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Earlier today, Cindy Kuzma of Runner's World reported that Mark Wetmore, a long-time coach for the Colorado men and women who led his teams to multiple national titles, is not expected to have his contract renewed by the university at the end of the month.
Fellow long-time associate coach, Heather Burroughs, is also not expected to continue coaching at Colorado while assistant coach Shaun Wicen is not expected to keep his role either, per the report.
The Stride Report has since independently verified the coaching changes.
According to the Runner's World article, Colorado's Athletic Director, Rick George, released the following statement (which The Stride Report has been unable to independently verify):
"In over 30 years, Mark Wetmore has built one of the country’s premier cross country programs and is an institution within the cross country and track & field communities. At this point, however, I felt it was time for a new era of leadership for our programs. I wish Mark the best and thank him for his longtime service to CU Athletics."
Less than a year ago, the University of Colorado published findings from an internal investigation regarding the use of body composition tests on members of the track and field and cross country teams. The findings concluded that the tests, "negatively impacted a significant number of student athletes," specifically in regards to low bone density and eating disorders.
All of those findings can be found in the attached link, here.
In his 29 years as Colorado's head coach, Wetmore has developed a reputation as one of the greatest collegiate long distance coaches of the 21st century. In total, Wetmore has led his squads (both men and women) to eight NCAA cross country team titles and has also been responsible for producing five different individual cross country national title winners.
Many of the NCAA's most elite all-time distance stars have come out of the Wetmore-led program. Those names include (but are not limited to) Emma Coburn, Jenny Simpson, Dathan Ritzenhein, Kara Goucher, Dani Jones, Shayne Culpepper, Adam Goucher and Jorge Torres.
It should be noted that a handful of Colorado's former athletes, including aforementioned stars such as Kara Goucher and Jenny Simpson, have come forth with support of their former coach, highlighting more positive experiences with the Boulder-based program.
In an article published by Jonathan Gault of LetsRun last November, Gault noted that the Colorado women had placed 19th overall at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships which was, "their lowest finish since 2012." Meanwhile, the men's team placed 25th, "the worst performance of the Wetmore era."