Transcript from Mick Byrne's press conference
November 17, 2010 | Men's Cross Country
Nov. 17, 2010
MADISON, Wis.--Wisconsin men’s cross country coach Mick Byrne met with the media on Nov. 13. Byrne provided a recap of the Badgers’ successes, along with a preview for the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 22.
Mick Byrne: "Coming off two wins at the Big Ten Championships and the Great Lakes Regional, obviously we’re riding on a lot of confidence right now. It’s been a lot of fun the last two weeks and very exciting for our kids. We’re looking forward to next Monday. Anytime you win the conference championship and the regional championships, you’re going to gain a ton of confidence from that. Moving forward into the national championships next week, our kids are very excited.
In terms of the Big Ten two weeks ago, that was an exciting win for us. We won at home under a lot of pressure and beat a great team like Indiana. Indiana came here to knock the Badgers off. Our kids responded really well to that pressure, and that was a lot of fun. It was a great event for us, great event for the University and for Madison, and there were a lot of spectators out there on the course. Hopefully we’ve done enough to convince the powers that be that we’re ready to host a regional meet and ready to host the national championships.
Moving on to this past Saturday’s regional meet, our goal going into it was obviously to get through the race without any major issues in terms of injuries. Our mission was accomplished. It wasn’t a real strenuous effort. The kids ran real controlled, got up front, dictated the pace and came out with a win.
So on we go to next week’s national championships. There are some great teams in the meet. Oklahoma State and Stanford are real good teams. Alabama had a great run this past weekend at its regional. There are also a couple of other good teams out there. The main thing for us now is to just focus on Badger cross country, focus on ourselves and to not beat ourselves up this week and just get mentally ready for the race."
QUESTION #1: Mick, I know you just said you want to focus on your stuff, but how do you go about scouting cross country teams, and what do you know about some of these top-notch programs?
BYRNE: "We know quite a lot. We see them on a regular basis at these national meets. There’s a lot of information out there now on the Internet as the weeks pass by and you see results. But, for us, I think our main focus this week is just on ourselves, think about the positives, think about what we’ve done this year and to not worry about what other teams are going to do or what they possibly might do in the race next week. The worst thing we can do at this stage is beat ourselves up and worry about other teams. The main focus this week is just to stay focused on ourselves.
Our kids are really excited. They’re just full of confidence. And you need that going into national championships. When you win, it’s fun; it never gets old. The kids are just on a high right now. Hopefully, we can carry that into next Monday’s race."
QUESTION #2: You mentioned convincing the powers that be at bringing a national, or a regional, meet here. Has your team this year done enough to convince you that this team is ready to make that step to win a national title this year?
BYRNE: "We talked about that at the beginning of the season, which started back in July as the guys started into training. We set three goals. We’ve got two of them accomplished and one to go. We also asked these guys to kind of come out of the shadows of previous great Badger teams, kind of take on their own identity. And I think by the win at the Big Ten Championships, they’ve done that. This is their team. They took ownership of it.
In going ahead, again, obviously the kids get confidence from that. Are they ready for the challenge next week? I think they are physically. They’re still young, with the exception of Landon Peacock, they’re very young. We’ll see what happens next Monday. It’s a mental issue from here on out. It’s not physical. They’re in tremendous shape. I’ve brought a lot of teams to this meet, and they’re in as good a shape as any team that I’ve ever brought to the national championships. It’s just about getting it done mentally from here on out."
QUESTION #3: What’s the competition like amongst your five runners? Looking at the regional this past weekend, 32 seconds separated the five runners that competed, right?
BYRNE: "I don’t think it was quite 32. I think we had a spread of maybe about four seconds between all five scorers. That wasn’t the plan going into the race. We actually had to change our plan. Our original plan was to go out there and run the first 3K real hard, kind of get ready for next week’s race at Terre Haute. When we got there on Friday and saw the course, we decided that we needed to kind of back off a bit. It was a pretty hilly course. We needed to make sure that the guys came out of it without any tiredness, soreness or any issues.
We’re kind of excited about that spread. All season, they’ve been pretty close. Reed Connor got up and had a great run on Saturday. He was the fifth man all season. I think Reed is going to take a ton of confidence out of that race. His wheels were under him over the last 1K. He kind of broke out of the group. It was kind of planned that way. It wasn’t a big secret what we were doing out there.
You might not think it’s all about the spread, but it is. If we can keep that four-or-five-second spread next week, then we’re going to do really well."
