Both the men's and women's cross country teams competed at the Big Ten Championship in Minneapolis, Minn. Sunday.
The nationally ranked No. 2 Wisconsin men garnered their seventh-consecutive Big Ten title. The Badgers dominated the event with a score of 16 points and a margin of victory of 85 points, which are both Big Ten records.
Senior Simon Bairu came away with his third straight individual title with a time of 21:31.73 minutes on the 8K course. He is the first UW runner to win three consecutive Big Ten individual titles and the second to be a three-time Big Ten Champion. Tim Hacker was the only other runner to win three championships.
The men showed great success with many strong performances. In the men's event, nine of the top 10 finishers were from Wisconsin and UW swept the top four spots. Chris Solinsky finished second behind Bairu with a time of 23:56.38, the second year in a row that Solinsky finished second to Bairu. In third, freshman Matt Withrow finished at 24:06.58. To round out the top four, Stuart Eagon, also a freshman, finished with a time of 24:07.08.
In the women's race, Wisconsin finished in sixth place with 146 points and the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines captured the title with 42 total points. The top finisher for the Badgers was Katrina Rundhaug with a time of 21:39.74, placing 15th overall. The next Badger to finish was freshman Alicia Pabich, who had a time of 22:07.89 and ended overall in 28th place.
