Cross Country Teams 17th, 28th in NCAA Championship : At the NCAA Cross Country Championships hosted by the University of Northern Iowa, the Colorado State men finished 17th and the women placed 28th.
Senior Austin Vigil paced the men’s team in the 10K race, finishing 31st with a time of 30:18.4, while sophomore Josh Glaab finished 40th with a time of 30:25.5. Bill Michel was 72nd with a time of 30:49.4, while Mike Nicks and Paul Michel rounded out the scoring in 123rd and 170th, respectively.
The women were led by sophomore Nicole Feest, who ran the 6K race in 21:18.4 and finished 80th. Michelle Carman was 112th with a time of 21:30.7 and Katie Yemm was 118th with 21:33.2. Crystal Clark and Colleen Blair were 127th and 137th, respectively to round out the scoring.
Also competing for the Ram men were Paul DiGrappa in 177th and Matt Cianciulli in 196th. Jennifer Kintzley and Sarah MacKay were the other two women runners, placing 146th and 179th, respectively.
Vigil and Glaab both earn All-American honors for the Rams

Rams Sign Four: The Colorado State cross country team received commitments from four athletes this past week. The following is a list of the athletes and some of their accomplishments.
Heather Loseke - Pueblo, Colorado (Pueblo East High Schoo)l: State champion in the 2 mile run, state runner up in the 1 mile run, named All-State Cross Country in 2002, and was the runner up in the 2001 state cross country meet.
Kirsten Anthony - Colo Springs, Colorado (Liberty High School): Cross country state champion in 2002, placed second in the 3000 meters at the USA Junior Olympics West, named All-State in 2001,2002 and 2003 in both the 1 mile and 2 mile runs.
Katie Sammons - Phoenix, AZ (Desert Vista High School): Placed third in the state cross country meet in 2003, finished fourth in 2002 at the state cross country meet, earned All-State honors in both the 1 mile and 2 mile runs.
Jeff Whal - Littleton, Colorado (Columbine High School): Finished sixth in the mile in 2003, placed 10th at the 2003 state cross country meet.

Head Coach Del Hessel
Del Hessel ranks as one of the most successful distance and cross country coaches in the nation. He is the only coach to have coached at three different Division I schools and been able to lead each into the national rankings and the NCAA Championships. Colorado State has finished as high as eighth in the men’s championship and the women had their highest finish ever when they placed 12th in 1997. In 2000, Hessel was named both the men’s and the women’s Mountain West Cross Country Coach of the Year for his teams’ accomplishments.
On the track, Hessel has produced numerous All-Americans in distance events. Bryan Berryhill was the first Ram to win two national championships when he won the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championship and the 1500 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championship in 2000. At one point in his career, Hessel coached four runners under 13:50 in the 5,000 meters. Under Hessel’s guidance, Billy Mangan won the Penn Relays at 13:44, Mike Klass won All-American honors after finishing the 5,000 in 13:41.6, Dave Murphy won the 10,000 meters at the Tom Black Invitational in 28:14 and Ibrahim Kivina was the national runner-up at the NCAA Championship in the 10,000 meter with a finishing time of 28:04.
Hessel has toured with several international teams while serving as event chair for USA Olympic Development for the 800 and 1,500 meters. He has served on the World Cup staff in Spain, served as head coach for the Olympic Sports Festival and travelled to Europe for the past 10 years with some of the nation’s best middle distance runners including, Olympians Brian Woodward, Steve Holman and Rick Kenah.
Hessel has also written three books and given lectures throughout the country. He is a member of the Colorado State Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a nationally ranked 800 meter runner. In 1963, Hessel set a CSU record for the indoor 800 meters with his time of 1:50.50. That mark stood for 35 years until it was finally broken by Berryhill in 1998.

Women’s NCAA Championship
Final Results
Fin. Team                 Points  
1    Stanford               120
2    BYU                    128
3    Providence             222
4    Michigan               232
5    Colorado               269
6    North Carolina State   290
7    UCLA                   293
8    North Carolina         294
9    Princeton              348
10   Notre Dame             352
11   Villanova              380
12   Missouri               383
13   Columbia               401
14   Arizona State          406
15   Northern Arizona       407
16   Georgetown             427
17   Michigan State         435
18   Florida State          455
19   Washington             486
20   Duke                   492
21   Wake Forest            496
22   Marquette              509
23   Penn State             510
24   Tennessee              513
25   Baylor                 516
28   Colorado State         574

Men’s NCAA Championship
Final Results
Fin.  Team                 Points  
1   Stanford                 24
2   Wisconsin               174
3   Northern Arizona        190
4   Iona College            191
5   Arkansas                215
6   Colorado                261
7   Georgetown              283
8   Air Force               330
9   Michigan                335
10  North Carolina State    346
11  Villanova               353
12  Indiana                 387
13  Cal Poly                404
14  Miami (Ohio)            413
15  Ohio State              418
16  Oklahoma State          435
17  Colorado State          436
18  Central Michigan        437
19  Texas A&M               447
19  BYU                     447
21  Oregon                  449
22  Washington              452
23  Arizona                 539
24  Providence              553
25  Georgia                 555

2003 Cross Country Schedule
Date      Day         Event                      Location              Time/Result
Sept. 5  Friday     Wyoming Inv.                Laramie, Wyo.          M 1st/W 1st
Sept. 13 Saturday   Lobo Inv.                   Albuquerque, N.M.      M 1st/W 1st
Sept. 27 Saturday   Roy Griak Inv.              Minneapolis, Minn.     M 3rd/W 7th
Oct.  4  Saturday   Rocky Mountain Shootout     Boulder, Colo.	       M not full team
Oct.  18 Saturday   Penn State National Race    University Park, Pa.   M 1st/W 4th
Nov.  1  Saturday   Mountain West Championships Albuquerque, N.M.      M 3rd/W 2nd
Nov.  15 Saturday   NCAA Mountain Regional      Ogden, Utah            M 5th/W 3rd
Nov.  24 Monday     NCAA Championships          Waterloo, Iowa         M 17th/W 28th