Ed Navarro / Colorado Daily

Members of the University of Colorado men's track & field team (from left) Bradley Harkrader, Kenyon Neuman and Brent Vaughn are seen here during the men's 5,000-meter finals on Sunday at Potts Field. Vaughn won the race and the Buffs men won the Big 12 title.

In the sport of track & field, a competition that is more individually driven than most team sports, it is rare to see team spirit triumph over the need for personal glory. However, this weekend at Potts Field, the CU men made it a point to grab every point that they could so that the unit as a collective would be able to hoist the Big 12 Championship trophy above their heads.

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The unit was successful on Sunday, but it wouldn't have been had it not been for the individual performances of several key athletes.

Four Buffs won individual Big 12 titles over the weekend, beginning with junior Kenyon Neuman in the men's 10,000-meters Friday night and continuing on Sunday with Billy Nelson (3,000-meter steeplechase), Brent Vaughn (5k) and James Begley (discus).

"First of all, I attribute it to all of our guys and all of the hard work that they do, they train everyday of the week," said Neuman. "Everybody wants to win, everybody has to win, we're all competitive with the guys on our team -- it's a good competition of course. Then there is Coach Wetmore, if he isn't the best coach in the nation he's up there -- but I think he's the best coach in the nation. Through recruiting we have brought in a lot of talent and then Mark (Wetmore) is able to get the best out of them and make less talented guys great."

After Vaughn won the 5k, the first words out his mouth when he spoke to the media were about the team win, not about his third Big 12 5k title.

"The main thing was to just go out there and get 10 points," Vaughn said. "I wanted to set a solid pace that my teammates could hold on to, but I wanted to lose some competitors -- it worked out pretty well."

The men scored 138 points in the meet, a CU school record for Big 12 meets. They got points from all over the map and had team spirit in spades. Distance runners were cheering for throwers, throwers were cheering for sprinters and all so the team could win.

One of the few disappointments on the day came on the CU women's side. CU junior Jenny Barringer is one of the nation's best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase but came up short on Sunday, finishing in second place behine Texas Tech's Irene Kimaiyo.

"My training for the last few weeks has had some unexpected interruptions but today, in my eyes, was a slight failure of will and this is why you treasure every victory because they don't come easily," said Barringer.

She will have more chances at glory, however, as she will join a host of Buffs at the NCAA regionals in a few weeks.

For now, it is not the time to mourn what-ifs, but rather to celebrate if you are part of the Buff Nation.

"Coach started putting it in our mind a few years ago. He told us we're putting together a track team. We have a great distance tradition, but we're building a track team," said Vaughn. "It started my freshman year we had a big class coming in. It wasn't just distance runners like a lot of times it is. We had incredible throwers and incredible sprinters and field events. Everyone came in and we're all like close family. We spent a lot of time together. This is, all of us, that group are now fifth year seniors and we put it together this weekend. It's a pretty good feeling."

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