Sports

UW harriers set for NCAA finals

The No. 1-ranked Wisconsin men’s cross country team heads into the NCAA Championships Monday, attempting to win the school’s first national championship since 1988. The Badgers, who qualified as a team for a the tournament by winning the Great Lakes regional, have finished second in the county the past two seasons — both times losing out to the Cardinal of Stanford.

The Badgers have also finished in the top-six, eight years running. This year, though, Wisconsin looks primed to finish on top, having been ranked first for much of the year and having defeated its opponents soundly in every race thus far.

“So far, they’ve done a great job all season long. You know, from what you can tell, from what other teams have done, there’s some other good teams out there,” said head coach Jerry Schumacher, who remains cautiously optimistic of UW’s chances to finish on top for the first time in 16 years.

“I think our team, on next week Monday when we go there, if we run the way we’re capable of, I think we have a great shot at winning.”

The competition — to be held Monday on the race course of Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind., — will be a fierce one, with several traditional national powers running against UW, including reigning title holder Stanford, who tallied a mere 24 points in last year’s tournament. The Badgers, in second place, had 174.

Schumacher is very aware of the strength of the field and has a list of teams that he feels in his mind could definitely leave Terre Haute as No. 1 in the nation.

“Arkansas, for sure, because they’ve won a lot of national titles in the last 20 years, I think 11 of them, so they’ll be a definite favorite. Colorado, Stanford and there’s always going to be a surprise team in there that really runs well on the day. But I think those three are the leading contenders as well.”

The Badgers have several runners who could compete for individual awards, such as All-American honors or even individual national champion. Simon Bairu and Matt Tegancamp look to lead the way for the Badgers, having finished first and second for the Badgers in three of the team’s five meets. Big Ten Champion and Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, Bairu will look to add even more hardware to his collection by competing for the individual national championship.

“Simon happened to be our number-one guy at the Big Ten meet that day and he had a great day and he ran a fabulous race,” Schumacher said of Bairu’s performance at the Big Ten Championships. “Simon’s done a great job. He’s come, I think, a long way in a short period of time to put himself as, you know, hopefully a national contender this year individually.”

Tegencamp, the 2002 Big Ten Champion and Athlete of the Year, will look to earn his third All-American award in cross-country. Tegencamp has also been an All-American twice in indoor track and field.

Schumacher made it clear, though, that none of the Badgers were looking to garner individual honors and that their sole focus, as a team, remains on taking the team national championship.

“There’s an individual component to it for each, you know, student athlete running; but their focus has always been the team,” Schumacher said. “So their attention is definitely on having, you know, the team perform as its highest level as a group.”

According to Schumacher, the team is anxious and ready to compete and is primed to finish first this year.

“I think we’ve done everything that we wanted to do this season, and now it’s just, you know, we’re right where we want to be. We just have to get to the meet now. And it’s just, the week is long because we’re ready to go and we want to do it. So, you know, the worries are behind us. Everyone’s healthy,” Schumacher said. “We’re ready to run.”