Dani Jones, Colorado Dash Through The Snow At NCAAs

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

MADISON, Wisc. – When the Colorado women peeled back their hotel room curtains Saturday morning to see a layer of snow on the ground, they considered it good news. The tougher the conditions, the better.

The Buffaloes put recent NCAA disappointments behind them, stormed through the powdery white snow, and scored 68 points on the way to capturing the program’s third title and first since 2004.

Up front, senior Dani Jones used her superior late-race foot speed to the reel in leader Weini Kelati of New Mexico and won the women’s 6-kilometer race in 19:42.8.

“I definitely believed we could win as a team – more than I thought I could win as an individual,” said Jones, who won the NCAA indoor 3,000-meter title in 2017. “It helped me that all the girls around me were fighting for team titles, and I knew I needed to be the low stick.”

Jones was in a better frame of mind coming into the race Saturday. She was 10th a year ago in the race and then red-shirted the outdoor track season. This fall she was fourth at the Nuttycombe Invitational, first at the Pac-12 Conference Championships, and sixth at the Mountain Regional.

Colorado legend and Olympic medalist Jenny Simpson braided Jones’ hair before the race.

“Going in ranked first hasn’t worked out for us,” Jones said. “We weren’t even invited to the (Friday) press conference, so we just thought have fun with it. There’s no pressure.”

Early on, Anna Rohrer of Notre Dame spent time in the lead.

“I was surprised no one really took it (out faster),” Rohrer said. “It didn’t really go that fast the first half and I wasn’t planning on leading, but I like to run on the outside because if I run in the middle I get tangled with people. So running on the outside kind of pushed me to the front.”

Then, Kelati stepped to the fore and she did the front-running. After getting accustomed to the newness of racing in the snow – “after we got one mile I thought ‘Oh my God, is the race going to be like this!? But I got used to it” -- she surged in the last 2K to take a stab at pulling away.

But the kickers in the field, Jones and Oregon’s Jessica Hull, never lost contact. 

With less than 1,000 meters left, Colorado coach Mark Wetmore let Jones know the team was in great shape.

“I wanted to let her relax so she could just be selfish,” Wetmore said. “She came by me at five kilometers (and) I said ‘The team’s doing great, go get it.’”

That was music to Jones’ ears and filled her with purpose to go after the single point that goes to first place.

“It was so good to hear,” Jones said. “It was Stanford, it was Oregon, it was New Mexico, everyone who was running for a team title was right there. When Mark said the girls are doing great, I said I’ve got to fight that last 400 for these guys. I know they’re running well and pushing hard.”

Jones became the first Colorado women’s champion since Kara (Grgas-Wheeler) Goucher in 2000.

Behind Jones, Makena Morley finished eighth, Tabor Scholl finished 15th, Sage Hurta finished 22nd and Val Constien was 30th (overall).

Waking up to see snow helped, Morley said.

“We all got up, we looked out the window, and were like ‘Yes! It’s early Christmas!’” Morley said. “We’ve been training in hard conditions and preparing for hard conditions. We were stoked actually that there was snow.”

Colorado has finished second three times (2005, 2006, 2015) since its last women’s title.

“Seven women all ran well, all of them a little tiny bit better than I hoped for,” Wetmore said. “I’m proud of them.”

Jones passed Kelati in the last 300 meters and peeled away for the win.

“I owe it to that BYU girl (Erica Birk) who was really pushing it,” Jones said. “I made sure to stay with her, went around her, and the leader (Kelati) wasn’t getting any further away. I turned that last corner and had 300 meters. I went around that last bend and she was right there.”

The New Mexico sophomore held on for second in 19:45.3 and her Lobos finished second with 103 points. Ednah Kurgat, the 2017 individual champion, was fifth. Teammate Charlotte Prouse was ninth.

Oregon’s Hull, the NCAA 1,500-meter champion, was third and led the Ducks to third place with 160 points.

Wisconsin’s Alicia Monson was fourth across the line on her home course.

Michigan (213), Stanford (232) and Boise State (288) finished fourth, fifth and sixth.