Men's Harriers Win Big Ten Championship
October 31, 2004 | Men's Cross Country
Make it six in a row for the Wisconsin men's cross country team. The No.1 ranked Badgers won their sixth consecutive Big Ten Conference championship, this year it was by a record 81 points.
Wisconsin swept the top three places to win with 23 points, the fourth-lowest point total in championship history. Indiana was a distant second with 104 points while host Iowa was third with 110 points.
'I think the guys really performed well today. They did a great job,' said UW coach Jerry Schumacher. 'You can never anticipate going 1-2-3 like that; that was really neat the way that worked out. We just went in to have our best performance, to have our best race today. I thought they did a great job. '
Defending champion Simon Bairu kicked by teammates Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp over the last 2000 meters to win the 8000-meter race in 23 minutes, 45 seconds. Solinsky finished second in 23:55 while Tegenkamp, the 2002 champion, was third in 23:57. Bairu becomes the first repeat champion since the UW's Matt Downin won titles in 1998 and 1999.
'Going into the race, we wanted to work together, help each other stay as relaxed as possible,' said Bairu of the Badgers' lead trio. 'The way I look at it, I was just fortunate to feel the best out of the three. I think on any given day, any one of us could have won it and I was fortunate enough to win it.'
The Badgers were among the leaders in a large pack of runners during the first half of the race. At approximately the 3000-meter mark, Minnesota's Andrew Carlson started to push the pace and only the three Badgers were able to go with him. The lead pack of four runners (Bairu, Solinsky, Tegenkamp and Carlson) remained that way until Bairu made a move with a little under 2000 meters to go in the race.
'When I made a move, I wanted to be aggressive and I wasn 't going to look back,' said Bairu. 'I just wanted to run the best I could. I knew if I ran well, the team was going to do well and I think that 's what the other guys were thinking too.
'I just felt really, really flat this race,' said Tegenkamp, the 2002 individual champion. 'I was never able to get into a rhythm on this course. When Simon made his final move to go after it, I had to step off. There was no way I was going to be able to run with him today. Once that happened, I still had Chris right next to me which was awesome because if he wasn't next to me I would have just dropped back and run with Carlson and try to outrun him at the finish.'
The Minnesota senior finished fourth in 24:00 while Michigan 's Nathan Brannen was fifth in 24:16. UW senior Josh Spiker finished sixth in 24:18 as the top four Badgers earned All-Big Ten first-team honors.
Junior Bobby Lockhart rounded out the UW scorers in 11th place in 24:34. Lockhart and sophomore Tim Nelson, who was 13th in 24:36, both earned second-team All-Big Ten honors. Less than a minute separated the top six finishers for the Badgers.
'We find ourselves running in groups ' it happens more naturally than by design,' said Schumacher of his team's running. 'I want the guys to be able to run their own race but I think we find ourselves running with each other in packs just because it happens naturally in the race. I think that's going to be an asset to us down the road.'
Other UW finishers were junior Ben Gregory, 21st in 24:52; senior Tim Keller, who was hampered by a leg cramp, 37th in 25:12; and sophomore Teddy O 'Reilly, 56th in 25:41.
'We have to work on some things for the upcoming NCAA championship,' said Schumacher of his team. 'I think if we keep working towards improving ourselves as a team, it should be a fun part of the end of the season for us.'
The Badgers look to qualify for their 33rd consecutive NCAA championship when they run at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Nov. 13. The top two teams in the region automatically qualify for the NCAA championship with is Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Ind. Wisconsin is the defending regional champion and finished second in the 2003 NCAA meet.
