Team Results 1. Northern Arizona 125 2. Stanford 158 3. Syracuse 164 4. Mississippi 196 5. Arkansas 206 8. Wisconsin 256

Individual Results 1. Patrick Tiernan Villanova 29:22.0 2. Justyn Knight Syracuse 29:27.3 3. Edward Cheserek Oregon 29:48.0 4. Futsum Zienasellassie NAU 29:49.8 5. Grant Fisher Stanford 29:57.9 8. Morgan McDonald Wisconsin 29:59.2 25. Malachy Schrobilgen Wisconsin 30:13.5 65. Joe Hardy Wisconsin 30:38.9 66. Olin Hacker Wisconsin 30:39.0 157. Ben Eidenschink Wisconsin 31:18.7

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana — It's safe to say the Badgers are back on the right path.

After the Wisconsin men's cross country team failed to qualify for last year's NCAA championship, ending a streak of 42-straight appearances at the national meet, the Badgers returned to the national championship Saturday and earned an eighth-place showing at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course.

"When you're here at the University of Wisconsin, there's a huge expectation and we take that personal," UW Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "They know more than anyone else what it means to be a Badger and the expectation. They feel that. They embrace it. They enjoy it. Today proved that as we were probably one guy off of possibly getting a podium spot. Go back 12 months ago and people had written us off. They'd written the program off. A lot of people close to the program abandoned the ship and there were a lot of bad things said about these guys.

"But our guys stuck with the process, stuck with the plan, believed in each other, got after it day in and day out and today's result showed that our process worked."

No. 12 Wisconsin was led to its 47th top-10 showing at the NCAA meet by a pair of All-Americans in Morgan McDonald and Malachy Schrobilgen, as the UW duo finished seventh and 25th, respectively.

Despite cold and windy conditions, McDonald crossed the 10-kilometer course in 29 minutes, 59.2 seconds, becoming UW's highest top individual at the NCAA meet since Mohammed Ahmed was fifth at the 2011 national championship.

"It was a really tough race out there," McDonald said. "That's honestly what I should have expected. Looking back at it now, I'm really happy with the race and with the whole season. I can't complain too much. I think as a team and individually we took some really good steps forward this season and we learned a lot. But we still have a lot to work on for next year."

"He played his part," Byrne said. "He was a little bit off I think, but seventh place in a field like this is fantastic. He can walk out of there, hold his head up high. I think he's a little bit disappointed, but that just shows who he is as a competitor."

In his final cross country race for the Cardinal and White, Schrobilgen finished in 30:13.5 to become only the 13th runner in school history to earn three or more All-America honors on the course.

 "When you come to a program like this, you come here because there are guys that have come before you and done great things," Schrobilgen said. "They have set the bar so high. It can be daunting, but I think the best way to look at it is it's a challenge. To pursue that challenge, that's so much fun. It makes it so worthwhile being here and being a part of it. I'm just happy to be able to help my team today. It helps them get on track for something really special here in the future. I think this team has got such a good culture now where they are just going to improve leaps and bounds the next couple years here."

"Having Malachy there made a huge difference in my race," McDonald said. "About 1200 meters in, I almost got tripped over and Malachy pretty much caught me in midair and pulled me back up, so I don't know what I would've done without him there. He definitely helped a lot with the tactics as well."

Saturday's result marked the fourth time this season the duo finished first and second for the Badgers.

"Having a good one-two punch has been a strength of our team this season and it came through again today," McDonald said. "It was really important for us."

Joe Hardy and Olin Hacker were 65th and 66th, respectively, as Hardy finished in 30:38.9 and Hacker was a tenth of a second behind his teammate.

"Joe Hardy had a great run out there today with Olin Hacker," Byrne said. "It looked like Joe was taking Olin around there for quite a bit, but those guys were never separated the whole race. Maybe Joe sacrificed a bit of his own personal thing for the team and that's good, that's what a good team does. Malachy did it at the Big Ten meet and today was Joe's turn and he did a great job with that helping Olin around there.

"Joe and Olin really executed the plan."

The fifth Badger across the line was redshirt freshman Ben Eidenschink, who was 157th in 31:18.7.

Wisconsin ended the meet with 256 points, nine points behind seventh-place BYU. Northern Arizona won the NCAA title with a team score of 125 points while Villanova's Patrick Tiernan took home the individual title.

"We knew that if everyone ran as well as they could we could have a pretty good finish," McDonald said. "We were pretty optimistic going into it, but I think that everyone learned a lot, as well as earning an eighth-place finish, you can't really complain too much considering the steps we've already come through this season, how much we've improved as a team. I think it's a good way to cap off what's been a really good season for us."

The future looks bright for the Cardinal and White, as Schrobilgen was the only runner to toe the line on Saturday that will graduate.

"I think the most important thing is just the culture that's here now," Schrobilgen said. "It's easy going, but it's just so determined and driven to just be great every single day. That's going to carry them to great heights next year."