WATERLOO, Iowa – Stanford showed that Californians can run in cold weather, too.
The Cardinal swept the men’s and women’s team titles at the NCAA cross country championships Monday, handling the frigid temperatures and biting wind as if they were used to such conditions.
Stanford placed four runners among the top six to repeat as the men’s champion with 24 points, the second-lowest total in the history of the NCAA meet. The women edged two-time defending champion BYU 120-128.
It was the third time a school won both championships. Stanford did it in 1996 and Wisconsin in 1985.
“Everybody has been lobbing comments at us that California guys can’t run in the snow and cold,” Stanford men’s coach Andrew Gerard said. “But my guys were excited by it.”
Colorado’s Dathan Ritzenhein overtook Stanford’s Ryan Hall in the final 400 meters to win the 10,000-meter men’s race in 29 minutes, 14.1 seconds. North Carolina’s Shalane Flanagan easily won the women’s race for the second straight year, covering the 6,000 meters in 19:30.4 to beat runner-up Kim Smith of Providence by nearly 100 meters.
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