Badgers Garner Three Big Ten Harrier Awards
November 02, 2006 | Men's Cross Country
The University of Wisconsin cross country programs picked up three Big Ten Conference post-season awards, the league office announced today. Men's coach Jerry Schumacher was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year while Brandon Bethke and Hanna Grinaker were named Big Ten Freshman of the Year for men and women, respectively.
Schumacher, who earned his sixth consecutive coach of the year award, led his Badgers to a record-tying eighth consecutive Big Ten title last Sunday in Bloomington, Ind. The award brings his total to seven honors, all in the last eight years, surpassing former UW head coach Martin Smith, who won six honors from 1989-96.
Wisconsin swept the Big Ten Freshman of the Year awards for the second time in program history. In 1991, Jason Casiano won for the men while Jenny Howard was honored for the women. It is also only the fifth time since the award was begun in 1987 that one school has swept the awards.
Bethke, a redshirt freshman from Lake Forest, Calif., was the top freshman finisher for men at the Big Ten championships. He finished 14th in 24 minutes, 44 seconds to earn second-team All-Big Ten honors. In his first race in a Badger uniform, Bethke captured the individual title at the Carroll College Invitational, an accomplishment that earned him Big Ten Runner of the Week honors.
This is the fourth time in the last six years a UW men's runner was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Matt Withrow picked up the honor last season while Chris Solinsky was named in 2003.
Grinaker, a true freshman from Detroit Lakes, Minn., finished third and led the Badgers to a second-place team finish, the highest for the UW since 2000. Her time of 20:39 was the fastest among all freshman competitors and her third-place finish was the highest for a freshman since Michigan State's Danette Doetzel claimed the individual title in 2004. Grinaker picked up first-team All-Big Ten honors.
Grinaker was also named Big Ten Runner of the Week following her collegiate debut when she captured the individual title at the Eastern Illinois Panther Invitational. Grinaker is the first Wisconsin woman to be named freshman of the year since Erica Palmer won the award in 1998.
Both UW teams will be in competition Nov. 11 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Bowling Green, Ohio. The women's 6000-meter race begins at 11 a.m. ET while the men 's 10,000-meter race starts at 12:15 p.m. ET on the Mel Brodt Cross Country Course on the Bowling Green State University campus. The top-two teams at the regional automatically qualify for the 2006 NCAA Championships on Nov. 20 in Terre Haute, Ind. Thirteen at-large teams from all nine regions will also be selected for the NCAA meet.
