North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Wolfpack Cross Country Aims High at NCAAs
11/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
BY TIM PEELER
“I just need to relax these next few days,” Ruiz says.
That’s because Ruiz, the only senior on the NC State men’s cross country team, is also a major part of the Wolfpack’s quest for its first NCAA title.
Ruiz and his six teammates are running at their peak going into Monday’s NCAA Cross Country Championships at
“I am looking forward to being out there just one more time with my teammates,” says Ruiz, the 2002 ACC Freshman of the Year. “There is a little bit of everything going through our heads right now: anxiousness, nervousness. But it’s ones of those feelings where we are ready to go out and show everybody what we have been working for.
“Individually, it is a bittersweet feeling, because I know I am going out there for one last time. You know this eventually has to happen, and there is nobody else I would rather be out there with than my teammates.”
Wolfpack head coach Rollie Geiger, in his 25th season at the helm of the program, has never had a more tightly knit group, on or off the course. His players live and practice together, hang out together, and, quite frequently this season, cross the finish line together. The average spread between the team’s top seven runners has been between 35-40 seconds, an amazing figure for any program and the closest Geiger remembers in his quarter-century as a head coach.
At the ACC Championship three weeks ago in
“This is a deep squad, with great kids,” Geiger said. “This has been a year that I really, really enjoyed because of the kids. I have had another couple of groups that were very good, but this has been a group that I really enjoyed off the cross country course. They are just nice human beings.
“If you were going to choose someone to be your son, you could close your eyes and point.”
You could pretty much do the same thing if you are looking to find someone to lead a race for the Wolfpack, which spreads its success around.
Ruiz has been the team’s top finisher twice this season, with juniors Wes Smith, Tibor Vegh and John Crews each leading one race apiece. The rest of the lineup includes juniors Stephen Furst, Fredy Torres and Chris Kollar and sophomore Gavin Coombs.
Geiger loves having such a consistent, deep and experienced lineup.
“You want your team to be interchangeable,” said the coach. “It’s like having a bunch of utility infielders who can play, first, second, short or third and you just throw them out there at any position. All these guys can play.
“It doesn’t matter where you put them in, what position, they can play.”
Some of that success can be attributed to last season, when Geiger redshirted three of his top runners, Gavin Coombs, Bobby Mack and Wes Smith. The Wolfpack finished a disappointing third in the ACC meet and did not qualify for nationals. But several runners, including Ruiz, Furst, Kollar and Vegh gained from their experience last year and stepped up their performance this season, a situation Geiger compares to the 1983 men’s basketball team when guard Dereck Whittenburg went down with a broken foot, forcing younger players to become active for Jim Valvano’s team.
And all Wolfpack fans remember what happened when Whittenburg came back.
“This season has been a springboard from last year, when we sat everybody down,” Geiger said. “The same guys who have run well this year were the ones who ran well last year. The fact is, they are running at a higher level than they were all year.”
And, with all but one of its top nine runners returning next year, this year’s appearance could be a springboard for 2007 as well.
“We are excited,” Crews says. “We are trying to accomplish great things this year and hopefully improve upon it next year.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
NC State's NCAA finishes
Year Place
1984 9th
1985 11th
1986 12th
1987 5th
1991 11th
1992 10th
1993 9th
1995 13th
1996 16th
1997 6th
1998 8th
1999 3rd
2000 11th
2001 9th
2002 23rd
2003 10th
2004 16th
