Zak Wood / Colorado Daily

Members of the University of Colorado men's track & field team are seen here holding their Big 12 Championship trophy on Sunday at Potts Field.

University of Colorado track & field head coach Mark Wetmore is a man of few words.

If you were to ask any of his athletes about him, they would all tell you he is a man who prefers to let his actions do the talking for him.

However, Sunday morning Wetmore decided to change it up and addressed his team with a sort-of pregame speech.

Well the man who speaks little must have spoken loudly because the CU men reacted by taking home the men's team Big 12 Championship on their own Potts Field turf in front of a Sunday crowd of about 2,784.

"I try to avoid expectations, but definitely aspirations were exceeded," said Wetmore. "Before the meet I said our only chance is if we have a complete team coming here. We knew we would get a lot of distance points but we would not have won with just distance points. I asked the team, just do what you did to get here don't feel like you have to run or jump out of your head. But, they overruled me and ran and jumped and threw over their heads."

The CU women finished 12th overall while the men, who won their first conference title since CU won the Mountain States Conference in 1947, were the big winners of the weekend.

Entering Sunday the Buffs trailed Missouri by three points in the men's team standings. CU sophomore thrower Kevin Fasing was unable to compete in the javelin due to an injury, but his teammate, sophomore Brandin Williams, stepped up in a big way. Williams threw a personal record and regional qualifying mark of 210-04 to place third in the event, the first of the day, and get the Buffs off to a good start.

Afterwards, in a gesture that perfectly embodied the Buffs' team effort, Williams stepped down from the winners podium gave his bronze medal to Fasing.

After Williams started the day, the men's 4x100 relay team of Hugh Charles, Ryan Campbell, Nate Terry and Jeremy Dodson added to the team point total by placing third in their event. Their time of 39.59 is a new CU school record.

"When I crossed the finish line and had just stopped jogging Ryan was right there with me. He must have jogged 200 extra meters to be there and he was yelling "School record, school record!" said Dodson.

The excitement on the CU side would not let up all day. In the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, CU's sixth-year senior Billy Nelson won his second Big 12 title with a time of 9:53.84, a new Potts Field record.

"The strategy was to take it easy for first two kilometers and we assumed that everyone else would key off of the Colorado runners; they did it in the 10,000-meter run and they did it here as well," said Nelson. "After the first two kilometers, we were going to see where everybody was at and then go from there. Some of the guys were a little tougher from the start, and that was surprising."

Nelson's fellow distance runner Stephen Pifer ran in one of the closest races of the weekend when he battled Texas' Leo Manzano in the men's 1,500-meters. Pifer added to the Buffs' team stats by taking second place with a time of 3:43.65. The Buffs' chances of bringing home the trophy got even better when CU senior James Begley won the Big 12 title in the men's discus with a throw of 173-01. On the weekend Begley finished first in the discus, fifth in the shot put and ninth in the hammer throw while qualifying for regionals in all three events.

"I absolutely did not envision this coming into the weekend," said Begley. "Obviously you think about it -- you want to be the best in everything you do. So it crossed my mind, but I never thought it would come true. I think it's great for (CU throws coach) Casey (Malone) to finally break out. He's a world-class discus thrower, and my thanks go out to everyone: the athletic trainers, the facilities guys, everyone. It was just a great day."

After the discus title, it was down to the sprints and the 5,000-meters to see who would win the championship. Dodson, a CU junior, did his best to make sure the Buffs stayed near the top of the standings by placing third in the 100-meters with a new personal record of 10.27 and second in the 200-meters with school record time of 20.37.

CU senior Brent Vaughn, who entered the day frustrated by his performance in the 1,500-qualifier on Saturday, made sure that neither he nor the Buffs would go home empty handed. Vaughn led the 5,000-meters field for virtually the entire race, save for a lap or two that he switched off with teammate Kenyon Neuman.

When it was all said and done, Vaughn won his third Big 12 5k title with a time of 14:13.99. Neuman, a junior, took second in 14:22.61 and was one of six Buffs in the top seven. Neuman was also the Buffs points leader on the weekend with 18 as he also won an individual title in the men's 10,000-meters on Friday night. Their success virtually sealed the Big 12 Championship for the CU men.

"Anytime you can get a Big 12 Championship it is pretty special. Being able to have my family and friends here is pretty special to me," said Vaughn, an Aurora, Colo. native. "It has to be big for us, whenever you can get contributions from your entire team it's great."

Contact Eliot Dempsey about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext. 112 or sports@coloradodaily.com