VERONA, Wis. — As a warning gun cracked through the frigid air at the NCAA cross country championships Saturday, signaling 10 minutes before start, University of Colorado senior Dani Jones paused amid the chaos of race preparation and pulled together her six teammates for a message.
“No one deserves this more than us,” Jones told them, an inch of fresh snow blanketing the course. “We’ve been so consistent, we’ve prepared so well. Let’s go out and do this thing and show people what we’re made of.”
It was a message that resonated. In all but one of the cross country seasons in Jones’ career, CU entered the NCAA championships favored to win in the coaches poll, only to fall short: Second in 2015, third in 2016 and 2017.