Badger Men Win Big Ten Conference Cross Country Championship
October 28, 2001 | Men's Cross Country
Led by three of the top four runners, the fourth-ranked University of Wisconsin men 's cross country team successfully defended its Big Ten Conference Championship. The Badgers, who were the two-time defending champions, scored 28 points to finish 43 points ahead of 12th-ranked Michigan. Michigan State finished third with 94 points.
On the women's side, Wisconsin's Bethany Brewster kicked over the last 400 meters to win the individual title for the Badgers third consecutive individual championship. Brewster covered the 5000-meter course in 17:02.7, to lead Wisconsin to a third-place team finish.
'It feels good. It's nice to see the ladder of improvement,' said Brewster who finished fifth as a freshman, third as a sophomore and second as a junior. 'Getting the individual title certainly helped my disappointment (with the team's finish) because it was my last year.'
Redshirt freshman Matt Tegenkamp was Wisconsin's top men 's finisher, covering the 8000-meter course on the University of Illinois Golf Course in 23:23.2. Michigan freshman Alan Webb won the individual title in 23:19.9.
Tegenkamp was followed closely by teammates Josh Spiker and Isaiah Festa. Spiker, a redshirt freshman, finished third in 23:49.8 and Festa, a redshirt junior, was fourth in 23:50.9. Senior captain Nick Winkel, running in his first race of the season, was sixth in 24:11.5. Redshirt sophomore Drew Hohensee rounded out the Badger scorers finishing 13th in 24:21.1. All five UW runners earned all-Big Ten honors with the top four being named to the first team.
Other Wisconsin finishers included redshirt freshman Colin Steele 46th in 25:04.4 and junior Sam Jackson 75th in 25:59.9.
Hurt by injuries, the Badger women finished third in the team race after six consecutive team titles. Wisconsin ran without two-time defending individual champion Erica Palmer, who will likely not run anymore due to two surgeries on her calves.
Sixth-ranked Michigan State, which is coached by former Badger all-American Jim Stintzi, won its first team title since 1981. The Spartans scored 35 points with three runners in the top nine and all five scorers in the top 14. Michigan was a surprise second-place finisher with 101 points while Wisconsin scored 106 points.
'Michigan State was a very, very strong team,' said UW women's coach Peter Tegen. 'They have a better team this year than we do.
'We know from the past for things to work out really well, the whole team has to fire on all cylinders. That wasn't the case with us. '
Sophomores Michelle Lilienthal and Hilary Edmondson earned second-team all-Big Ten honors with their finishes. Lilienthal was 10th in 17:44.3 while Edmondson finished 13th in 17:46.1.
Junior Liz Reusser, who ran in her first meet of the season, finished 26th in 18:05.3. Freshman Linsey Blaisdell, who had run with Lilienthal and Edmondson the first two meets of the season, was bothered by a cold and finished 60th in 18:47.3. Other Wisconsin finishers were Sarah Kolpin, 62nd in 18:48.4; Sarah Foster, 74th in 19:04.8; and Leslie Patterson, 89th in 20:26.0.
'We should be able to top this for regionals,' said Tegen of the upcoming NCAA Regional Qualifying meet on Nov. 10. 'I'm still quite confident, especially if some of them get a bit of a break, that we'll be okay (to qualify for the NCAA Championship). We'll have to try to pull ourselves together. And we'll battle with MSU one more time at the regionals. '
