Men's cross country
Behind six top-20 finishers, the Wisconsin Badgers men's cross- country team claimed its fifth consecutive Big Ten team title Saturday in East Lansing, Mich. The young squad, which has no senior runners, finished the race with a combined time of 1:22:01.9 to retain the conference championship.
The Badgers finished with 40 points, 17 less than runner-up Michigan and 50 less than third-place Indiana. Leading the Badgers was sophomore Simon Bairu. Bairu improved on his ninth-place performance of last year by winning this year's race with a time of 23:58. Not far behind him was freshman Chris Solinsky, who placed third in his first Big Ten Championship race. Solinsky finished the race in 24:20. Rounding out the top five was junior Tim Keller. Keller's time of 24:24 was good enough for fifth place. Bairu, Solinsky and Keller all earned First-Team all-Big Ten honors with their fine performances.
Also earning all-Big Ten recognition was sophomore Bobby Lockhart. With a time of 24:38, Lockhart crossed the finish line in 14th place, good enough to merit Second-Team honors. Just two seconds behind Lockhart was junior Josh Spiker in 17th place. Freshman Tim Nelson's 18th-place finish gave the Badgers six runners in the top 20. The last Badger to cross the finish line was sophomore Ben Gregory, in 37th-place.
Volleyball
Though the Iowa Hawkeyes have yet to win a Big Ten match, the Wisconsin women's volleyball team was nearly upset in Iowa City Saturday. The Hawkeyes are in the midst of a dreadful 13-match losing streak, but one wouldn't have guessed by their performance against the Badgers.
The match ended with a score of 30-26, 30-26, 30-24 in favor of UW. Sophomore outside hitter Aubrey Meierotto led the Badgers with 17 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Sheila Shaw had 12 kills as well as a match-high five blocks.
UW Head Coach Pete Waite felt that one of the key aspects to the win was shutting down Iowa junior outside hitter Laura Simpson. The Hawkeye's kill leader was limited to 13 kills and was forced into 13 errors.
The Badgers had 19 unforced hitting errors of their own and only hit .223 percent. Iowa fared no better, hitting a paltry .113 percentage.
Though it wasn't the prettiest of victories, the win improved the Badgers' record to 17-6. At the half-way point of the Big Ten, UW sits tied with Penn State for second place, only one game behind first place Minnesota.
