The Wisconsin Badgers men's cross country team broke a string of three consecutive second place finishes to win their first NCAA team title in 17 years with a score of 37 points. Senior Simon Bairu notched his second consecutive individual title with a time of 29:15.9.
'I think the thing they did better today than I've ever seen them do, was they ran a race like they would typically run, but they didn't put a lot of emotional energy into the first half of the race,' Wisconsin head coach Jerry Schumacher said. 'They really were patient. They had the patience they needed to have to carry them through the second half of the race. They just did it to perfection today.'
Bairu won the individual title just a year after his 2004 time of 30:37.7 made him the first Badger to accomplish the feat since Tim Hacker in 1985. He is now one of three, along with 1939's Walter Mehl, to take home the title, but Bairu is the first to do so twice.
'Jerry and I had a long talk yesterday and we pretty much decided, as tough as it was going to be, I was going to run for the team,' Bairu said.
Five other Badgers placed in the top 20, with junior Chris Solinsky coming in third place with a time of 29:27.8.
'I think I timed it pretty good because that last stretch hurt pretty bad,' Solinsky said. 'For a while I was thinking about trying to get with the lead group, but I'll save that for next year maybe.'
Women finish 20th
Junior Katrina Rundhaug's 36th- place finish lead the Badgers to 20th-place at the NCAA Championships. Rundhaug's finish, just a tenth of a second behind Boston College's Laurel Burdick, assured the junior that she would not receive All-America honors, a title only given to the first 35 finishers.
There were six other members of the UW team that competed in the race. Freshman Alicia Pabich's time of 21:13.6 was good enough for 111th place and senior Maggie Grabow ended her UW career with a 117th place finish and a time of 21:16.2.
'Overall from Pre-Nationals to here, we improved a tremendous amount,' head coach Jim Stinzi said. 'I mean everybody ran substantially faster. Obviously Katrina ran great but I'd say Alicia and Maggie both really stepped up today and ran well ... I think it was good. The best we could expect probably.'
