Wednesday, June 8
Des Moines, Iowa
TBA
Montana State University
at
NCAA Division I Championships
Cristian Soratos will be chasing history and a Bobcat legend Friday
Shannon Butler Pulling for Cristian Soratos Friday Night
6/12/2015 3:22:00 PM | Men's Track and Field
MSU's only men's national track and field champion is hoping to welcome another
A man Cristian Soratos is chasing during Friday's 1500 meters at the 2015 NCAA Track and Field Championships will be watching the race from the comfort of his home in the Bitterroot Valley.
Shannon Butler won two national championships running for Montana State – the 1990 10,000m at Duke and the 5,000m a year later at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Butler remains the only men's national champion in Bobcat track and field history. (Ellie Rudy won national crowns in the women's pole vault.)
Soratos will be attempting to join Butler at 5:45 pm Friday. Butler has taken notice. And he's all for it.
"Yeah, yeah," Butler said about pulling for Soratos in his quest for immortality. "I've heard some great things about him."
Butler lives in Darby and works for a property management firm out of Missoula. He says he's in the best shape of his life, continues to pile up many miles running every week, and "when I'm not running I'm out on 20-mile hikes" and other rigorous activities.
But on Friday evening, for a few moments, Butler will train his attention on a man trying to who is also trying to nab a piece of history. And his mind might wander nearly a quarter-century back, to June 1, 1991.
"Everything," Butler laughed when asked what he remembered about his national championship run at Hayward Field. "I ran the trial round and I knew I was in good shape," he recalled. "I just kind of hung back and let the German Beltran from Alabama lead, and he ran a 14:01 or 14 minutes, something like that. The finals of the 5,000 are held earlier in the day, which means it's hotter, potentially more windy, and you're not under the lights in those ideal conditions like typically the 10 is run."
When time came for the Finals, in the hot and windy conditions Butler predicted, he made a quick assessment at the starting line. "I remember I stood up from the line and I looked at everybody and I just didn't see anybody in the field that looked like they just wanted to go out right from the gun and run their guts out," recalled Butler, always known for a competitive fire and a finisher's mentality that Soratos shares. "And so I went right to the lead, and I ran for the entire race. I dropped everybody but Peter Sherry from Georgetown way back, he was the only one I didn't drop."
With Sherry leading by a few meters coming down the back straightaway, Butler's instinct kicked in. He caught Sherry, blew past him, and as the crowd of nearly 10,000 roared its approval won going away. "With 300 to go I kicked it in and won by seven seconds in the last 300 meters."
His second NCAA Championship was the epicenter of a rollicking spring and summer for Butler. He had won three individual Big Sky titles in Bozeman two weeks before, won the U.S. National Championship 10,000 meters 10 days later, nearly topped Joe Falcon in a two-mile match race at Hayward Field, and shortly after that ran a 27:59 on European soil to qualify for the World Championships.
"It was a whirlwind," the Eureka native recalls.
He also holds fond memories of running at Hayward Field in what is called Tracktown, USA. "First of all it's a beautiful facility," he said, "so you take a beautiful facility with that much tradition and pack it full of fans with a huge amount of knowledge about track and field. They follow it religiously, and you can just tell with how they're paying attention (by) the questions they ask, the enthusiasm of the crowd. There's just no environment out there… in the United States that compares to Hayward Field."
So as Cristian Soratos, who finished second at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile, lines up Friday at Hawyard Field, Butler will be watching with interest. "It's great for him, great for (the state of) Montana and great for Montana State."
Shannon Butler won two national championships running for Montana State – the 1990 10,000m at Duke and the 5,000m a year later at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Butler remains the only men's national champion in Bobcat track and field history. (Ellie Rudy won national crowns in the women's pole vault.)
Soratos will be attempting to join Butler at 5:45 pm Friday. Butler has taken notice. And he's all for it.
"Yeah, yeah," Butler said about pulling for Soratos in his quest for immortality. "I've heard some great things about him."
Butler lives in Darby and works for a property management firm out of Missoula. He says he's in the best shape of his life, continues to pile up many miles running every week, and "when I'm not running I'm out on 20-mile hikes" and other rigorous activities.
But on Friday evening, for a few moments, Butler will train his attention on a man trying to who is also trying to nab a piece of history. And his mind might wander nearly a quarter-century back, to June 1, 1991.
"Everything," Butler laughed when asked what he remembered about his national championship run at Hayward Field. "I ran the trial round and I knew I was in good shape," he recalled. "I just kind of hung back and let the German Beltran from Alabama lead, and he ran a 14:01 or 14 minutes, something like that. The finals of the 5,000 are held earlier in the day, which means it's hotter, potentially more windy, and you're not under the lights in those ideal conditions like typically the 10 is run."
When time came for the Finals, in the hot and windy conditions Butler predicted, he made a quick assessment at the starting line. "I remember I stood up from the line and I looked at everybody and I just didn't see anybody in the field that looked like they just wanted to go out right from the gun and run their guts out," recalled Butler, always known for a competitive fire and a finisher's mentality that Soratos shares. "And so I went right to the lead, and I ran for the entire race. I dropped everybody but Peter Sherry from Georgetown way back, he was the only one I didn't drop."
With Sherry leading by a few meters coming down the back straightaway, Butler's instinct kicked in. He caught Sherry, blew past him, and as the crowd of nearly 10,000 roared its approval won going away. "With 300 to go I kicked it in and won by seven seconds in the last 300 meters."
His second NCAA Championship was the epicenter of a rollicking spring and summer for Butler. He had won three individual Big Sky titles in Bozeman two weeks before, won the U.S. National Championship 10,000 meters 10 days later, nearly topped Joe Falcon in a two-mile match race at Hayward Field, and shortly after that ran a 27:59 on European soil to qualify for the World Championships.
"It was a whirlwind," the Eureka native recalls.
He also holds fond memories of running at Hayward Field in what is called Tracktown, USA. "First of all it's a beautiful facility," he said, "so you take a beautiful facility with that much tradition and pack it full of fans with a huge amount of knowledge about track and field. They follow it religiously, and you can just tell with how they're paying attention (by) the questions they ask, the enthusiasm of the crowd. There's just no environment out there… in the United States that compares to Hayward Field."
So as Cristian Soratos, who finished second at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile, lines up Friday at Hawyard Field, Butler will be watching with interest. "It's great for him, great for (the state of) Montana and great for Montana State."
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