COLLEGE--2006: Vaughn picked up where he left off in 2004 after taking a medical redshirt in 2005. Vaughn led CU in two races and finished no lower than 12th all season. He started his comeback with a ninth-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Shootout, third for CU. At pre-nationals, he was 10th overall; again third on the team. Vaughn picked up the pace and led CU to its 11th straight Big 12 Championship with a bronze medal. He earned his second all-region title with a ninth-place finish as the second Buff across the finish. Vaughn led CU to its second NCAA Title in three years with a 12th-place finish, helping the Buffs defeat the overall favorite, Wisconsin, by 48 points. He became one of four to win two titles while at CU. Vaughn led CU to the title in 2004.

2005: Redshirt. Did not compete.

2004: Vaughn took over the reigns as Wetmore’s No. 1 runner, the first true sophomore to hold that distinction since Jorge Torres (2000) and first Coloradoan since Adam Goucher in 1998 and went 800-10 in that role. He ran bridesmaid finishes in three races in ‘04 by less than a combined 10 seconds. He was eight ticks off the winning pace in the season-opening Rocky Mountain Shootout and ran side by side with New Mexico’s Matt Gonzales for most of the 8k Pre-Nats race until Gonzales pulled away with 30 meters to go for the win, less than a second ahead of Vaughn. Two weeks later Kansas’ Benson Chesang pulled away at the 4k mark of the Big 12 Championship race and although Vaughn made up ground, it wasn’t enough as he settled for his third runner-up finish. In his first regional qualifying race, he turned in a respectable fifth place effort, as CU’s No. 2 scorer to teammate Bret Schoomeester. The two reversed finishes at the NCAA Championships, as Vaughn ran to what would be his first of three sophomore season All-American finishes when he crossed the finish line fourth at the NCAA Championship, leading a CU contingent that had all five scorers among the top 50 for 90 points and the four-point team title, the closest championship since ‘01 when the Buffs upended Stanford by a single point.

2003: Vaughn lived up to his prep resume hype as CU’s top newcomer, following in a long-line of great freshman-year performances. He finished fourth overall, as CU’s No. 3 runner, at his career christening Rocky Mountain Shootout and scored two weeks later as CU’s fifth runner, 34th overall, in the Pre-National Invitational which had a field of 245 runners. He was the top freshman, and second highest newcomer, at the Big 12 Championships when he finished eighth, as CU’s third runner. He was slated to run the national qualifying race, until a case of food poisoning got the better of him at 4 a.m. race day and he was forced to withdraw from the race. He made up for it nine days later at NCAAs when he scored as the Buffs’ fourth runner.

HIGH SCHOOL: Vaughn was a two-year letterwinner in cross country and three in track at Smoky Hill. As a junior he was the Colorado State 5A champion in cross and the 3,200-m run and was runner-up in the 1,600-m. He successfully defended his 3,200-m title as a senior and took runner-up distinction in the 1,600-m and cross. He graduated from Smoky Hill with prep records in the 1,600-m (4:14), 3,200-m (8:45) and 5k (15:16).

IN THE CLASSROOM: An Applied Math major at Colorado, he carries a 3.328 cumulative gpa into his senior season. He is a member of the Academic All-Big 12 team and the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

PERSONAL: Brenton Vaughn was born Sept. 4, 1984 in Sterling, Colo. His parents are Brad and Debbie Vaughn of Aurora, his older sister Audra is an artist and his younger sister, Danae, goes to Northern Colorado. He would like to pursue a professional running career sans CU. Vaughn married fellow cross country/track and field teammate Sara Ensrud on July 28 in Boulder. They welcomed a daughter, Ciara Grace, on Sept. 23, 2006.