Wisconsin Cross Country Squads head to NCAA Championships
November 20, 2005 | Women's Cross Country
The Wisconsin men's and women's cross country teams close out their seasons Monday at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. The 10K men's race kicks off at 11 a.m. while the women's 6K event begins at 12:15 p.m. on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course.
The No. 1-ranked Badger men automatically qualified for their 34th-straight trip to the NCAA Championships by winning the Great Lakes Regional title in Bloomington, Ind., Nov. 12. Wisconsin placed four runners in the top 10 and posted a team score of 49 in the effort.
Senior Bobby Lockhart led the way at regionals with his sixth-place finish when he recorded a time of 31:15.8 on the 10K course. Following Lockhart, junior Chris Solinsky and senior Anthony Ford both ran a 31:23.6 for eighth and ninth-place finishes, respectively. Senior Simon Bairu rounded out the top 10 with a time of 31:23.7.
This year at the NCAA Championships, the Badgers look to break their second-place streak. The team has finished as the runner-up the last three years, last winning an NCAA title in 1988. In 2002, Wisconsin scored 107 points to finish second behind Stanford's 47 points. In 2003, Stanford dominated the competition again by scoring 27 points compared to Wisconsin's second-place score of 174. Then in 2004, Stanford finally dropped out of the top spot but Wisconsin's 94 points were not enough to beat champion Colorado's 90 points.
Though they did not place first as a team, Wisconsin did claim the individual title in 2004. Bairu crossed the finish line at 30:38 to become the third Badger in history to win the title. Before Bairu, Tim Hacker won the individual championship in 1985, and the first Badger to ever win dates back to 1939 when Walter Mehl ran a 20:30.9 on the four-mile course.
Over 400 runners representing 63 Division I teams throughout the country will compete in the 2005 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship. Included in those teams are Colorado and Stanford along with several other ranked teams. Stanford was ranked No. 6 in the final MONDO NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country Poll while Colorado stands at No. 3. Besides those two teams, No. 2 Arkansas has also been strong in the polls and will head into the meet behind the top-ranked Badgers. Though they are now ranked second, Arkansas did steal the top-spot from Wisconsin for two polls this season.
The Wisconsin women's squad earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships following a third-place finish at the Great Lakes Regional. Following its strong regional performance, Wisconsin also climbed to its highest position of the year in the FinishLynx/NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Poll at No. 21.
Junior Katrina Rundhaug paced the Badger runners at the Great Lakes Regional with a time of 21:37.3 to finish 12th overall and earned a spot on the All-Great Lakes Region Team. Also grabbing all-region honors, senior Maggie Grabow finished No. 21 overall, clocking in at 21:50.1.
Rundhaug has led the Badgers in every race she has run this season and represented Wisconsin as an individual at the 2004 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Rundhaug placed 59th with a time of 21:31.1.
The Badgers last qualified for the NCAAs as a team in 2003, finishing 26th. The 2005 NCAA Championships mark the program's 20th national appearance.
The Badgers are one of 64 women's teams set to compete Monday among a field of nationally ranked teams that includes No. 1 Duke as well as 28 of the country's top 30 squads.
At last year's NCAA Championships, Colorado took home the team title while Providence's Kim Smith placed fist as an individual.
Check back to uwbadgers.com for more on Wisconsin cross country.
