The Wisconsin men's cross country team extended its reign as top dog of the Big Ten to nine straight years after clinching the team and individual titles, and placing all five scorers in the top 10 of the conference championships Saturday.
The Badgers broke their own record for most consecutive conference titles, topping the eight straight wins they obtained from 1985 to 1992.
Wisconsin scored a mere 33 points, well ahead of Minnesota, the runners-up who scored 65 points. On paper, it appeared then-No. 10 Michigan, who ran below-par for a fifth place finish, was capable of breaking UW's winning streak, but inexperience was no match for the talent of the freshman-sophomore dominated team.
Junior Matt Withrow won the individual title and covered the 8000-meter course at four-minute, 47-second mile pace, in 23:44. He beat Minnesota's Hassan Mead by three seconds.
It's great to see Matt Withrow win the individual title; that's always something that we like to bring home to Madison,"" head coach Jerry Schumacher said.
Withrow produced Wisconsin's eighth individual championship of the past decade.
Junior Stu Eagon, last year's Big Ten runner-up, took fifth place and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors along with Withrow. He finished the 8k in 23:55.
Sophomore Andrew Lacy was the third Badger to finish under 24 minutes, in eighth place overall in 23:58.
Right behind Lacy were redshirt freshmen Landon Peacock and sophomore Brandon Bethke who placed ninth and 10th, running 24:01 and 24:03, respectively. Lacy, Peacock and Bethke each made second-team All-Big Ten.
The pushers, who didn't score for UW but ""pushed"" the scores of other teams up, were junior Christian Wagner, who ran 24:19 for 18th, and freshman Jack Bolas, who went 24:24 for 19th.
Craig Miller was a second behind Bolas for 21st place and Ryan Gasper rounded out the nine-man squad with a 31st place finish in 24:44.
""I'm really proud of the way the guys executed the race out there today,"" Schumacher said. ""They did it to perfection and it was just a good day to be a Badger out there.""
Women's recap
Women's head coach Jim Stintzi was right when he said the Big Tens would be a dog fight among the top seven teams. The Badgers came up short Saturday and took sixth, only 22 points behind third place Michigan.
Minnesota broke a five-year Michigan streak and took home the team title by edging Michigan State by one point, 72-73. Wisconsin scored 112 points, finishing close behind Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, who scored 90, 95 and 103, respectively.
Iowa's Diane Nikuri won the individual title and finished the 6000-meter course in 19:37.
Sophomore Hanna Grinaker earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for the second year in a row, placing fifth in 20:11, averaging 5:26 per mile. Last year Grinaker placed third overall.
The Badgers' second runner, junior Gwen Jorgensen, placed 18th overall, running 20:43. Senior Ann Detmer was close behind, running 20:49 for 21st place.
Senior Amanda Ganser ran 21:11 for 34th. UW's final finisher, redshirt freshman Cassie Hintz, who has been finishing right around Grinaker all season, took 36th and ran 21:12. Stintzi said she had been sick for a brief period the week before.
""The difference between Cassie having a regular day and where she was, was the difference between third and sixth [team finish],"" Stintzi said.
Freshman Leah Coyle ran sixth for UW, at 21:15 for 40th. Senior Kait Hurley was one place behind Hintz at 21:17.
Also competing for the Badgers were junior Sarah Hurley, who went 21:33 for 46th, and Maggie Collison, who finished 62nd in 22:01.
""We have not executed as a group so far this year,"" Stintzi said. ""For us to go to nationals, we're going to have to have five people step up on the same day.""
The next round of the championship season is the NCAA Regionals at Indiana Nov. 10. The women will run 6k again, but the men's race will be over a mile longer - from 8k to 10k. The top two teams qualify automatically for the NCAA championships.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
