Post-Race Quotes - Men

Reported by Parker Morse

Boaz Cheboiywo
Boaz Cheboiywo didn't win a race; he attended his own coronation. By two miles any outcome other than his victory would have counted as a major upset. The Kenyan known simply as "Boaz" dominated the entire cross country season, and set the standard any other would-be champions will reach for next year. His 28:47 set a new course record at Furman; the old record was set in 1997 by Mebrahtom Keflezighi, then an Eritrean running for UCLA, now the American Record holder at 10,000m.

On his race strategy: "My strategy at first was just to go slow because I had a hip problem and an achilles problem. So I just wanted to go slowly. But since I could not feel it at the first instance, I said, let me try to go fast so that I can have a clear view of the course. I didn't want to run the [sections of the course on] pavement when people were around me."

On deciding to make a decisive break early: "We were together with Kimani and some of the other athletes at the [first] hill. There were maybe eight of us. So I decided this was the way to go, because I saw Kimani. I was afraid of a big kick, because Kimani is very fast compared to me."

On how much of a lead he had: "I did not look back, I just ran, ran forward. I thought if I could look forward, make myself relax, and just run."

On his experience at the Pre-Nationals meet: "What I learned from Pre-Nationals was that when I run with guys like Torres and the rest of the guys, they could not keep up with my pace that day. So I thought that was the perfect strategy to use."

On racing alone: "I learned this in training by myself, I know what pace I am, how slow I am, so training alone by myself with the other athletes from my college, I knew how slow I am, how fast I am, how competitive I am, so I'm just fine."

On his confidence: "Surely I was not very confident because of my hip and achilles tendon was bothering me. I wanted to run the best race I could run that day, if somebody else should win I would congratulate them as a good sportsman."

On his injury: "It really affected my training, for the last two weeks I could not even run, so my trainer and my coach told me, don't train, just relax and it will be better. I didn't run in between the two races [the Great Lakes regional and Nationals], just jogging. The achilles did bother me a little bit when I was in the middle of the race. But what I did was say, just let me finish the race, and I will think of that [the injury] when I finish the race."

On taking the title: "I feel very happy to be the NCAA champion, despite how competitive it was, with the rest of the athletes like Kimani, who has run fast, with the likes of the American athletes like Torres, who was third last year. I feel very blessed to be the 2001 NCAA champion."

On deciding the be a runner: "People like Moses Kiptanui, people like Daniel Komen, were my idols. I wanted to be like them because they ran very well."

On combining running and an education: "Since I was a teacher, a primary teacher in Kenya, and at the same time, I saw athletics can injure you at any time, and I saw academic work as well was very important. Knowing that in athletics you can suffer several things, like I can get injured, and after the injury, my whole career would be gone, and I just wanted to get a career, and an athletics career can last for me a long time, if I can do something else, then I can opt to my teaching career."

Jorge Torres
Colorado's Jorge Torres has an enviable streak going. Last year he finished third at NCAAs; this year, second. If he can continue this rate of improvement, there's only one more place to get. Since entering Colorado as a Foot Locker champion in 1999, Torres and his twin brother Ed have done well handling coach Mark Wetmore's ration of high milage and intense workouts. They've also grown, and Torres' success has taught to face a roomful of reporters with composure, maturity, and still honesty.

"I want to congratulate Boaz for being such a great runner, a great competitor. He went out there and did it today and proved that he was the best one out there today, props to him."

On his own placing: "I can't be disappointed with second, really. Any time you're second at the NCAA championships with such great competitors in the field, you've got to be pretty proud of that. Would I have like to win it, yes, I would've loved to win a national championship, an individual championship. But there's always next year, and the important thing for me is finding out if we beat everybody as a team, and that Colorado comes out as a national champion."

On his race execution: "I went out, I thought, at a pretty good pace. I knew that the Kenyans were going to go out pretty fast, and that I was going to have to try my best to stay as close in contact as I could, so I could strike in the last three or four k. Unfortunately, I wasn't that close to Boaz, he really got a good distance on me, and I was trying to cover it most of the beginning of the race. You know, he's a tough competitor, a tough runner, and he's going to be around for a while, and hopefully one of these days I'll catch up to him."

"The instructions for the team were to stick with what works, to stick with what's traditionally worked. I got out a little hard, myself, I think Dathan started out a little more conservatively. And the only reason I went ahead was that I knew the Kenyans were going to try to get ahead of us, and I needed to put myself in position to attack."

"Between the eighth and ninth kilometer I felt really bad, it was the heat getting up to me. The last kilometer, I knew I was in contention just to get second, unless Boaz was going to wait for me."

On taking off after two miles: "I was trying to break the back pack, trying to make it a one-on-one race [between] Boaz and myself. Unfortunately, it was a one-on-one race against myself, and a one-on-one race between Boaz and himself. My best wasn't good enough today."

On balancing his individual ambition with team goals: "From the get-go, from the beginning of the season, Mark [Wetmore]'s like, I know you're one of the best runners out here as an individual, and I expect you to go out for the National Championship, for the individual championship, and the team will have to live with that decision. But in my mind, definitely, over the last month I was thinking, I want to win this as a national champion team. It definitely was in the back of my head that, if I screw up, I'm messing up the chances for my team winning the national championship."

On the Furman course's hills: "The thing with the hills is that, I live in Boulder, I live in the canyon, and every direction you go out of my house is uphill. [Running] up a hill isn't much work for me."

On potential rival David Kimani: "Kimani pulled off the course at two kilometers or three kilometers, I think. I never got up to him, I just saw him at the side of the course."

On winning the team title: "I want to say thank you to my team. CU deserves it because we've been right there every year, year in and year out, and we've never gotten over that hill, and I think today's finally our day, we got over that hilltop finally, and congratulations to the CU Buffaloes because I think we really do deserve it."

Alistair Cragg
Alistair Cragg of Arkansas was on nobody's look-out-for list. The South African sophomore, who started his American collegiate career at SMU and sat out Arkansas' domination of the South Central regional the week before. Three weeks before Nationals, though, he scared Alabama's David Kimani at the SEC meet, running 23:48 for 8k, just two seconds behind Kimani. Running five races for Arkansas this fall, including the NCAA meet, Cragg finished in the top three of all five.

On his race strategy: "I didn't run the race I wanted to. It felt easier in the beginning than I thought. I ended up breaking away with Jorge when I just wanted to be in the chasing pack with Dathan. I was stuck in two minds to go with Jorge and grind with him to try and catch whoever was up front, or hold back and wait for the guys. Jorge broke about twenty meters from me and I just found myself working away at it myself rather than closing the gap, so I waited for the guys and tried to use them to help me catch Jorge at the end. But Dathan came past quick and surprised me. This is NCs, and you have to hold on to what you have."

On dueling with Dathan: "Dathan came past me pretty quick. He passed me just before the hill, down by five miles. I sort of latched on to the back of him, because I had more in me, I didn't want to go too soon. I've got a bit of speed and I thought I'd use it at the end. Him being a freshman, I thought I may be stronger. I passed him with maybe 150m to go."

On his "bit of speed": "I haven't got much... a 1:51 800 and 4:01 mile."

On the team performance: "I'm happy with the race, but as a team we're very disappointed. No one knew us, and we thought if everyone ran the race they were hoping for, we could've probably run away with it. There were a couple of disappointing runs, but a couple of good runs, myself and Silverus Kimeli had races that were better than we'd thought. We're just disappointed."

On coming to Arkansas: "I left SMU to go back and spend some time with my family. Early this year I realized I needed to get back and run. I wasn't sure I would've come without running and all. I gathered running with a team here in the States is a good reason, and nothing better than going to join Coach Mac and the Razorbacks."