| Team Results |
| 1. |
Michigan |
71 |
| 2. |
Michigan State |
82 |
| 3. |
Wisconsin |
88 |
| 4. |
Illinois |
113 |
| 5. |
Purdue |
133 |
|
|
| Individual Results |
| 1. |
Oliver Hoare |
Wisconsin |
24:09.3 |
| 2. |
Joe Hardy |
Wisconsin |
24:13.2 |
| 3. |
Clark Ruiz |
Michigan State |
24:13.5 |
| 4. |
Ben Veatch |
Indiana |
24:13.6 |
| 5. |
Morgan Beadlescomb |
Michigan State |
24:41.1 |
| 20. |
Ben Eidenschink |
Wisconsin |
23:40.54 |
| 32. |
Zack Snider |
Wisconsin |
25:02.3 |
| 33. |
Tyson Miehe |
Wisconsin |
25:03.2 |
|
|
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A 1-2 finish from
Oliver Hoare and
Joe Hardy helped the Wisconsin men's cross country team to a third-place finish at the 2017 Big Ten Cross Country Championships early Sunday morning.
Hoare guided the way for the Badgers by taking the individual title with a time of 24 minutes, 9.3 seconds after grabbing the lead with just over a kilometer to go. A native of Sydney, Australia, Hoare shined in his second Big Ten cross country race after finishing 40th at last year's meet.
Just seconds behind Hoare was Hardy, as the UW captain finished with a time of 24:13.2 in the 8K race at the IU Cross Country Course.
Sophomore Ben Eidenschink finished in 24:41.1 and secured a spot in the top 20. Rounding out the scoring were
Zack Snider and
Tyson Miehe, who crossed the line in 32nd and 33rd, respectively. Snider, in his first race of the season, finished in 25:02.3 while Miehe was close behind with a time of 25:03.2.
Freshman
Finn Gessner had a great start for UW in his Big Ten debut, running in the top 10 early in the race before finishing in 35th in 25:04.1.
The Badgers finished with a score of 88 points to hold off No. 18-ranked Minnesota and No. 30 Penn State. The team title went to No. 13 Michigan, which finished with 71 points, followed by No. 15 Michigan State (82 points).
Notables
- Hoare became the 25th Wisconsin runner to win a Big Ten individual title and claimed UW's fourth individual crown in the last five years.
- Hoare and Hardy earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for their finishes.
- Sunday marked the second time in the last four years UW has enjoyed a 1-2 finish at the Big Ten championships after Malachy Schrobilgen and Michael Van Voorhis swept the top two spots at the 2014 conference meet.
Straight from the Course:
Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne
On the men's race:
"All any coach can ask from their student-athletes is to wear their uniform with pride and compete hard. On the men's side we talked about the importance of staying in the present. Past results do not matter in championship racing. The guys put themselves in the moment and fought hard today. I'm very proud of the way we competed. Ollie and Joe rose to the challenge today. They are our team leaders and it was important for us that they held it together out there. The rest of the guys fed off them."
"There is much more to the storyline here than meets the eye.
Zack Snider and Ben Eidenschink went into today's race without a summer base, due to injury. Along with
Tyson Miehe, they put it all out there today and again that's all I can ask of them.
Finn Gessner got a bit too antsy early in the race and paid the price for it late in the race. That's OK. He'll learn that you can't win this in the first three or four kilometers."
Oliver Hoare
On his win:
"It was a pretty surreal moment to be honest. Last year was a pretty challenging moment in my running career but as a freshman I learned from it and I used that experience to do the best I could today for the team and for my teammates. We did the best we could, we were proud, we ran with pride. I'm completely happy with how we did. To have Joe there with me in that last section of the race, those last 2-3 Ks, to have a teammate with you to support you, that's what it's all about and I'm super excited for our steps forward and I'm super excited to be a Badger with such a great team."
Joe Hardy
On today's race:
"At an individual level I'm pretty disappointed because I wanted to win and I have to deal with Ollie for the rest of the year, and that's going to be difficult as he's probably going to rub this in a bit. But on a more realistic note I'm really happy with how I did. I'm proud of our team and I'm proud that we showed up and we ran with toughness, we ran with pride. There could have been many alternatives to today and I think this was just about the best one, so yes I'm happy with how we did."
Up Next:
Wisconsin returns to the state of Indiana for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Nov. 10 in Terre Haute. The top two teams from the meet automatically qualify for the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
