rams as they head into the 2019 season, because both genders have some ideas about them they'd like to put to rest.

The men, who are coming off successive ninth-place finishes at the NCAA Championships, open the year ranked No. 17 in the USTFCCCA preseason poll. With the loss of some top runners, some outside the program don't see the same team.

The women aren't ranked nationally, and just ninth in the Mountain Region. The Rams haven't qualified for the NCAA Championships since 2008. Obviously, no one outside of the program sees much coming.

The attitude shared by all the Rams: We'll see.

If anybody, the men would have a reason to feel mocked, in some regards. And while Coach Art Siemers sees a squad which carries the same type of potential, he's also starting to see it with his women's team. He'd like to bury the notion this is a program fueled by one gender, too.

So, on the paths of the cemetery, he trains them all. The men run first, the women second, but they do the same workout. They don't run together, and the paces are different, but the idea is the same. When the Rams head to nationals this year, they'd like to do it as a full team.

"That's always the hope. You hope the success of the men will help translate to the women's program, because we train really similarly and we have a really good culture," Siemers said. "It does. We've won indoors and outdoors in both track and field, and our distance athletes are a big part of that.

"In cross country, one thing that is important is the depth of your team, and we haven't quite had the depth at 6K for the women. We've had some success, but the consistency hasn't been there. We've worked on that."

As the men take off down the path, the women wait their turn. When the men return – Siemers barking out times – they have a few minutes to catch their breath and watch. What they see the women doing is what they just did – come back in one big pack.

"Oh yeah. When I first got here, it was way different," senior Forrest Barton said. "The girls were all over the place, and there was like one good one. Now they're doing a giant pack in the workout. In the past, one girl would have been trying to race it, and this year, they're all working as a team. That will get them there."

So, about that depth.

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Siemers added quality recruits from high school, as well as a trio of transfers from bigger schools, bringing the numbers on the women's roster almost on par with the men. And the depth he added isn't found at the back of the pack, but challenging returner Lily Tomasula-Martin at the front, and she's loving the company.

"The girls who came in and the returners we have, that pack is so phenomenal," she said. "To have so many girls to work with … Even if you're hurting, it's like, they're still doing it, I better do it. That's an awesome mentality to have. I don't feel alone in it. It doesn't feel like I'm putting all of this in for me, I'm putting it in for these girls, and that makes all the difference."

As the women rest, they get to watch, too. They see how the men's team is working, and the concept is not lost on them.

Tomasula-Martin knows they are both doing the same sets. The workout plan is nearly identical. That alone tells her Siemers' plan works and can produce national dreams.

The men also show them something else, a very profound truth. The strength is in the numbers, and the training can produce very impressive results.

Take for instance how the men placed ninth at nationals in 2018. They had lost Cole Rockhold, the lone returning All-American, to injury. It was supposed to signal the end to a top-10 finish. Instead, it signaled Eric Hamer to do the incredible, go from the 80s the year before to an All-American finish in 18^th.

Barton witnessed it live, the third placer on the Rams. Now, guess who wants to make his own jump?

"I've been thinking about that every run on my own. When I'm with the group, I don't think about it," Barton said. "When I'm alone, that's all that's all that's going through my mind is All-American this year. When it's starting to stink, it's hot out and you're getting off work and you go to run 12 miles or something, it's what gets you out the door and gets you to a good place. I always joke with Eric I'm going to be 17^th, but I think I'll just shoot for All-American."

To Siemers, the entire day at nationals was the real lesson. It was great what Hamer did, but in his eyes, the whole squad accomplished a nearly unthinkable task.

Barton jumped more than 40 places over the final 4K of the race. They were at their best at the last day of the year when everybody had written them off.

Except themselves.

"Losing our No. 1 guy at the end of the year, the fact the rest of the team said 'no, we're still going to be a top-10 program … They didn't make excuses and they went out and executed," Siemers said. "All seven of them went out and ran their best races, and that's hard to do."

He has a determined Barton, as well as Maximilliano Martinez and Jacob Brueckman to lead the pack infiltrated by a large group of redshirt freshmen who watched and learned. Barton has faith a similar story can play out on a team he says has no true superstars, but a host of grinders with heart.

The women, they have their own version of an eye-opener in store. Ivy Gonzales is an experienced runner to help Tomasula-Martin set a pace for transfers Claudia Burgess, Sarah Carter and Lauren Offerman, as well as true freshman Ashlyn Hillyard, the Texas state champion.

"I think that we're going to come out and people are not going to see what they were expecting to see," Tomasula-Martin said. "That's exciting, because it puts us in a unique position to where we don't have any pressure, but we know we can do it. That's going to put us in a really good spot to surprise some people and have some really good races."

The plan is the same, and now, the makeup of the rosters are starting to look rather similar, too. Together, they go through the paces at various spots around Fort Collins, men and women, working together to reach their own goals.

They're starting to attack those workouts in a similar fashion, too. It's not always a cemetery where they run, but it does seem the perfect spot to plot their existence.

"We see it daily, and that's why we train together," Siemers said. "They run their own paces, but that's why we train the same places. We want that atmosphere that we have to float through. I think we do have the culture, too. It comes from the top athletes. It comes from the coaching staff, but it comes so much more from them."

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