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Vaughn on a roll

Posted May 6, 2008

Colorado's Brent Vaughn is putting himself directly in line for a big finish as the Big 12 meet, the NCAA regionals and the NCAA championships come closer.

In case you missed it, Vaughn ran the fastest 5,000 by a collegian this year over the weekend when he clocked a 13:18.46 at the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford. Vaughn's time also broke the CU record by more than six seconds, a mark formerly held by All-American Jorge Torres, and he finished just a couple of seconds behind world champ Bernard Lagat.

Vaughn is just the latest in an ever-growing list of tremendous distance runners produced by CU coach Mark Wetmore.

After the NCAA meet, Vaughn will likely be headed to the Olympic Trials. That's where CU's cross country and track programs pay huge dividends. While much of the nation doesn't pay attention to track and field in off-Olympic years, the sports hits center stage every fourth year. When television announcers talk about CU and it's tremendous distance running program, that's some great national marketing for the program, the athletic department and the school.