Team Results
| | 1. | Michigan State | 26 | | 2. | Wisconsin | 55 | | 3. | Michigan | 93 | | 4. | Ohio State | 127 | | 5. | Minnesota | 139 | | |
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Nov. 2, 2014
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Despite chilly and windy weather, the No. 8 Wisconsin women’s cross country team continued its season-long surge with an impressive runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championship, grabbing the Badgers’ best conference finish since 2008.
UW covered Iowa’s 6-kilometer Ashton Cross Country Course efficiently and claimed its second-place finish with a score of 55 points.
| Fast Facts | | • Sarah Disanza leads the Badgers in her fourth meet of the season | | • Wisconsin places three runners (Disanza, Hanson, and Anzalone) in the top-ten at today's meet | | • UW improves from a sixth-place tie finish at last year's Big Ten Championship | |
No. 1-ranked Michigan State claimed the title with 26 points, while No. 4 Michigan took third with a score of 93. No. 19 Ohio State (127 points) and No. 20 Minnesota (139 points) rounded out the top five.
“Great, great job by the women,” UW director of cross country and track
Mick Byrne said. “To take on the number one team in the country and battle with them until the end was incredible.”
Sophomore
Sarah Disanza led the Badgers, finishing second in a time of 19 minutes, 28.1 seconds. It marked UW’s best Big Ten individual finish since Caitlin Comfort’s runner-up showing in 2011. Michigan State’s Leah O’Connor bested Disanza down the stretch to win the race in 19:26.3.
“It was really, really intense the whole time. From the get-go, it was just our tough group of Badgers with a couple of the Michigan State girls,” Disanza said. “We were just pushing with them for quite some time actually, and then eventually it just kind of broke off to be (Rachele) Schulist, (Leah) O’Connor and me, and we were fighting to the bitter end.”
Not far behind Disanza was junior
Molly Hanson, who came in fifth, finishing in 20:02.9. Senior
Gabi Anzalone was the third Badger to cross the line, running a time of 20:17.1, while
Emma-Lisa Murphy was 12th in 20:20.9.
Rounding out the top five for UW was freshman
Colette Richter, who finished 27th in 20:48.4.
“There’s great leadership there. We brought in a new coach,
Jill Miller, and she’s done a fantastic job,” UW director of cross country and track
Mick Byrne said. “The girls bought into what Jill’s telling them on the daily basis.
“There’s great leadership in the older women, and
Gabi Anzalone and I don’t want to call Emma-Lisa (Murphy) old, but she’s been around here as an All-American. A great improvement by
Sarah Disanza, and the improvements that
Molly Hanson has made in the past year are incredible.”
Sophomore
Sarah Heinemann finished sixth for the Badgers and 44th overall (21:15.4), while junior
Grace Meurer finished seventh for UW and 49th overall (21:21.4). Sophomore
Michelle Lee came in eighth for the Badgers and 53rd overall (21:22.6), and junior
Madeline Timm placed 61st overall (21:29.9).
Despite cold and windy conditions, Anzalone, Disanza, Hanson and Murphy got off to great starts, as the quartet ran among the leaders early in the race. Hanson and Disanza then joined the lead group that broke away from the chase pack approximately halfway through the race.
Disanza, O’Conner and Schulist battled for the lead before Disanza and O’Conner dueled down the finish chute. O’Connor, the 2014 NCAA steeplechase champion, outkicked Disanza to help Michigan State win its third title in the past four years.
“I think we have such a stronger team dynamic this year,” Disanza said. “Everyone is really big into working together and feeding off of each other’s energy to make sure that everyone is really working at their optimum capacity.”
Next up for the Badgers is the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on their home Zimmer Championship Course.
“I think we’ll keep working on team dynamics and working while running as a team and everything, and kind of just do a lot of visualization to prepare for the regional meet,” Hanson said. “I think we’ll race well if we keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Hanson admitted the Badgers’ history of success has helped motivate the team.
“I was looking at the old Big Ten titles,” Hanson said. “You could see that Wisconsin women really do have a tradition, or had a tradition in the past, and I think that it’s really meant a lot to the team and the program to resurrect that old tradition of excellence.”
That’s exactly what Byrne wants to hear.
“One of these days we will stay in the front,” he said.
