June 12, 2005

The NCAA Track & Field Championships at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, CA came to a conclusion on Saturday night. For the Gauchos, Lauren Christman (Jr.) and Cosette Smith (Sr.) were billed to run in the 5000m finals.

The only team in the field to have more than one athlete in the finals, Christman and Smith stepped onto the track with 10,000 plus fans in the stands, including a small but rowdy UCSB contingent. The Gauchos went in ranked 8th and 10th based on their fastest 2005 times.

An uncharacteristic slow pace welcomed the field as no woman decided to make it an honest race. Laps of 81 seconds, 82, 85 and then an extremely slow fourth lap of 89.8 took the women through the mile in 5:38. To put it in perspective, Christman and Smith came through in 5:15 through the mile in Wednesday's semi-finals.

The fifth lap saw a small increase in pace to 87.7, but then in the sixth lap, the leaders dropped a 77 second lap only to follow it up with scorching 73 and 72 laps. What was a slow race now became a barnburner. The field was strung out immediately with Christman hanging on to a mid pack of the 7th-11th place women. Smith after the 72 began to falter falling back to 13th.

Laps nine and ten continued to roll as the leaders put in a 73 and a 74. Christman pushed hard to maintain her position in the top ten in these laps, while Smith stayed in 13th all alone. Up front a pack of three had left the field behind and as they entered the last lap only Metcalf of West Virgina and Bei of Stanford were fighting for the win. With a blistering 67 second final lap Metcalf came home the 2005 champion in 16:31.88.

Christman just about out of gas struggled to stay with the top ten. She would finish 11th in 17:03.41. Smith never one to quit, kicked the last lap, passing one and almost catched her teammate. She would finish 12th in 17:05.99. Coming off of big personal bests to reach the finals just three nights prior, Christman and Smith ended an unbelievable 2005 record-breaking season.

Lauren Christman ran away with the UCSB 1500m school record in April and the 5000m school record on Wednesday night. Her 5000m time of 16:16.35 in the semi-finals not only broke the UCSB record but also broke the Big West Conference record set back in 1990. Three years as a Gaucho, Lauren not only owns the accolades above but she was also the 2004 Big West Cross Country Champion, while also earning All-Region honors.

Cosette Smith closes this chapter of her life as one of UCSB's most accomplished distance runners. It became apparent that she would always strive to be the best, when at the 2000 Big West Cross Country Championships her freshman year she raced herself near exhaustion finishing as the team's 3rd runner. She would go on to win the Cal-Nevada Championships in 3,000m and go onto finish 6th in Big West Championship 1500m finals in her freshman season.

All in all, Smith would earn herself three All-Big West Cross Country honors, while being named captain of a squad that would finish 29th in America in 2003 and 17th in 2004. In 2004 she would also receive All-West Region honors. On the track, Smith collected three All-Conference finishes at 1500m and 5,000m and ran away with two Big West titles, the 10,000m in 2004 and the 5,000m a couple weeks ago.

Cosette qualified for NCAA Regionals in the last three consecutive years at 5,000m just narrowly missing qualification for the National Championships until 2005. In 2005 she obliterated her personal bests. A 4:26.07 1500m made her the 6th fastest at the metric mile distance for UCSB. In the 5,000m she would run 16:18.75 under the old school record and only second to Lauren Christman on Wednesday night. Today she graduates in Psychology, with minors also in Health Exercise Science and French.

The Gauchos conclude an exciting record-breaking 2005 Outdoor Track & Field season in which the women would win the Big West Championships, the men would finish 3rd and both would re-write the record boards. The Gauchos qualified a record twenty to the NCAA Regional Championships and sent five to the NCAA National Championships. Its back to training now, with the distance squad preparing to compete first in the upcoming cross country season.