SPORTS
Badgers race for Big Ten
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Also by Liz Waldron:
- UW preps for ITA tourney (October 19, 2006)
- Badgers race for Big Ten (October 27, 2006)
Related Stories:
- Badgers hunting for National Title (November 21, 2005)
- Wisconsin travels to NCAA championships (November 20, 2006)
- In-state product continues to make history (March 26, 2007)
- Badger track teams gear up for Big Ten Indoor meets (February 24, 2006)
- Solinsky looking for UW to repeat (September 21, 2006)
by Liz Waldron
Friday, October 27, 2006
This weekend both the Wisconsin men's and women's cross country teams will be participating in the Big Ten Championships.
The men's team looks to win its eighth consecutive Big Ten Championship, which would tie the record for most consecutive Big Ten wins.
Senior Chris Solinsky, runner-up in last year's championship, leads the team.
"He's a big name in the sport right now to have leading your team," head coach Jerry Schumacher said. "So that's been a tremendous advantage, to have such a young squad … following under that kind of leadership."
While last year's team consisted of many upperclassmen, this season's team is younger.
"We started [last] season out with a lot of experience," Schumacher said. "Right from the start you could see what the season was all about. And this year it's been a little bit different, a lot of young guys in the mix. I wouldn't be surprised if six or seven of our top nine guys, or 10 guys this year will be freshmen and sophomores, so it's going to be a young team."
As defending champs, there were a lot of questions to whether or not this season's team would perform at the level of previous ones.
"Every single week we've improved, and it's been a noticeable improvement," Schumacher said. "So I'm kind of excited to see where we're going through the championship part of the season this year."
Being the defending champions of the Big Ten title, this young squad has to be feeling some pressure.
"Over the last few years that's kind of been the expectation," Schumacher said. "The guys come in, and the recruits who are coming here know that they're expected to perform at that highest national level now, and that's really the objective of the team. We want to be considered one of the best programs in the country year in and year out, and they identify that on the recruiting visit now, and that's a big step."
Confidence should be high as the team enters the championships ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation.
"Although we're ranked No. 1, I don't know if that's [necessarily] a just ranking, other than the fact that we really haven't faced a lot of big-time competition yet, so we haven't been tested yet," Schumacher said. "There's certainly the feeling that we're a contender again this year, and a lot of people think that we're the team to beat."
Although team members are confident in themselves, there has been speculation about how well their leader, Solinsky, will perform in the Big Ten Championship. Solinsky has only run in one of the four scheduled meets this season.
"It's not a problem when you're a senior and veteran like Chris is," Schumacher said. "He knows what the big-time competition is like, and he knows what he has to (do) and what we're trying to do to prepare him to hopefully be a contender for the individual (national) title this year in cross country."
The men's team isn't just a contender to win the Big Ten Championship but the National Championship as well.
"We've always looked at the Big Ten meet as kind of that first championship race of the year, and we've always considered that you've got to be good in your own backyard before you can go and play in other people's backyards and win too," Schumacher said. "That's kind of the first initial step that I always say for the team, 'Hey, we have to be able to win the Big Ten meet and control the race and do it the way we want to do it, if we really, really want to be good on the national scene.'"
Also participating in the Big Ten Championship this weekend is the women's cross country team. Heading into the meet, the women are ranked No. 5 in the nation and will be competing against four other teams ranked among the top 15 in the nation including: defending champion Michigan (No. 3), as well as Minnesota (No. 6), Illinois (No. 9) and Michigan State (No. 13).
Women's head coach Jim Stintzi said in Monday's press conference, "It's probably the deepest Big Ten Championship field that I've seen."
The Badgers are led by freshman Hanna Grinaker and senior Katrina Rundhaug.
"Hanna's basically led our team all year long, and Katrina's followed closely," Stintzi said. "Katrina's been a couple-time All-American, so that tells you how well Hanna's running right now."
Who knew that Grinaker would be good enough, as a freshman, to lead this team?
"I had an inkling that Hanna would be pretty good. At this point in the season, she's very, very good," Stintzi said, "I wasn't sure that she'd be as good as she is right now. She is ahead of her years in terms of confidence and maturity when it comes to racing skill."
Considering how well Grinaker is running, the Badgers should be ahead on their game plan.
"Are we ahead of schedule? Well, I'll tell you after Sunday. It really is such a tight team race that we could be anywhere from first to fifth," Stintzi said. "If we're fifth, I'd say we're behind schedule. If we're first, I'd say we're ahead of schedule."
The women's confidence has been building going into this weekend.
"I think confidence plays a big factor, and we actually kind of set up the schedule this year because the team is young and not necessarily experienced at the higher levels of the national level. So we started out with some meets that were not necessarily really competitive and got bigger and bigger as we went along," Stintzi said. "I think that has really built the team's confidence, provided they [had run] well, and they [did run] well. So they are running with some confidence, and I think we're going into the Big Ten meet confident that we have a chance to win."
Feeding off confidence from the men, the women have stepped it up a notch.
"I think that the women feel that they need to sort of step up to the plate and become a national power," Stintzi said. "We've been a national power here before, and I think that we have the capability to be again."
