Senior Simon Bairu has received more than a fair share of honors during his time at Wisconsin. The Saskatchewan native has been everything from an All-American to an NCAA cross country champion. Bairu has even been a two-time Canadian Cross Country champion. But is the personal glorification given to Bairu, even with the awards or the headlines, really all that fulfilling?
'For me, the challenge is to help this team,' Bairu said in a press conference this past Monday. 'Lead the team into winning [the NCAA] team title.'
However, before Bairu and No. 2 Wisconsin compete in the NCAA championship in Terre Haute, Ind., they will first compete in the Big Ten Championship. The Badgers are looking to win their seventh straight Big Ten title when they head out to Minneapolis Sunday. Head coach Jerry Schumacher is more than confident with his team's performance as of late.
'We're improving as we go,' Schumacher said. 'Early season meets so far indicated that. I think we'll be pretty strong when we do get to those meets and we're ready to compete.'
While the title of Big Ten champion would be something that the team would look forward to and relish, Bairu has seen the trophy before and he wants more. The senior views the upcoming event as a way for himself to gear up for a team national title.
'There's always room for improvement and right now there's still a few things that I have to work on to make sure that I'll be prepared for nationals,' Bairu said. 'That's where the Big Ten meet is going to come in for me. I'm going to use that as a stepping stone to help me get better for the national meet.'
Heading into the upcoming Big Ten meet, Wisconsin certainly has a lot of talent. Along with Bairu, who was awarded Runner of the Week back in September for his first-place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational, junior Chris Solinsky was also given the award later this season. The Stevens Point native notched a first-place finish in the Notre Dame invitational earlier this month. Last year in the Big Tens, the 2004 All-American finished second overall (only behind Bairu) in the Big Ten Championship with a time of 23:55.
His team's exemplary performance at the Big Tens last year has convinced Schumacher that there is very little to change in terms of preparation for this year's conference meet.
'We're doing some things differently, but I don't think the approach is really any different,' Schumacher said. 'You know, our goal is to try to put ourselves in the best position possible to be the best team we can on that particular day.'
If Schumacher fails to coach his team to victory on Sunday, it will be the first time since 1998'??his very first year at UW'that the team failed to win. For the coach that has helped produce 18 All-America selections and 21 first-team All-Big Ten choices, he knows that, while laying the groundwork through practice and earlier meets helps, a little bit of good fortune does not hurt.
'What goes into [having success] is all the work you do all season and the preparation and training, all the little things we talk about,' Schumacher said. 'And it takes a little bit of luck and things have got to go your way that day.'
For Schumacher, Bairu and entire Badger team, whether things go their way or not, Sunday's Big Ten championship is theirs to lose.
