Bairu Wins NCAA Title, UW Finishes Second
November 22, 2004 | Men's Cross Country
Wisconsin junior Simon Bairu became the first UW men's cross country runner to win the individual NCAA title since 1985, crossing the line first in 30:38 Monday afternoon at the 2004 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. As a team, UW placed second with 94 points, just four points behind Colorado. It is the Badgers' third consecutive runner-up finish.
'My plan pror to the race was if I was up in front, I was going to make a move with about 1500 meters to go, Bairu said. 'Coming down the stretch, I was too scared to look back to see who was behind me or how close they were. I 'm just so happy with the way I ran and still can't believe I won today. '
Bairu ran with the lead pack the entire race. At about the 8,000-meter mark, Bairu, Josaphat Boit of Arkansas and Matt Gonzales of New Mexico broke away. The three ran together with Bairu and Boit eventually pulling ahead of Gonzales. As the pair emerged around the final turn and headed down the final 800-meter straightaway, Bairu sprinted past Boit. With about 50 meters left, he looked behind him and saw he had the win, pumping his fist in the air.
'I'm extremely proud of the way Simon ran, ' UW head coach Jerry Schumacher said. 'He showed a lot of heart, desire and drive to get to the finish line and he did a great job. It is probably a little bittersweet for him.'
Two other Wisconsin runners, senior Matt Tegenkamp and sophomore Chris Solinsky, also finished in the top 20 and earned All-America honors. Tegenkamp earned his third cross country All-America honor by placing 11th overall while Solinsky was 16th overall, earning his second consecutive All-American honor.
Rounding out UW's top five were senior Tim Keller (47th overall) and junior Bobby Lockhart (54th overall). Senior Josh Spiker finished 88th overall while sophomore Tim Nelson was 101st. Colorado's top five runners finished 4-5-15-31-35 while Wisconsin's runners were 1-9-11-34-39 in the team competition.
'I think the guys did a good job,' Schumacher said. 'Looking at the scores, it seems to me there was quite a bit of `unpredictableness ' in the race today. I feel like Colorado ran an awesome race. They put it together at the end, when it mattered most.'
On the women's side, sophomore Katrina Rundhaug competed as an individual and finished 59th out of 248 runners in the 6,000-meter race.
