Big Ten battle awaits Badgers on Sunday

MADISON, Wis. – As championship season dawns upon the UW cross country teams, the Badgers will travel to Falcon Heights, Minnesota for the 2016 Big Ten Championships this Sunday. The men's team is looking for their 16th Big Ten Championship in the last 18 seasons while the women's team is in position to contend for their 16th crown, seven more than any other school. The meet will take place on the Les Bolstad Course, which was the site of Wisconsin's first competition of the season. Racing will begin on Sunday, Oct. 30 with the women's six-kilometer at 10 a.m. (CT) followed by the men's eight-kilometer race at 11 a.m. with the meet aired live on BTN.

2016 Big Ten Cross Country Championship
Date	Sunday, October 30, 2016
Race Times	Women: 10 a.m. \| Men: 11 a.m.
Location	Falcon Heights, Minn. \| Les Bolstad Golf Course
Television	BTN
Watch	BTN2GO
Follow	Live Results \| @BadgerTrackXC
Game Notes	Men's \| Women's
Course Maps	Men's\| Women's

ABOUT THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP

Going into the Big Ten Championships, there are four nationally ranked teams on the men's side. Michigan is at the top of the conference at No. 14, followed by No. 18 Wisconsin and No. 19 Indiana while Michigan State checks in at No. 29.
12 teams will compete for the men's crown including defending Big Ten Champion Michigan. Three Big Ten teams competed in last year's NCAA Division I Championship meet.
On the women's side, three teams will head into Minnesota with a national ranking. No. 6 Michigan leads the way, with No. 9 Penn State and No. 27 Michigan State also earning a spot in the polls.
Penn State looks to defend their 2015 title against the other 13 teams in the Big Ten while Erin Finn of Michigan tries to win her third Big Ten individual crown. Four Big Ten teams competed in last year's NCAA Division I Championship meet.

ABOUT THE BADGERS - MEN

Wisconsin has won 47 Big Ten titles in total, dating back to the Badgers' first crown in 1910.
UW senior Malachy Schrobilgen is competing for his third Big Ten individual title after winning in 2013 and 2014. He would become the eighth runner in Big Ten history to earn three or more Big Ten titles, joining Tim Hacker and Simon Bairu as the third Badger to achieve that honor.
Morgan McDonald looks to continue his incredible junior season after winning the Oz Memorial Classic at the Les Bolstad Course in September and taking third at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 14 in the most talented field of the cross country season.
Both Schrobilgen and McDonald appear in the Saucony Flo50 Individual Men's Cross Country Rankings in the latest poll. McDonald will enter the Big Ten Championship ranked No. 5 with Schrobilgen behind him at No. 15. The two Badgers are the only Big Ten athletes in the national poll.
The Badgers have collected team and individual victories in two of the three meets this year. They have gotten contributions from the entire roster, with 10 different runners earning top-10 finishes this season.

ABOUT THE BADGERS – WOMEN

Sophomore Shaelyn Sorensen won the individual title at the Oz Memorial Invitational in Minnesota, finishing seven seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Sorensen has already won three meets in her first two years at Wisconsin, and qualified for last year's NCAA Championship meet.
2014 Cross Country All-American Sarah Disanza will look to return for her first race since the 2014 NCAA Championship meet after redshirting last season. She placed second overall in that race, leading the Badgers to a 10th-place finish.
Senior Michele Lee has been one of the top performers for the Badgers this season, winning the Badger Classic and taking first for UW at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational.
Redshirt freshman and Madison native Amy Davis is also having a tremendous season, finishing second for Wisconsin in all three races including two top-five finishes in the first two meets.
Between Sorensen and Disanza, the two women have combined for 11 top-10 finishes in their collegiate careers.

LAST YEAR AT THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP – MEN
On a beautiful fall day in the Windy City, sophomores Morgan McDonald and Joe Hardy earned top-10 finishes at the 2015 Big Ten Cross Country Championship for Wisconsin, which finished eighth as a team Sunday.

The Badgers saw their leader, junior Malachy Schrobilgen, drop out midway through the race due to an injury. Schrobilgen entered the meet as a two-time champion and was looking to become the eighth runner in conference history to win three Big Ten titles.

"Malachy came down Wednesday after practice and a joint locked up," UW Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "We had him worked on around the clock for the last 48 hours and he went out like a real champion trying to defend his title, just couldn't do it and he had to pull out.

"If you would have asked me this morning if he was going to run, I would have said no. I tried to get him to think about the regionals and the national meet because that's what we train for, but being here at home, being in Chicago in front of his friends and family, it was hard for him not to go for it.

"I told him to go warm up and he looked like he was limping a little bit in the warmup, but he just said 'Coach I'm going for it, this is my title I'm going to and defend it,' and gosh that kid ran out there and ran with guts."

McDonald was fifth, crossing the 8-kilometer course at the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course along Lake Michigan in 23 minutes, 30 seconds. Hardy was close behind, taking 10th in 23:49.3.

Junior Russell Sandvold was UW's third runner, finishing 41st in 24:29.1. Rounding out the scoring for Wisconsin were Carl Hirsch in 78th (25:10.9) and Tyson Miehe in 83rd (25:20.7).

"They are young and they have to understand what it means to compete at this level," Byrne said. "Hopefully they'll learn something from this experience."

Despite his injury, Schrobilgen toed the line for Wisconsin, and grabbed an early lead on the field. The Oak Park, Illinois, native led the group of 103 runners for the first three kilometers before giving way to Purdue's Matt McClintock and Michigan's Mason Ferlic near the halfway point of the race. Schrobilgen continued for another kilometer or so before dropping out.

McDonald was among the top 10 throughout the race before accelerating over the final two kilometers to nab a top-five finish. It was an improvement from the 12th-place showing in 2014 that earned the Sydney, Australia, native Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.

"The race went pretty much as expected, but our team turned in a poor performance," McDonald said. "I don't really know why exactly, but it was a real bad day for our team.

"I would have liked to be a little more up there but I'm still happy about it. The difference between first and fifth in team points isn't that big of a difference so I'm pretty content with that."

Hardy got off to a slow start but was able to also improve on an 18th-place showing from a year ago in taking 10th.

McClintock won his first Big Ten cross country title, finishing in 23:12.1, while Ferlic led Michigan to the team championship with 63 points. The Badgers finished with 199 points to place eighth.

"Every meet from here on out is important," Byrne said. "We've got to go back and reevaluate and try to take a good look at ourselves and see where we go from here."

LAST YEAR AT THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP – WOMEN
Thanks to a seventh-place finish by redshirt freshman Shaelyn Sorensen, the Wisconsin women's cross country team turned in a fifth-place showing at the 2015 Big Ten Cross Country Championship on Sunday at the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course.

Sorensen finished the 6-kilometer course along Lake Michigan in 20 minutes, 15.9 seconds and was the top freshman finisher among the field of 122 runners.

"What a gutsy performance by Shaelyn today," UW Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "She stepped up as a redshirt freshman and led us to a top-five finish as a team."

Fellow redshirt freshman Erin Wagner was the second UW runner across the line, taking 31st in 21:01.2.

The Badgers' other three scorers hit the line consecutively, as sophomore Jamie Shannon was 34th in 21:04.4, junior Michele Lee was 35th in 21:06.0 and senior Grace Meurer was 36th in 21:09.0.

"We tried to stay together as a team," Sorensen said. "The start was pretty bad as far as getting off the line, but I was able to get around a huge group of people. After that it was just about just progressively picking people off, and I think it ended up pretty well."

Wisconsin totaled 139 points for its fifth-place finish. Penn State won the team title with 53 points and Michigan (58) was second, led by race winner Erin Finn.

"Our original goal was to get top-three finish," Sorensen said. "We looked at how good Penn State is, and Michigan was already going to be a front-runner. We were close to Minnesota and Michigan State so we were, overall, very happy with how we did."

The Badgers got off to a slow start, but Shannon and Sorensen were among the top 30 through the first part of the race. Sorensen, a Lake Elmo, Minnesota, native, accelerated her way to 10th at the halfway point of the race before moving up to seventh.

The pack behind Sorensen did its job, as Wisconsin placed six runners in the top 50. UW moved from eighth in the team standings after one kilometer to its fifth-place finishing position.

"It was a good performance," Byrne said. "When we made the decision to redshirt Molly Hanson and then Sarah Disanza and our top freshman, Amy Davis, some counted us out. But gosh, those girls we had run today ran tough -- they ran with courage.

"Shaelyn and Erin both had a great run and then the supporting cast did a really good job. They fought the whole way and I don't think as a coach you can ask your kids to do anything more than that."

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Big Ten battle awaits Badgers on Sunday

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