The Wisconsin men's cross country team has established its dominance in the sport throughout the country over the last 10 years, and all that hard work finally paid off with a triumphant victory in the 2005 NCAA National Championship.
A repeat will be quite a challenge for the Badgers, mainly due to the graduation of star runner Simon Bairu. Bairu has been a major contributor to the success of the men's cross-country team, and he will surely be missed.
A native of Regina, Saskatchewan, Bairu won his second consecutive NCAA Cross Country individual championship in 2005 while leading the team to its first national title since 1988. Bairu was a three-time Big Ten Cross Country individual champion while the Badgers won team titles in all four of his years. He was named the United States Track Coaches Association Cross Country Athlete of the Year for the second straight year and an All-American for the third consecutive year.
With such an impressive rAcsumAc, the Badgers will have fairly large shoes to fill with the departure of Bairu. However, the returning Wisconsin runners are more then up to the challenge.
Some of the runners who will be depended on heavily this upcoming season are juniors Chris Solinsky and Tim Nelson, along with senior Codie See.
Solinsky is well known throughout Madison for his efforts each spring during the track and field season, but he is just as much of a threat every fall during cross country. Solinsky was named the 2003 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. The Stevens Point native was also on the 2003 and '04 All-Big Ten teams, the 2003 and '04 cross country All-Region teams and the 2003 and '04 cross country All-American teams. This past season Solinsky finished first at the Notre Dame Invitational in the 8,000 meters with a time of 23:21. Wisconsin will look for great things from Solinsky this upcoming season.
Tim Nelson has also found success in a Wisconsin uniform. The junior from Palo Cedro, Ca., earned all-region honors in 2004 with an 18th-place finish at the Great Lakes regional. Nelson also earned second-team All-Big Ten honors in '04 with a 13th-place finish at the conference meet.
Codie See heads into this season looking to lead this year's team to another national championship. The Chippewa Falls, Wis. native finished eleventh overall and fifth on the team at the Iowa Invitational in 2004.
The Badgers kick off the season Sept. 9 at the Indiana State Invitational and will hopefully finish the year Nov. 20 at the NCAA Championship.
