Colorado track and field coach Mark Wetmore spent his weekend in temporary bleachers at Potts Field sweating out results of the Big 12 Conference outdoor Track and Field Championships and hoping for the best from his athletes as always.

When the last runner had crossed the finish line Sunday evening, the final bar had been cleared and the javelins, shot puts and hammers were packed away, the men's team made sure he could go home and enjoy a slice of key lime pie and the program's first conference championship since 1947.

They also sent him home with a pile of wet hair after pouring a tub filled with ice water over his head.

The 11th-ranked Buffs came through with a stunning and stirring team effort filled with courageous outings from unheralded athletes fueled by a bond with one another and a desire to prove they belong among the nation's elite. They scored 138 points to beat No. 1 Texas A&M (121) and Texas (96).

"Honestly it was happenstance or kismet or something that all these guys came together on this track today," Wetmore said. "There wasn't a master plan.

"I've used up my luck for the rest of my life because not only did the team do everything it possibly could, everything here turned out so well and so many people contributed."

Senior James Begley completed hisfairy tale weekend by winning the discus. Sprinter Ryan Campbell earned points in the 200 meters and two relay events, running with a defect in a vertebrae. Billy Nelson stormed home with a win in the steeplechase and came back an hour later to run the 5,000 meters "to help the team." Stephen Pifer doubled up in the 1,500 and 5,000-meter runs.

Toward the end of the day before the Buffs knew for sure they had won the first title since the school competed in the Mountain States Conference, sprinter Jeremy Dodson described what was happening this way: "It's just been this snowball of emotion."

While the Buffs won the title as a true team, the distance runners -- always the heart and soul of the program -- provided nearly half the team points (65) with dominant performances in the 10,000 meter (33 points) and 5,000 meter runs (32 points).

Senior Brent Vaughn charged to victory in the 5,000 meters, leading the final push to the title. Six of the first eight finishers in the race were Buffs.

"He dearly wanted to win this team thing," Wetmore said. "He would give up his right hand to win the team thing."

The first hint that something magical was happening Sunday for CU came early in the day in the javelin. It was hardly an event in which the Buffs were counting on points, but junior Brandin Williams heaved a personal-best 210 feet, 4 inches, shattering his previous record by more than 10 feet. Entering the meet, coaches weren't counting on Williams to even make the finals, but his throw was good enough for a third-place finish and a regional qualifying mark.

Williams tugged at heartstrings later by taking his medal and placing it around teammate Kevin Waldron's neck. Waldron was unable to finish the competition because of an elbow injury and will undergo Tommy John surgery.

The Buffs set a school record in the 4x100-meter relay with Hugh Charles, Ryan Campbell, Nate Terry and Jeremy Dodson, eclipsing a record that had stood for 37 years. The Buffs finished third in 39.59 seconds. Maybe the most impressive part of the effort was the fact that Terry, who ran the third leg, hadn't run the event since high school.

"I would never have thought I'd be a part of a school record in the four-by-one-hundred," he said.

It was a weekend that won't soon be forgotten for the Colorado men, but the No. 3-ranked Texas A&M women left town with fond memories of Boulder. The Aggies won the team championship with 157 points, soundly defeating second-place Nebraska (105) and third-place Texas Tech (101.5). The CU women finished last.

The Aggie sprinters continuously roared across the finish line with record-breaking and breathtaking times. Simone Facey set an Big 12 meet record in the 100 meters with a time of 10.95 seconds. It was the second fastest time in the world so far this year.

"Oh my god, I'm going to cry," Facey said.

Jessica Beard set a Big 12 meet record in the 400 meters, finishing in a personal best time of 51.09 seconds. She later beat her best running the anchor leg of the 1,600-meter relay, running it in 51 seconds flat.

And sophomore Porscha Lucas smashed the meet record in the 200 meters, finishing in 22.29 seconds.

"We did the things that we thought we were capable of doing," Aggies coach Pat Henry said. "We really did. We had a great effort on our ladies' side and our men's side. We did everything we could here today."

Colorado hosted the meet this year in place of Kansas, which was unable to do so. The Buffs are scheduled to host again in 2013, and athletic director Mike Bohn said the school has every intention of welcoming the conference back then.

CU officials said 2,784 tickets were sold for championship Sunday and more than 5,000 total fans attended the three-day meet. Last year at Nebraska, the final day attracted about 1,200.

"Before the meet I asked the team, 'Just do what you did to get here. Don't feel you have to run or jump or throw out of your head,' " Wetmore said. "But they overruled me and ran and jumped and threw over their head."