On a warm, sunny day at the Panorama Farms Cross Country Course in Charlottesville, Virginia, the NCAA Cross Country Championships took place Saturday morning — featuring strong representation from the University of Wisconsin.
After both the men’s and women’s program earned second place at the Great Lakes Regional just over a week ago, UW punched their ticket to Virginia to compete in the marquee event of the cross country season.
It started with the women’s race, where storylines of the battle between Parker Valby of the University of Florida and Katelyn Tuohy of North Carolina State University highlighted the race.
For the Badgers, University of Wisconsin junior Leané Willemse continued a magical season, working her way to the chase pack of the race. She finished in 44th place with a time of 20:08 to cap off the 2023 campaign.
Willemse was followed by redshirt senior Vivian Hacker, who made a strong push at the end of the race to secure a 133rd place finish. Redshirt freshman Bella Jacobsen concluded her season with another quality outing, running a 20:55.
Graduate students Danielle Orie and Alexa Westley rounded out the top five scorers for UW. As a team, the Badgers earned a 22nd place finish, ending their season within the top-25 of all programs in the NCAA.
Valby maintained first place for the majority of the race and eventually won the individual championship. Tuohy and the wolfpack ran together to upset Northern Arizona University by just one point, winning the national championship as the No. 2 seed in the nation.
Cross Country: Wisconsin finds success in Great Lakes Regional run, both teams place second
Just under an hour later, the men’s race began, as UW entered the competition with high hopes of contending for a national championship.
The Badgers traveled to Virginia at full strength and a No. 5 ranking amongst the field. Fifth-year runner Jackson Sharp and redshirt sophomore Adam Spencer led the way for UW in this one, placing 41st and 70th, respectively.
The course, in addition to the warm weather, played a role in the race Saturday morning. It seemed to have slowed the Badgers a bit as well toward the end of the competition.
Senior Bob Liking — who embarked on Virginia with an undefeated individual record — fell in the standings throughout the race. He finished in 83rd, forcing others to step up.
Junior Joshua Truchon answered the bell, as the underclassman made up major ground on his opponents to run a 30:20 10K, good for 75th place. Redshirt freshman Micah Wilson was the fifth Badger to cross the finish line, as he did so in 30:51.
After the totaling of the scores, UW found themselves in 10th place overall. A quality team performance through the rolling hills of Virginia was how the Badgers ended their 2023 season.
Graham Blanks of Harvard University took home the individual championship and Oklahoma State University had all five of their scoring runners finish in the top-15. They put up an extremely low score of 49 points to earn the national championship trophy.
In the end, both of UW’s programs hit their stride this fall and established themselves as one of the top groups in the country. A Big Ten Championship for the men, in addition to two second place finishes in the Great Lakes Regional highlighted some of the major accomplishments for this program.
Each runner will now prepare for the track and field season in the springtime.
