Nov. 22, 2006

Colorado's Mark Wetmore and Stanford's Peter Tegen are the recipients of the Bill Dellinger Men's and Peter Tegen's Women's Division I Cross Country Coaches of the Year after leading their teams to NCAA titles Monday in Terre Haute, Ind.

The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association recently announced that its national coach-of-the-year awards were being named in honor of Dellinger, the legendary University of Oregon men's coach, and Tegen, the longtime Wisconsin coach who is now at Stanford.

Tegen thus becomes the first recipient of the award renamed in his honor. In two seasons at Stanford following 30 years at Wisconsin, Tegen has back-to-back NCAA championships. The top-ranked Cardinal won Monday's NCAA title in Terre Haute, Ind., scoring 195 points. Colorado finished second with 223 points.

Wetmore claimed his third NCAA men's title Monday when Colorado surprised defending champion Wisconsin. The Buffaloes totaled 94 points, finishing well in front of Wisconsin (142) and Iona (172).

Wetmore's previous NCAA men's titles came in 2001 and 2004. Tegen has won two NCAA women's titles at Wisconsin (1984-85) and two at Stanford (2005-6).

Stanford's women began the season ranked No. 1 by the USTFCCCA and held the top spot all fall. The Cardinal won the Pacific-10 Conference and West Region championships. Arianna Lambie, Stanford's top individual, won the Pac-10 and West Regional titles before finishing third at Monday's NCAA Championships.

Completing the Stanford scorers were Teresa McWalters (31st), Lindsay Flacks (56^th), Amanda Trotter (70^th) and Katy Trotter (78^th).

Colorado's men started the 2006 season ranked third nationally. The Buffaloes headed into Monday's NCAA meet ranked second in the nation following victories at the Big 12 Conference and Mountain Region events.

Brett Vaughn led Colorado at the NCAA meet with a 12^th-place finish. Completing Colorado's scoring were Stephen Pifer (20^th), Erik Heinonen (28^th), James Strang (47^th) and Billy Nelson (56^th).

Josh Rohatinsky (BYU) and Sally Kipyego (Texas Tech) were named the USTFCCCA Division I Men's and Women's Athletes of the Year.

For more information, see www.ustfccca.org.