Badgers Remain in No. 1 Spot
September 27, 2005 | Men's Cross Country
For the third consecutive week, the Wisconsin men's cross country holds the top spot of the MONDO NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country poll released Tuesday.
The Badgers received eight first place votes in the poll after coming of a second place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational this past Saturday. Senior runner Simon Bairu finished first of 225 runners at the Invitational with a time of 24:43. Two other runners placed in the top 10 while competing in their first meet as Badgers. Redshirt freshman Stuart Eagon clocked a 24:15 for a fifth place finish, while senior Anthony Ford, who also redshirted last season after transferring from Montana two years ago, finished eighth with a time of 24:27.
Wisconsin entered the Preseason MONDO poll at No. 1 with nine first place votes. Last week, the Badgers remained in the top spot with 11 first place votes following an off weekend. This week, the Badgers secured eight first place votes.
For the past two weeks, 2004 National Champion Colorado and Arkansas held their ground and No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. This week, Arkansas moved ahead of Colorado for the No. 2 spot while Colorado dropped to No. 3. Both teams received four first place votes.
Stanford and Brigham Young also switched this week. BYU opened the season at No. 4, dropped down to No. 5 last week and after winning the Roy Griak Invitational, moved back down to No. 4 this week. Stanford opened the season at No. 5, inched down to No. 4 last week and is now back at No. 5
As for the rest of the Big Ten, all the teams ranked last week moved up in this week's poll except for one. Iowa jumped from No. 13 last week to No. 10 this week, Michigan leapt from No. 22 to No. 14, Indiana moved from No. 21 to No. 19 and Minnesota dropped from No. 25 to No. 20. Ohio State moved backwards one spot from No. 15 to No. 16.
This week the Badgers head to the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. to defend their No. 1 ranking. The meet kicks off at 5:00 p.m. and will be run on the Burke Memorial Golf Course.
