Badgers return to NCAA championship Saturday

MADISON, Wis. – Both Wisconsin men's and women's teams are headed to the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Nov. 19 after turning in their best team performances of the season. The men's side won their second-straight meet last Friday, dominating the NCAAGreat Lakes Regional field after winning a dramatic Big Ten title in Minneapolis in late October. For the women, the squad used four top-20 finishes at the regional meet to finish third and clinch a spot at the national meet this Saturday. The women's six-kilometer race will begin at 10 a.m. (CT) followed by the men's 10K race at 11 a.m.

2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship
Date	Saturday, November 19
Race Times	Women: 10 a.m. CT \| Men: 11 a.m. CT
Location	Terre Haute, Indiana \| L aVern Gibson Championship Course
Follow	Live Results \| @BadgerTrackXC \| FloTrack
Game Notes	Men's \| Women's
Course Maps	M en's \| Women's

ABOUT THE NCAA MEET

There will be 31 teams competing in both the men's and women's national meet with 18 on each side entering via a top-two finish at their regional, while 13 others will join after being selected as an at-large team.
On the men's side, Northern Arizona comes in as the unanimous top-ranked team after winning the NCAA Mountain Regional while 2015 NCAA champion Syracuse is back to defend its title after winning its fourth-straight NCAA Northeast Regional title.
Edward Cheserek of Oregon is gunning for his fourth NCAA individual crown.
Seven of the top-10 individual finishers at last year's NCAA meet are back in this year's competition.
Of the 31 teams that are participating in the NCAA Championship on the men's side, 19 competed at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational earlier this year. For the women, 17 of the 31 teams took to the course at the Nuttycombe meet.
On the women's side, Colorado enters as the unanimous No. 1 team after dominating last year's reigning NCAA Champion, New Mexico, by 74 points to win the Mountain Regional meet. New Mexico's Alice Wright won the individual crown at that meet, and after taking fifth at last year's NCAA Championship, she will enter as the runner to beat.
Along with Wright, Anna Rohrer of Notre Dame, Brenna Peloquin of Boise State and Sharon Lokedi of Kansas all finished top-10 at the 2015 NCAA Championship, while Michigan's Erin Finn is ranked No. 1 in the Saucony Flo-50 Women's Individual rankings.

ABOUT THE BADGERS - MEN

The Badgers are competing in the NCAA Championship for the 55th time in program history, including 44 in the last 45 years.
UW dominated the field at the Great Lakes Regional, scoring 51 points and besting second-place Michigan State by 30.
Senior Malachy Schrobilgen won the individual crown, cross the finish line one-hundredth of a second in front of teammate Morgan McDonald.
McDonald won the Big Ten individual title, leading Wisconsin to its record 48th conference crown.
McDonald was named the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year on Tuesday, while Mick Byrne was named the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year. The duo also took home honors from the Big Ten earlier this month.

ABOUT THE BADGERS – WOMEN

The Badgers are competing at the NCAA Championship for the 27th time since 1982.
UW earned an at-large bid at the Great Lakes Regional by downing No. 22 Michigan State and No. 13 Eastern Michigan for a third place finish.
Wisconsin contains a lot of depth at the front of their roster, having four different women finish first for UW during meets throughout the season.
Senior Sarah Disanza is returning to the NCAA Championship after finishing runner-up in 2014.
UW is ranked No. 25 in the USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll, while the Badgers check in at No. 18 in the Saucony Flo-50 Team Rankings.

LAST TIME OUT – MEN
The 2016 Wisconsin men's cross country season began with Morgan McDonald and Malachy Schrobilgen leading the Badgers to victory with a one-two finish at the Oz Memorial in early September.

The Wisconsin pair did it again on Friday afternoon at the 2016 NCAA Great Lakes Regional to lead the No. 14 Badgers to the team title and a berth into the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship next Saturday.

Schrobilgen, a senior competing in his last race at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course, took home the individual title with a time of 30 minutes, 22.2 seconds, finishing just one-hundredth of a second in front of McDonald.

"It's really special," Schrobilgen said. "You realize how much you appreciate your time here and appreciate everything the coaches and your teammates do for you. I didn't want to take it easy today. I wanted to run well and run well for my team."

The two upperclassmen started off the regional meet in the front of the pack and never let up, maintaining prime positions throughout the entirety of the race. Around the seven-kilometer mark, Schrobilgen and McDonald distanced themselves from the rest of the pack on the way to the top-two finish while bringing the regional crown back to Madison for the 30th time in 45 years.

"You go through a lot of different ways the race can play out in your head," McDonald said. "Obviously you think of the best-case scenarios and finishing one-two with your teammate? It doesn't get much better than that."

McDonald finished just behind Schrobilgen at 30:22.2, earning his fourth top-three finish this year. The junior ran another magnificent race after winning the Big Ten individual crown in Minneapolis on Oct. 30, leading the school to its record 48th Big Ten title.

"It was fun and it was a lot easier to be honest, just to know you have your teammate right there supporting you, keeping you going the whole way," McDonald said. "He's a guy I run with every day. I do all my training sessions with him, we know how to work together, push each other and it just made it really fun the whole time."

"I kind of looked over at Morgan coming down the finish line, and just gave him a fist bump," Schrobilgen said. "It was pretty fun to do that on the home course."

Wisconsin dominated the meet, finishing with 51 points, marking a 30-point gap between UW and second-place Michigan State. After missing out on the NCAA championship for the first time since 1972 last season, the Badgers have waited a full year to get back to this spot.

"A lot of people are calling it the season of redemption, and every single one of us takes that personally," Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "They came out here with a little bit of that vengeance. I don't know if we want to call it the season of redemption but it feels really good right now."

Alongside Schrobilgen and McDonald, junior Joe Hardy and freshman Olin Hacker stayed in the front group for most of the race. Hacker finished as the third Badger to cross the line in 30:34.7, coming in 12th overall. Hardy maintained his great start with a strong finish, earning 15th with the time of 30:42.2.

The fifth scorer for Wisconsin was freshman Benjamin Eidenschink, finishing with a time of 31:02.7. All five of the Badgers earned a spot on the All-Region team.

"We feel amazing," McDonald said. "Our team has a massive high, and that's what you want coming into a big meet like nationals. It's such a mental battle having that advantage, coming off two victories. We feel amazing, I don't think we could come in with much of a better spot than this."

With the win at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, the Badgers punched their ticket to Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship on Nov. 19. Michigan State also automatically advanced, winning a tiebreak over Indiana as both teams finished with 81 points.

The Badgers found an advantage in competing at their home course, with each team racing 10-kilometers for the first time all season. Although the race was hotly contested for the first six-kilometers, McDonald and Schrobilgen began pulling away after the third lap around the course.

"Obviously, this is somewhere we train twice a week and we are very familiar with it," Byrne said. "We talk about it all the time. The course is in absolute amazing shape right now."

"It was a great run, just a super run. The sun's out, it's the 11th of November, it's a great day.

Wisconsin won the NCAA Great Lakes Regional for the 30th time in program history and the 14th time since 2000. After coming up short in both the Big Ten championship and the regional meet last year, UW is determined to continue its pursuit of a national championship next Saturday.

"Last year was hard. We've talked about that all year. That's what has really motivated us this year," Schrobilgen said. "But I'm very grateful and very lucky just to have an amazing group of teammates and amazing coaches and family and friends who have always been supportive of me. You know I can't do it without them so it's nice to be able to kind of get back a little bit and have a race like this.

"We aren't done yet."

LAST TIME OUT – WOMEN
The Wisconsin women's cross country team ran its best meet of the year on Friday, finishing third at the 2016 NCAA Great Lakes Regional at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course.

With the sun shining and the course in pristine condition, the Badgers toed the line knowing that they had an opportunity to make a statement, which they did thanks to four top-17 performances.

"This team ran confidently on our home course," assistant coach Jill Miller said. "They pushed each other up and surprised everyone but themselves. They had 100 percent confidence in each other, which is so crucial in this sport. I couldn't be more proud of this group."

It was a tight race for the team title, with No. 5 Michigan and No. 14 Notre Dame earning automatic bids to the NCAA championship, finishing first and second with 61 and 91 points, respectively.

Wisconsin was close behind in third and knocked off a pair of ranked teams in the process. The Badgers and Michigan State both scored 97 points, but UW took third thanks to a tie breaker. No. 13 Eastern Michigan placed fifth with 102 points.

By placing third, Wisconsin earned an at-large bid for the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship.

"The women were fantastic," Wisconsin Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "I can't say that we didn't expect it. We talk about Big Tens and beyond. We always talk about training for this time of year.

"They went out and they believed. There was an opportunity. The door was open. They took that opportunity, and now they're going to the national championships."

Senior Michele Lee paced the Badgers through the opening mile, with senior Sarah Disanza and redshirt freshman Amy Davis close behind. As the race progressed, the trio caught up to lead the chase pack.

Monson ran hard right behind the Wisconsin pack, moving up closer and closer to the leaders as the kilometers ticked by. On the home straightaway she revved it up to another level, finishing the six-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 21.6 seconds to finish 11th.

Disanza, Davis and Lee followed, all finishing within seven seconds of each other. Disanza took 12th in 20:22.5, Davis was 15th with a time of 20:24.2, and Lee crossed the line in 20:29.4 to place 17th.

All four women earned Great Lakes All-Region honors from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for their top-25 performances.

Sophomore Shaelyn Sorensen rounded out the scoring five and finished 42nd in 21:09.1.

"It's really awesome," Monson said. "Training here all season, we kind of know the course and we've all been working together really hard so it's just kind of a sweet moment for us."

"I think within the past couple of weeks we really saw that when we pull together as a team, we can be pretty darn fantastic," Disanza said.

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Badgers return to NCAA championship Saturday

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