Wisconsin Badgers
Big Ten Championships
Five things to Know: Badgers at 2017 Big Ten Championships
October 26, 2017 | Women's Cross Country
No. 17 Wisconsin heads back to Indiana for its conference meet
2017 Big Ten
Championships
Sunday, Oct. 29 | 9:45 a.m. — Bloomington, Ind.
MADISON, Wis. – After a successful regular season, the No. 17 Wisconsin women's cross country team is gearing up for the championship season beginning with the 2017 Big Ten Championships on Sunday in Bloomington, Indiana. The meet at the IU Championship Cross Country Course will begin with the men's 8K race at 9:45 a.m. CT followed by the women's 6K race at 10:45 a.m.
The meet will be shown on the Big Ten Network on Monday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and fans can check UWBadgers.com following the race.Â
1. Last year at Big Tens At last year's Big Ten Championships the Badgers finished in sixth place with a score of 138 points led by Amy Davis who placed 16th. Davis was followed by Sarah Disanza and Alicia Monson, all of whom have had stellar starts to their 2017 seasons. The other two scorers for UW have since graduated, opening up room for other Badgers to step into a leading role.
2. Top-10 at the Nutty: At the last home meet of the season, the UW women placed ninth among 33 other teams, including 16 of the top 30 ranked teams in the country. Alicia Monson led the team finishing in 19th place with a personal best time of 20 minutes, 13.9 seconds. Sophomore Amy Davis followed not far behind with a 47th-place finish and junior Shaelyn Sorensen crossed the finish line in 64th place. Rounding out the top five for the Badgers were Alissa Niggemann and Sarah Disanza.
"On the women's side we feel like we're in a really good spot right now," UW Director of Track and Field Mick Byrne said. "We can look back two weeks ago and look at the Nuttycombe results but in our sport it's not worth looking back, we got to look forward. Our women had a very solid performance at Nuttycombe
3. Dynamic duo:Â Sophomores Amy Davis and Alicia Monson have maintained high placements at all of the races so far this season and are proving to be influential forces for the Badgers. Davis won the first meet of the season at the Indiana University Open which took place at the same location of the Big Ten Championships. Monson then won the first home meet of the season, the Mayflower Day Open; leading the Badgers to the team title. Two top-20 finishes for Davis and Monson along with an 11th-place finish by senior Sarah Disanza helped the Badgers to a second-place finish at the Greater Louisville Classic.
4. Regionally ranked:Â The Badgers have jumped to second place in the Great Lakes Regional rankings falling only to Michigan. This is the highest that Wisconsin has been ranked in this region since 2015. Wisconsin remains the third highest nationally ranked team among the Big Ten teams heading into the Big Ten Championships behind No. 10 Michigan and No. 9 Penn State.
"Going into the championship race on Sunday, we honestly feel like our women have a shot," Byrne said. "Michigan are ranked ahead of us, outside of that I think there are two or three teams that have a shot at the championship and I believe that we are one of those teams. We're going to need everybody firing on all cylinders, that goes without saying. Amy and Sarah; I'm 100 percent confident they're going to bounce back, they've looked really good in the last couple of workouts. Alicia Monson obviously had a great run at Nuttycombe, and when you get a supporting staff Shaelyn Sorensen and Alissa Niggemann who's running real well, I think we've got all the pieces we just have to put them together on Sunday, so we've got a real good shot."
5. Road to the Championships:Â After the Big Ten championships, the Badgers' next meet is in Indiana as they will head to Terre Haute for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Nov. 10.
Players Mentioned
