After completing their regular season with two first place finishes in Illinois last weekend, the University of Wisconsin Badgers’ cross country teams traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to compete in the Big Ten Cross Country Championships, beginning the postseason portion of their schedule.
The Wisconsin men’s team was looking to earn the title of Big Ten champion for the fifth straight season, led by Bob Liking, who won the individual title in a dominating fashion in 2021. As for the women, they were hoping to follow up a second-place finish last season, searching for a first-place finish in a wide open 2022 field.
“I say this every year, this is what we train for. We always talk about Big Tens and beyond,” Director of Cross Country Mick Byrne said in a press conference Tuesday. “It’s the most exciting part of our season and it kicks off postseason action.”
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Beginning with the women, Shea Ruhly once again led the way for the Badgers, as she finished eighth overall after hanging with the top of the pack for a majority of the race. On a difficult course in comparison to the Nuttycombe Invitational, Ruhly dropped seven seconds off her prior time, finishing in 20:26.
Samantha Stieve and Lucinda Crouch were close behind, placing 13th and 14th respectively. Each of the top three runners for the Badgers earned all-conference nominations for their performances, as Ruhly was first team All Big Ten and Stieve and Crouch were second team.
Vivian Hacker and Peyton Sippy rounded out the top five scorers for Wisconsin, as they each completed their 6K’s in 21:02 minutes, finishing 29th and 30th.
Despite successful runs, the Badgers placed third and took bronze at the Big Ten Championships. The Michigan State squad took gold and Michigan followed up with a second-place finish.
On the men’s side, Wisconsin was looking to prove themselves as one of the top teams in the nation, after dropping to nine in the NCAA rankings after their performance at the Nuttycombe Invitational.
They were able to do so, with Liking and the rest of the Badgers setting the pace for the latter half of the race.
After Michigan got off to a fast start, the Badgers were able to slowly climb to the top and take over the lead, as Evan Bishop, Adam Spencer, Rowan Ellenberg and Jackson Sharp were all able to advance into the top 10 runners three miles into the race.
Liking then made his move, as he created a five-second lead for himself as the runners entered their last mile.
In an intense last 400 meters, Liking edged out Sharp for the individual title with a time of 23:48, as the runners were only separated by a tenth of a second.
“I tried to go and keep it conservative, but on that course it’s impossible,” Liking said to Big Ten analyst Sara Kroll after the race. “Coming into the last 100 meters, I looked back and was like ‘Oh no,’ a lot of people were crashing down on me. I don’t know, I pulled out a good old fashion 10k kick and it was barely enough. Happy for the team and us today definitely.”
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The Badgers weren’t done yet, as Spencer and Ellenberg each finished in the top seven individual runners, giving Wisconsin four first team All Big Ten runners. Charlie Wheeler, Jack Meijer and Bishop then finished 9th, 10th and 11th respectively, earning the Badgers exactly half of the all-conference awards.
The men went on to win the meet by a landslide, as their placement combination of 1-2-6-7-9 gave them a team score of 25 points. The next closest team was Michigan at 57. Wisconsin won the Big Ten Championship for the fifth consecutive season, giving Byrne his 13th overall championship.
“We have a lot of big goals, Nutty wasn’t the best race for us,” Liking said. “I think it was good for us to come up and show out today, it’s such a good conference.”
Nov. 11, the Badgers travel down to Indiana to run in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional with a chance to punch their ticket to Stillwater, Oklahoma to compete in the NCAA Championships.
