Move to Pac 10 not a big deal to CU track coach
Excited about what moving to the Pac 10 will mean for Colorado’s successful track and field team?
Neither is coach Mark Wetmore.
“It affects us less than a basketball team or a volleyball team that has a conference season,” Wetmore said this week before leaving for CU’s final Big 12 outdoor championships in Norman, Okla. “For us it changes the site of the conference cross country championship and the site of the conference outdoor (track) championship. The Pac 10, soon to be 12, doesn’t have indoor track, so we won’t go to an indoor conference championship anymore. For those couple of meets a year, the cities change.”
Well, I am excited about CU competing against traditional powers Oregon and Stanford in cross country. I’d love to watch CU compete in conference track championships at Oregon’s historic Hayward Field.
“The big change for us really is no more nine-hour bus rides,” Wetmore said. “Other than that, we’re leaving a very good distance conference and going into a very good distance conference. Arguably the Big 12 is better in 2011 than the Pac 10. I think when we move, the Pac 12 will be better.”
What about recruiting?
“People ask me that a lot,” Wetmore said. “I never really thought that it might change our recruiting. I suppose it might. There might be a California recruit that wants to be seen in his own market, so to speak, but I’ve never had any recruit ask me about it.”
Wetmore said the prospect of competing at Hayward Field may not be such a big deal to today’s recruits.
“An unusually knowledgeable collegiate distance runner knows that a lot of great things have happened at Hayward Field and knows that a good crowd turns out there.” Wetmore said. “But the days of 10,000 people turning out for the Oregon Twilight Meet are gone. We were there last week and it was pretty sparse.”
The conference cross country championships next fall will be hosted by Arizona State, and next year’s conference track championships belong to Southern Cal. CU is due to host the conference cross country championships in 2013.