Photo by: CUBuffs.com
Wetmore-Wednesday Top Races: Barringer and Nelson Take 2008 Beijing Games
July 15, 2020 | Cross Country, Track and Field
BOULDER – The Colorado track and field and cross country program has a special history, one that began to hit full-stride under head coach Mark Wetmore.
CU track and field and cross country will take a look back at every year under Wetmore and recap the best races and teams of every calendar year.
Every four years (unless a global pandemic strikes), the world comes together and sends its best to compete at the Olympic Games. Since Wetmore arrived at Colorado, CU has seen an uptick in current and former Buffaloes competing on the international stage. Since 2000, the Buffs have earned 19 berths, 11 women's and eight men's, for the United States in the middle and long distance events, more than any other collegiate program. The next closest program to CU is Oregon at 10. Stanford and North Carolina are tied with eight.
In 2008, five Buffaloes, former and current, earned the right to represent Team U.S.A. at the Olympic Games in Beijing. One of those five was Jenny Barringer, who had just finished her junior year with the Buffs. Another was Billy Nelson who had just completed his eligibility with the Buffs. Both made the Olympic team in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The other former Buffs to make the team were Dathan Ritzenhein (marathon), Jorge Torres (10,000) and Kara Goucher (5,000 and 10,000). The five Buffaloes are tied for the most in a single Olympiad as CU would also send five in 2012. CU assistant coach Casey Malone (discus) also made Team U.S.A.
ODDS ON FAVORITE
In 2008, Jenny (Barringer) Simpson was one of the favorites picked to make the Olympic team in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. It was the first year the event would be contested by the women at the Olympics and with her credentials, Simpson's name was always in the mix for the three coveted spots.
But as one knows, just because you are supposed to make a team or supposed to win an event doesn't always mean that will happen. That's basically how Simpson's 2008 outdoor season started. After finishing a longer than expected outdoor season in 2007, she ran a shorter cross country season. And with the Olympics approaching, the decision was also made to forgo the 2008 indoor season to focus on training for what was expected to be a longer outdoor season again.
She ran her second steeplechase of the season at the Big 12 Championships, which were held in Boulder that season for the first time since 1993. It was an exciting opportunity to finally get to race on the track in front of her professors, friends and teammates.
But it did not play out as she would have hoped. Simpson led for the majority of the race, but in the final 400 meters, she fell to second, which is where she would finish behind Texas Tech's Irene Kimaiyo.
Following the race, Simpson said, "My training for the last few weeks has had some unexpected interruptions but today, in my eyes, was a slight failure of will and this is why you treasure every victory because they don't come easily."
Looking back at it now, she says she gives the coaches a lot of credit for getting her past that moment.
"They are the ones who never made me feel bad about it or asked me what went wrong or why I didn't try harder," she explained. "From the moment I crossed the finish line, I never got a sense that they doubted one moment that I gave it my all and that things just didn't work out the way that we wanted them to. I was able to move on to the next race and get things back into gear."
And she did get things back into gear, winning her third straight NCAA Midwest Region title a few weeks later in Lincoln, Neb., and another berth to the NCAA Championships, which were held at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. Simpson, who was born in Webster City, Iowa, has always held a special place in her heart for Drake Stadium and its blue oval. This was the first time she would race there and it would be the start of a very special relationship which continues to this day.
As usual, Simpson cruised through the prelims at nationals and when the finals came around on June 13, she made easy work of that as well, setting the NCAA Meet, collegiate, stadium and CU records in the process with a time of 9:29.20. The mark was also the fastest run on American soil and the second fastest ever run by an American. She barely missed the American record of 9:28.75. It was also Simpson's second NCAA title in three seasons and she proved she could overcome the disappointments and letdowns of the past quite easily.
"NCAAs didn't feel burdened with the sense of having to make up for my sophomore year or conference earlier in the season, or having to match the expectations of anyone," she said. "I remember going into that race feeling really confident, really sure that all of my hard work had progressed in the right direction and that I was really ready for the most important day."
There was no time to rest though. This was not an ordinary year. It was back to work to prepare for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which would be held June 27-July 6 in Eugene, Ore. While so many around her had already placed Simpson on the Olympic roster, she still had to earn her spot. And that was something she knew she had to work for and wasn't going to take for granted. So much so that she made plans for that summer for an internship.
"I have always had a lot of confidence in my own ability to compete and train hard," she said. "That has always been a strength of mine. I know I can work hard enough and get there. I feel like the Olympics was the first thing that I wasn't fully confident in – to the extent that I had made summer plans kind of hedging against the possibility that I wouldn't make the team."
The prelims were on June 30 at Hayward Field. Simpson earned her way to the finals by running the fastest time of the night at 9:48.50. She entered the finals as one of six women with the Olympic 'A' Standard; any of which could take one of the three spots on the roster. It was a big moment, but she was going to be ready.
"It feels like the Olympic Trials is just a totally different ballgame," she said. "It was everything you ever want and hope for in a sport elevated to a level that is a fever pitch of pressure, hope and fear all mixed in together."
After a few rest days, it was time to return to the track on July 3. After months of training (years actually), her hard work paid off. She recorded a third-place finish, clocking in at 9:31.11, which was over seven seconds in front of the fourth-place finisher, to earn her spot on the Olympic team.
"I was totally prepared to run that day and to run hard and to run well and to make the team, but I was also prepared for the possibility or had spent some energy preparing for the possibility that I would be at home in the summer watching the Olympics on television," she said. "Everyone has different ways of coping with high expectations and enormous dreams, and that was my way of coping with it. I can't tell you how incredible and satisfying it was to not only make the team, but to go in the following week to my internship and tell them I had to leave because I was going to be racing at the Olympic Games."
A couple of days later, her collegiate steeplechase teammate, Billy Nelson (more to come) would join her on the U.S. Team.
"Making the team in 2008 was a huge thing for me personally as a competitor, but it was a huge period of growth in my life personally as it relates to being a teammate," she said. "It was incredible to make the team with Billy, but also to have the opportunity to share that sort of success with a teammate; it's just one of the treasures of success in my career that I got to experience that level of success alongside another person that deserved it and worked just as hard as I did. You don't get that in this life very often. You get to achieve the mountain top and sit and watch the view next to a friend. He and I will always have a special bond. And I thank him a lot and give him a lot of credit for my growth as a teammate having gone through that experience with him."
She would go on to place ninth in Beijing as the highest American while setting the American record (9:22.26), but it would only be the beginning. Simpson has since competed at the 2012 games in London and 2016 games in Rio, the later where she won the bronze medal in the 1,500-meter run. She is currently training for the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
HUNGRY FOR MORE
Running in the Olympics is a dream for so many. It's a dream that can only come true for a few.
Billy Nelson was one of those dreamers and he had a chance to make it a reality in 2008. As luck would have it, due to a couple of injuries in seasons prior, he had received a sixth-year of eligibility to race the outdoor track season in 2008. Since he had exhausted his eligibility in cross country and indoor track, it would give him time to focus on his fitness and get a good base for the season, which included running at the U.S. Olympic Trials after the NCAA season finished.
"It was always something that I wanted to do," Nelson said. "I knew I could run at the trials. Making the [U.S.] team was a stretch. It was my last competitive season in college so I knew that I wanted/hoped to run post-collegiately, and so the trials were going to set me up pretty good for that."
An accomplished 3,000-meter steeplechase runner, he was the reigning Big 12 Champion and was coming off a fourth-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Championships. With a solid base of training, 2008 was sure to be his year.
Nelson did not start racing that season until April and his first was a 1,500 at the CU Invite on April 12. The following week he made his season debut in the steeplechase at Mt. SAC, finishing seventh in 8:41.99.
The first real test of the season was the Big 12 Championships. As the reigning champion, it would be nice to repeat. But add in the fact that CU was hosting the meet and was in the running to win the team title, well, it made that race a little bit sweeter.
He did repeat, finishing in 8:53.84, which was a Potts Field record. His teammate, Pete Janson, the 2006 Big 12 Champion in the event, finished third. And those points helped the Buffs bring home their first Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship in front of the home crowd.
"Winning in front of the home crowd was huge," Nelson said. "We have the best running community as far as backing us. Other cities can argue their point, but we have a pretty great following and that was huge. That was one thing that set the tone for me moving forward."
As he moved forward, things kept clicking. Nelson won his first NCAA Midwest Region title a couple weeks later, earning himself a spot at the NCAA Championships in Des Moines. His confidence kept growing as the races kept getting bigger.
Nelson won his heat at nationals, clocking in at 8:44.77, which after the race, he said was "on par for him." With the win, he moved on to the finals, which would be his last NCAA race.
He ran a great race, but it was not quite enough to win as he finished 0.59 seconds to Arizona State's Kyle Alcorn. Nelson's time, 8:28.85, was a personal best and put him second on CU's all-time performers list.
Following the race, Wetmore said, "We hoped that he would contend for the win and he did. He ran a brilliant time and I and he wished he didn't let that gap open with 600 to go. Typically Billy can gun down almost anything but not quite that much."
Nelson also notes that the runner-up finish was a huge motivator for him. He got trapped on the inside rail a bit and could not get out. It made him miss the jump when Alcorn moved and Nelson ran out of real-estate at the end when he was trying to catch Alcorn.
"It left me hungry," he said. "I called my dad after that race and told him how it went. I said get your ticket ready for China because I am making the team. I just knew. I was that confident."
The U.S. Olympic Trials were two weeks later in Eugene, Ore. To make the team, Nelson would have to do three things. First, he would have to make the finals. Second, he would need to finish in the top three of the finals. And third, he would need to get the Olympic 'A' Standard (8:24.6) in either of those two races.
The prelims went well. Nelson finished third in his heat to earn an automatic qualifying spot for the finals. In doing so, he also recorded another PR (8:26.17). But knowing he was in a position to advance to the next round, Nelson shut it down in the home stretch, adding extra seconds to his time.
"I had never done that before," Nelson said. "That was one of those moments in your career where you know you are secured for the final and I just shut it down coming down the home stretch. I just missed the standard. After I got done, Heather (Burroughs) asked why I shut it down and I didn't even think about time. I wanted to be rested for the final, but it was all in the last 100 meters. I was kind of bummed."
So it came down to the finals. And as luck would have it, the finals were fast. Anthony Famiglietti took the field out quickly, as he was trying to secure the standard as well, and Nelson was right behind him. It did not take long for Nelson to realize they were going to finish above the standard on their current pace.
"We came through in 400 and 800 and even 1200 and we were well above the standard," he said. "So I knew at that point that I didn't have to race for time. I knew that time was going to be there."
Nelson, who had signed with Nike between the prelims and finals, stayed in close contact with the field and ran a very smart race. He closed hard and finished second to Famiglietti (by just over a second) and also got the standard with a PR of 8:21.47 to punch his ticket to Beijing.
Following the race, Nelson told the USATF, "Getting to the Olympic Trials was a big thing. Qualifying was good and making the finals was even better. My goal going into the race was to get the "A" standard and get a nice PR."
And with that, CU teammates were heading to the Olympics. Simpson and Nelson had trained together for the last few years and would continue to for the summer.
"Having Jenny there was awesome," Nelson said. "It was a huge, giant world stage. I had never done any international racing. I made the junior world cross country team, but this was the Olympic Games. We hung out every day for almost six weeks. It kept it calm and that it was just another race."
At the Olympics, Nelson finished 10th in his prelim heat and did not advance to the finals. But it was an experience he will never forget.
And all these years later, Nelson and Simpson are still close, partly due to the once-in-a-lifetime experiences from the summer of 2008 and the Olympic Games.
"There were years when we didn't communicate as much, like when I was training in Oregon and she was in the Springs, but we still stayed in touch," Nelson said. "She is Aunt Jenny to my kids."
Nelson is currently an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Buffaloes, working alongside of Wetmore and Burroughs. He will begin his 11th season with the program this fall. Simpson also serves as a volunteer coach with the program.
PAST TOP RACES:
2008: MEN WIN BIG 12 OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP
2007: VAUGHN WINS 3 BIG 12 TITLES; BARRINGER TURNS DISAPPOINTMENT INTO FIRST U.S. CHAMPIONSHIP
2006: BARRINGER'S STEEPLECHASE LEGACY BEGINS; MEN'S XC WINS SECOND NCAA TITLE IN THREE YEARS
2005: METIVIER WINS INDOOR 3K; SLATTERY TAKES 10K TITLE
2004: BUFFS WIN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
2003: RITZENHEIN RACES TO THE TITLE (FINISH VIDEO)
2002: TORRES CEMENTS LEGACY (VIDEO)
2001: CU MEN CAPTURE FIRST TITLE (VIDEO)
2000: KARA GRGAS-WHEELER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
1999: JAMES DAVIS 1999 4x400-METER RELAY ALL-AMERICAN
1998: ADAM GOUCHER 1998 CROSS COUNTRY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (VIDEO) (5,000) (3,000)
1997: ADAM GOUCHER INDOOR 3,000 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
1996: ALAN CULPEPPER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 5,000/ WOMEN'S BIG EIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
(VIDEO)
CU track and field and cross country will take a look back at every year under Wetmore and recap the best races and teams of every calendar year.
Every four years (unless a global pandemic strikes), the world comes together and sends its best to compete at the Olympic Games. Since Wetmore arrived at Colorado, CU has seen an uptick in current and former Buffaloes competing on the international stage. Since 2000, the Buffs have earned 19 berths, 11 women's and eight men's, for the United States in the middle and long distance events, more than any other collegiate program. The next closest program to CU is Oregon at 10. Stanford and North Carolina are tied with eight.
In 2008, five Buffaloes, former and current, earned the right to represent Team U.S.A. at the Olympic Games in Beijing. One of those five was Jenny Barringer, who had just finished her junior year with the Buffs. Another was Billy Nelson who had just completed his eligibility with the Buffs. Both made the Olympic team in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The other former Buffs to make the team were Dathan Ritzenhein (marathon), Jorge Torres (10,000) and Kara Goucher (5,000 and 10,000). The five Buffaloes are tied for the most in a single Olympiad as CU would also send five in 2012. CU assistant coach Casey Malone (discus) also made Team U.S.A.
ODDS ON FAVORITE
In 2008, Jenny (Barringer) Simpson was one of the favorites picked to make the Olympic team in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. It was the first year the event would be contested by the women at the Olympics and with her credentials, Simpson's name was always in the mix for the three coveted spots.
But as one knows, just because you are supposed to make a team or supposed to win an event doesn't always mean that will happen. That's basically how Simpson's 2008 outdoor season started. After finishing a longer than expected outdoor season in 2007, she ran a shorter cross country season. And with the Olympics approaching, the decision was also made to forgo the 2008 indoor season to focus on training for what was expected to be a longer outdoor season again.
She ran her second steeplechase of the season at the Big 12 Championships, which were held in Boulder that season for the first time since 1993. It was an exciting opportunity to finally get to race on the track in front of her professors, friends and teammates.
But it did not play out as she would have hoped. Simpson led for the majority of the race, but in the final 400 meters, she fell to second, which is where she would finish behind Texas Tech's Irene Kimaiyo.
Following the race, Simpson said, "My training for the last few weeks has had some unexpected interruptions but today, in my eyes, was a slight failure of will and this is why you treasure every victory because they don't come easily."
Looking back at it now, she says she gives the coaches a lot of credit for getting her past that moment.
"They are the ones who never made me feel bad about it or asked me what went wrong or why I didn't try harder," she explained. "From the moment I crossed the finish line, I never got a sense that they doubted one moment that I gave it my all and that things just didn't work out the way that we wanted them to. I was able to move on to the next race and get things back into gear."
And she did get things back into gear, winning her third straight NCAA Midwest Region title a few weeks later in Lincoln, Neb., and another berth to the NCAA Championships, which were held at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. Simpson, who was born in Webster City, Iowa, has always held a special place in her heart for Drake Stadium and its blue oval. This was the first time she would race there and it would be the start of a very special relationship which continues to this day.
As usual, Simpson cruised through the prelims at nationals and when the finals came around on June 13, she made easy work of that as well, setting the NCAA Meet, collegiate, stadium and CU records in the process with a time of 9:29.20. The mark was also the fastest run on American soil and the second fastest ever run by an American. She barely missed the American record of 9:28.75. It was also Simpson's second NCAA title in three seasons and she proved she could overcome the disappointments and letdowns of the past quite easily.
"NCAAs didn't feel burdened with the sense of having to make up for my sophomore year or conference earlier in the season, or having to match the expectations of anyone," she said. "I remember going into that race feeling really confident, really sure that all of my hard work had progressed in the right direction and that I was really ready for the most important day."
There was no time to rest though. This was not an ordinary year. It was back to work to prepare for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which would be held June 27-July 6 in Eugene, Ore. While so many around her had already placed Simpson on the Olympic roster, she still had to earn her spot. And that was something she knew she had to work for and wasn't going to take for granted. So much so that she made plans for that summer for an internship.
"I have always had a lot of confidence in my own ability to compete and train hard," she said. "That has always been a strength of mine. I know I can work hard enough and get there. I feel like the Olympics was the first thing that I wasn't fully confident in – to the extent that I had made summer plans kind of hedging against the possibility that I wouldn't make the team."
The prelims were on June 30 at Hayward Field. Simpson earned her way to the finals by running the fastest time of the night at 9:48.50. She entered the finals as one of six women with the Olympic 'A' Standard; any of which could take one of the three spots on the roster. It was a big moment, but she was going to be ready.
"It feels like the Olympic Trials is just a totally different ballgame," she said. "It was everything you ever want and hope for in a sport elevated to a level that is a fever pitch of pressure, hope and fear all mixed in together."
After a few rest days, it was time to return to the track on July 3. After months of training (years actually), her hard work paid off. She recorded a third-place finish, clocking in at 9:31.11, which was over seven seconds in front of the fourth-place finisher, to earn her spot on the Olympic team.
"I was totally prepared to run that day and to run hard and to run well and to make the team, but I was also prepared for the possibility or had spent some energy preparing for the possibility that I would be at home in the summer watching the Olympics on television," she said. "Everyone has different ways of coping with high expectations and enormous dreams, and that was my way of coping with it. I can't tell you how incredible and satisfying it was to not only make the team, but to go in the following week to my internship and tell them I had to leave because I was going to be racing at the Olympic Games."
A couple of days later, her collegiate steeplechase teammate, Billy Nelson (more to come) would join her on the U.S. Team.
"Making the team in 2008 was a huge thing for me personally as a competitor, but it was a huge period of growth in my life personally as it relates to being a teammate," she said. "It was incredible to make the team with Billy, but also to have the opportunity to share that sort of success with a teammate; it's just one of the treasures of success in my career that I got to experience that level of success alongside another person that deserved it and worked just as hard as I did. You don't get that in this life very often. You get to achieve the mountain top and sit and watch the view next to a friend. He and I will always have a special bond. And I thank him a lot and give him a lot of credit for my growth as a teammate having gone through that experience with him."
She would go on to place ninth in Beijing as the highest American while setting the American record (9:22.26), but it would only be the beginning. Simpson has since competed at the 2012 games in London and 2016 games in Rio, the later where she won the bronze medal in the 1,500-meter run. She is currently training for the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
HUNGRY FOR MORE
Running in the Olympics is a dream for so many. It's a dream that can only come true for a few.
Billy Nelson was one of those dreamers and he had a chance to make it a reality in 2008. As luck would have it, due to a couple of injuries in seasons prior, he had received a sixth-year of eligibility to race the outdoor track season in 2008. Since he had exhausted his eligibility in cross country and indoor track, it would give him time to focus on his fitness and get a good base for the season, which included running at the U.S. Olympic Trials after the NCAA season finished.
"It was always something that I wanted to do," Nelson said. "I knew I could run at the trials. Making the [U.S.] team was a stretch. It was my last competitive season in college so I knew that I wanted/hoped to run post-collegiately, and so the trials were going to set me up pretty good for that."
An accomplished 3,000-meter steeplechase runner, he was the reigning Big 12 Champion and was coming off a fourth-place finish at the 2007 NCAA Championships. With a solid base of training, 2008 was sure to be his year.
Nelson did not start racing that season until April and his first was a 1,500 at the CU Invite on April 12. The following week he made his season debut in the steeplechase at Mt. SAC, finishing seventh in 8:41.99.
The first real test of the season was the Big 12 Championships. As the reigning champion, it would be nice to repeat. But add in the fact that CU was hosting the meet and was in the running to win the team title, well, it made that race a little bit sweeter.
He did repeat, finishing in 8:53.84, which was a Potts Field record. His teammate, Pete Janson, the 2006 Big 12 Champion in the event, finished third. And those points helped the Buffs bring home their first Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship in front of the home crowd.
"Winning in front of the home crowd was huge," Nelson said. "We have the best running community as far as backing us. Other cities can argue their point, but we have a pretty great following and that was huge. That was one thing that set the tone for me moving forward."
As he moved forward, things kept clicking. Nelson won his first NCAA Midwest Region title a couple weeks later, earning himself a spot at the NCAA Championships in Des Moines. His confidence kept growing as the races kept getting bigger.
Nelson won his heat at nationals, clocking in at 8:44.77, which after the race, he said was "on par for him." With the win, he moved on to the finals, which would be his last NCAA race.
He ran a great race, but it was not quite enough to win as he finished 0.59 seconds to Arizona State's Kyle Alcorn. Nelson's time, 8:28.85, was a personal best and put him second on CU's all-time performers list.
Following the race, Wetmore said, "We hoped that he would contend for the win and he did. He ran a brilliant time and I and he wished he didn't let that gap open with 600 to go. Typically Billy can gun down almost anything but not quite that much."
Nelson also notes that the runner-up finish was a huge motivator for him. He got trapped on the inside rail a bit and could not get out. It made him miss the jump when Alcorn moved and Nelson ran out of real-estate at the end when he was trying to catch Alcorn.
"It left me hungry," he said. "I called my dad after that race and told him how it went. I said get your ticket ready for China because I am making the team. I just knew. I was that confident."
The U.S. Olympic Trials were two weeks later in Eugene, Ore. To make the team, Nelson would have to do three things. First, he would have to make the finals. Second, he would need to finish in the top three of the finals. And third, he would need to get the Olympic 'A' Standard (8:24.6) in either of those two races.
The prelims went well. Nelson finished third in his heat to earn an automatic qualifying spot for the finals. In doing so, he also recorded another PR (8:26.17). But knowing he was in a position to advance to the next round, Nelson shut it down in the home stretch, adding extra seconds to his time.
"I had never done that before," Nelson said. "That was one of those moments in your career where you know you are secured for the final and I just shut it down coming down the home stretch. I just missed the standard. After I got done, Heather (Burroughs) asked why I shut it down and I didn't even think about time. I wanted to be rested for the final, but it was all in the last 100 meters. I was kind of bummed."
So it came down to the finals. And as luck would have it, the finals were fast. Anthony Famiglietti took the field out quickly, as he was trying to secure the standard as well, and Nelson was right behind him. It did not take long for Nelson to realize they were going to finish above the standard on their current pace.
"We came through in 400 and 800 and even 1200 and we were well above the standard," he said. "So I knew at that point that I didn't have to race for time. I knew that time was going to be there."
Nelson, who had signed with Nike between the prelims and finals, stayed in close contact with the field and ran a very smart race. He closed hard and finished second to Famiglietti (by just over a second) and also got the standard with a PR of 8:21.47 to punch his ticket to Beijing.
Following the race, Nelson told the USATF, "Getting to the Olympic Trials was a big thing. Qualifying was good and making the finals was even better. My goal going into the race was to get the "A" standard and get a nice PR."
And with that, CU teammates were heading to the Olympics. Simpson and Nelson had trained together for the last few years and would continue to for the summer.
"Having Jenny there was awesome," Nelson said. "It was a huge, giant world stage. I had never done any international racing. I made the junior world cross country team, but this was the Olympic Games. We hung out every day for almost six weeks. It kept it calm and that it was just another race."
At the Olympics, Nelson finished 10th in his prelim heat and did not advance to the finals. But it was an experience he will never forget.
And all these years later, Nelson and Simpson are still close, partly due to the once-in-a-lifetime experiences from the summer of 2008 and the Olympic Games.
"There were years when we didn't communicate as much, like when I was training in Oregon and she was in the Springs, but we still stayed in touch," Nelson said. "She is Aunt Jenny to my kids."
Nelson is currently an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Buffaloes, working alongside of Wetmore and Burroughs. He will begin his 11th season with the program this fall. Simpson also serves as a volunteer coach with the program.
PAST TOP RACES:
2008: MEN WIN BIG 12 OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP
2007: VAUGHN WINS 3 BIG 12 TITLES; BARRINGER TURNS DISAPPOINTMENT INTO FIRST U.S. CHAMPIONSHIP
2006: BARRINGER'S STEEPLECHASE LEGACY BEGINS; MEN'S XC WINS SECOND NCAA TITLE IN THREE YEARS
2005: METIVIER WINS INDOOR 3K; SLATTERY TAKES 10K TITLE
2004: BUFFS WIN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
2003: RITZENHEIN RACES TO THE TITLE (FINISH VIDEO)
2002: TORRES CEMENTS LEGACY (VIDEO)
2001: CU MEN CAPTURE FIRST TITLE (VIDEO)
2000: KARA GRGAS-WHEELER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
1999: JAMES DAVIS 1999 4x400-METER RELAY ALL-AMERICAN
1998: ADAM GOUCHER 1998 CROSS COUNTRY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (VIDEO) (5,000) (3,000)
1997: ADAM GOUCHER INDOOR 3,000 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
1996: ALAN CULPEPPER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 5,000/ WOMEN'S BIG EIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
(VIDEO)