Wisconsin Badgers
NCAA Great Lakes Regional
'The Streak" hangs in the balance for Badgers
November 12, 2015 | Men's Cross Country
Wisconsin hosts NCAA Great Lakes Regional with its record run of NCAA bids on the line
MADISON, Wis. -- For the fourth-straight season, Wisconsin will host the NCAA Great Lakes Regional at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course. The Badgers hope for some home-course advantage as they look for the quality showing they need to advance to this year's NCAA meet.
Wisconsin is coming off an uncharacteristic eighth-place finish at Big Ten championship two weeks ago. Morgan McDonald and Joe Hardy earned top-10 finishes for the Cardinal and White but two-time Big Ten champion Malachy Schrobilgen withdrew midway through the race due to injury, which impacted UW's team score.Â
"It was tough last week coming off of Big Tens," UW Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "We allowed the kids to be down a couple of days, I think that's a normal process for 18-to-22 year olds. A lot of heads were hung low but, at the end of the day, we let them have their little bit of time and then we went back to work."
The Badgers seek to extend a streak that has seen UW qualify for each of the last 43 NCAA championship meets, a streak that started in 1972 when the NCAA began its regional qualifying system.
"All programs go through their ups and downs, every single program," Byrne said. "If you look back over the last five or 10 years, you see years where good programs like Colorado, Arkansas or Oregon did not go to the NCAA championship.
"We have to weather the storm and we have to come out the other side of it and be better for this experience. In life you have to learn from these tough times, and that's what we plan on doing."
The Badgers' national meet streak is partially the product of their dominance at the regional level. Wisconsin has won 29 of the 43 NCAA Great Lakes Regionals all-time, including a record streak of 11 straight wins from 2002-12.
The top two teams from each of nine regional sites automatically advance to the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. Another 13 at-large selections will fill out the 31-team field.
"We're still alive despite what others are saying," Byrne said. "We know what we have to do on Friday. My job is to try as best I can to get our kids ready to put their best foot forward on Friday. That's a challenge; it's a challenge I'm up for, it's a challenge our kids are up for.
"Whatever the lineup is, for some guys it may be an opportunity to show that some previous races were not their best effort, it doesn't matter. What we've asked our guys is to do is cherish the opportunity to fight another day."
Players Mentioned
