Sports

Big Ten Championship awaits harriers

The Wisconsin men's and women's cross country teams will head to the Les Bolstad golf course for the annual Big Ten Championships this weekend. The No. 2 men's team will look to add to its trophy collection as it hunts for its 8th consecutive Big Ten title, while the women's team will attempt to improve on last year's 8th place finish.

"I think we're situated right where we want to be as a team," men's head coach Jerry Schumacher said. "And similar to past years, I think the team is improving as we go. Earlier season meets have indicated that I think we'll be pretty strong when we compete."

Making up the top contingent of runners for the Badgers will be senior Simon Bairu — who has won the event as an individual the past two years — senior Bobby Lockhart, junior All-American Chris Solinsky — who won the Notre Dame Invite last month — senior Ben Gregory — who took 3rd at the Jim Drews Invite two weeks ago — and senior Anthony Ford.

Having won seven consecutive titles, Wisconsin will definitely enter the competition with a bull's-eye on its back, a fact that hasn't escaped Schumacher.

"I think the Big Ten is always strong," Schumacher said. "It's probably one of the stronger, if not the strongest cross country conference in the country, there's probably five ranked, top 25-30 teams in the country in the Big Ten right now, so it's never an easy meet, so you especially can't have any mistakes and expect to do your best."

Joining Wisconsin in the rankings is No. 11 Iowa, No. 17 Michigan, No. 22 Indiana, No. 23 Minnesota and No. 26 Ohio State. Iowa, Michigan and Indiana all ran in the Pre-NCAA meet two weeks ago and took 4th, 6th and 8th place respectively. Indiana is led by senior All-American Sean Jefferson, while Michigan and Indiana have a contingent of top runners.

Minnesota ran against Wisconsin two weeks ago at the Jim Drews Invitational and finished a close second. With the addition of their two all-regional runners, senior Erik Grumstrup and junior Antonio Vega, who had been out most of the year with injuries, the competition looks stronger than ever in its push to outrun Wisconsin. Talent alone, however, does not win meets.

"Things got to go your way that day," Schumacher said. "We're working really hard on doing things right and trying to put ourselves in the best position to win and when we get there that day there's going to be a few other teams there in the same position. …Whoever has that best day that day is probably going to leave there the team champion and we're preparing to be that team."

The women enter the meet unranked after placing 16th at the Brooks Pre-Nationals meet two weeks ago. Head coach Jim Stintzi has several strong runners, including junior Katrina Rundhaug, who was the 14th-place finisher at the Pre-Nationals meet, but the team has struggled this season. Part their struggle can be attributed to injuries, but with the Badgers healthy, they're looking towards a solid showing at Les Bolstad.

"We're obviously really excited about heading into the Big Ten championships," Stintzi said. "We are healthier than we have been earlier in the season. We returned A' Havahla Haynes, who was second team all-conference last year; she'll be back for the big Ten championships so she'll help us come along. I think that we've made considerable progress since last year, although we're probably not where we should be. So our goal for the Big Ten championships is to take another step in that direction."

UW's biggest rival will be No. 2 Michigan, who is the favorite to win the meet and took first place in the Pre-Nationals meet two weeks ago by placing all five of their scorers in the top 22, and the No. 6 Illinois team which finished 5th at that meet. No. 11 Minnesota, No. 23 Michigan State and No. 30 Iowa are the other three ranked Big Ten teams.

"I think that if we would put everything together this year, we could be competitive enough to be a top-25 team," Stintzi said. "So that would be a step in the right direction and if we're not a contender next year, we'll be awfully close."