The No. 23 Wisconsin women's cross country team will have to upset No. 8 Michigan State or No. 9 Michigan at the Great Lakes regional hosted by Indiana Saturday for a guaranteed spot on the starting line at the NCAA championships, but a third place finish should earn them an at-large bid.
Besides the 18 automatic qualifiers, an NCAA committee selects an additional 13 teams for nationals. To get an at-large bid, UW will likely have to fend off Notre Dame and Marquette, the fourth and fifth ranked teams in the region.
The Badgers took sixth at the Big Tens last week, falling close behind five other top-30 teams in the conference.
Sophomore Hanna Grinaker enters Saturday's meet as UW's frontrunner, after placing fifth and earning first-team all-conference honors at the Big Tens. She was UW's top finisher and placed fourth at regionals last year.
Freshman Cassie Hintz, who usually finishes right by Grinaker, took 36th at Big Tens. Head coach Jim Stintzi said that had Hintz run what she normally does, UW could have beaten Michigan for third.
The Badgers may return only one other from last year's regionals runner besides Grinaker. Junior Sarah Hurley, UW's eighth runner at the Big Tens, placed 22nd last year.
Junior Gwen Jorgensen was the second Badger at Big Tens and took 18th. Seniors Ann Detmer and Amanda Ganser, two of last week's scorers, will need to crank out solid times for the team to make nationals.
Leah Coyle, Kait Hurley and Maggie Collison also competed at the conference championships and may race on the seven member regionals team.
Last year, Wisconsin captured second place and finished only 3 points behind Michigan State. This catapulted the Badgers to a fourth-place finish at nationals.
If the past is any indicator, the UW men's cross country team will likely run quick enough to win the Great Lakes regional while conserving their energy, to save enough for the NCAA championships nine days later.
Wisconsin will be going for its sixth straight Great Lakes regional championship. Last year the Badgers won with 52 points, and went on to place second at nationals.
UW's top competition at the regional will be No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 23 Michigan and No. 30 Ohio State.
The Badgers are coming off of their ninth straight and 41st all-time Big Ten win, after scoring 33 points and placing five in the top 10 Oct. 28. Junior Matt Withrow captured the individual title and was recently named Big Ten Athlete of the Year.
For the seventh consecutive year, UW head coach Jerry Schumacher is the Big Ten coach of the year, a new record.
Stu Eagon is returning as UW's top finisher from last year's regional meet where he placed fifth. He also placed fifth at Big Tens two weeks ago.
Sophomore Andrew Lacy, who took eighth in the Big Tens, placed 22nd at the Great Lakes regional last year. Fellow sophomore Brandon Bethke took 10th at both the Big Tens placed 10th at regionals last year.
Also likely to field the regionals squad are freshmen Landon Peacock and Jack Bolas, and junior Christian Wagner. Sophomore Craig Miller, UW's eighth at Big Tens, was ninth at regionals last year. Sophomore Ryan Gasper also competed at conference and may fill a regional spot.
Both teams will be looking to peak for the NCAA championships, which takes place Monday Nov. 19 at Terra Haute, Ind.
