| Team Results |
| 1. |
Wisconsin |
63 |
| 2. |
Michigan State   |
66 |
| 3. |
Indiana |
92 |
| 4. |
Minnesota |
119 |
| 5. |
Michigan |
123 |
|
|
|
|
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FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – Wisconsin Director of Track and Field and Cross Country
Mick Byrne always asks his teams to compete "Badger Tough" on the course and on the track.
The UW men's cross country team exemplified the "Badger Tough" motto on Sunday, as junior
Morgan McDonald won the Big Ten individual title to lead the Badgers to the program's 48th conference crown on Sunday at the 2016 Big Ten Cross Country Championship.
"We won today because these guys are tough, and they believed in each other," Byrne said. "They do things the right way, and that's what 'Badger Tough' means. It means no shortcuts, living the right lifestyle, it's about getting to work every day, and it's about running together as a team and believing in each other."
The Badgers claimed the team title with a score of 63 points, three points ahead of Michigan State, who took second. It marked UW's smallest margin of victory since the 1999 Big Ten Cross Country Championship when the Badgers defeated Michigan by two points to start a run of 14-straight Big Ten titles. Â
 "You could go through the whole lineup, and man for man, these guys believed in each other," Byrne said. "I will always remember this one. I've always said when you come here, you ask these kids to kick it into another gear, step up, run as a team, and when they do that, when they believe in each other, it's very rewarding for them. It's about them, and I will never forget this moment. We were down with a kilometer to go and our guys fought over that final stretch.
"That's all we ask them to do, to believe in each other and fight for each other."
"It means everything," McDonald said about winning the program's 16th Big Ten crown in the last 18 years. "All season long, it's been our biggest focus when we go to work. We put in hours of practice working together, this is our goal and what's been motivating us the whole time, especially after having a really tough year last year so to be able to pull it off it just means the world to us."
McDonald became UW's 24th Big Ten individual champion, crossing the eight-kilometer course in 24 minutes, 35.7 seconds, eight seconds faster than runner-up Sherod Hardt of Michigan State.
"I haven't seen that type of dominance in this conference in a while," Byrne said. "Normally you see, the last three or four years, there's been some great athletes, Mason Ferlic from Michigan, Matt McClintock from Purdue, Malachy (Schrobilgen) of course, and you've had some great individual battles. But I've never seen someone dominate like that. He looked like he was just in a zone in a very comfortable spot.
Two-time Big Ten champion
Malachy Schrobilgen finished fifth in 24:48.1, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors for the third time in his career. Schrobilgen became the 13th Badger to earn three career first-team All-Big Ten accolades.
"What a lot of people didn't see out there was what Malachy did to the team," Byrne said. "He sacrificed a little bit of his own personal goals for the team. He was the guy that kept that group together for the first 6K. He embraced that role, we asked him to do that and he embraced it. I'm sure he would've liked to gone along for the ride with Morgan but he didn't.
"It's that type of unselfishness that wins championships."
Redshirt freshman
Olin Hacker was 12th in 24:56.8 on the same course his father, Tim Hacker, won the 1981 Big Ten individual title on. Hacker was the second freshman to cross the line and earned second-team All-Big Ten accolades.
UW's fourth and fifth runners to cross the line were senior
Russell Sandvold and
Tyson Miehe. Sandvold crossed in 25:13.7 to place 21st, while Miehe was 24th in 25:16.3.
In addition Ben Eidenschink and
Joe Hardy finished 26th and 27th, respectively.
"At the end of the day, there has to be heroes," Byrne said. "And our hero out there today was
Tyson Miehe. He did a great job, Ben Eidenschink did a great job. Those two really pushed Russ and Joe.
"At the end of the day you can look at individuals but it's all about the team, the bottom line is the team and the team results."
"It's a massive team effort," McDonald said. "I mean every single runner counts as much as the rest. If you look at the way it works out, it's actually tends to be the fourth and fifth runners that actually more important in a team success because they can have a lot more swing in their performance, so I attribute the win today to the amazing performances to our runners like Russ and Tyson. They came through so big today.
"I'm just so proud of them, it's really what got us the win is the performance of guys like that."
The Badgers started off well with a pack of runners towards the front, featuring McDonald and Schrobilgen.
McDonald moved into second with 3500 meters remaining, while Schrobilgen and Hacker were in the top 20.
With just over two kilometers to go, McDonald made is move on Hardt, and built a three-second lead on the Spartan.
McDonald, a Sydney, Australia native, extended his lead to almost 10 seconds with a kilometer left before cruising to an eight-second triumph.
"He's on another level right now," Schrobilgen said about McDonald. "I think he's really starting to hit his stride. You're going to continue to see big things from him. He's just the embodiment of what this culture is. Everyone's doing the same thing he's doing, just working hard and staying consistent, staying focused and he's just doing awesome."
The team marked Byrne's seventh Big Ten crown while leading the Badgers and the school's 27th win since the race distance was changed to eight-kilometers.
"Despite what some people think, we have a strong team culture," Byrne said. "You don't win Big Ten trophies by not doing the right things. These guys are focused, work hard, are a great team and are proud Badgers."
Postseason competition continues for the Badgers as they host the 2016 NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Friday, November 11. The top two teams will automatically advance to the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship in Terre Haute, Indiana.
"I'm going to let the guys appreciate this and understand what this means for them as a team, and then we will start looking ahead to the regional," Byrne said. "Right now today we are going to enjoy this.
"No one can ever take away from this team that they are Big Ten champions."
