Disanza guides No. 17 Badgers to third-place showing at Big Tens

Sunday, October 29

Bloomington, Ind.

9:45 AM

Wisconsin Badgers

Big Ten Championships

Photo by: Walt Middleton

Disanza guides No. 17 Badgers to third-place showing at Big Tens

October 29, 2017 | Women's Cross Country

Five Badgers finish in the top-26 to lead UW to podium showing

Team Results
1.	Michigan	55
2.	Minnesota	86
3.	Wisconsin	100
4.	Penn State	107
5.	Michigan State	119

Individual Results
1.	Katherine Receveur	Indiana	20:10.3
2.	Madeline Strandemo	Minnesota	20:13.5
3.	Jamie Morrissey	Michigan	20:16.8
4.	Gina Sereno	Michigan	20:22.2
5.	Megan Hasz	Minnesota	20:23.5
8.	Sarah Disanza	Wisconsin	20:31.1
21.	Amy Davis	Wisconsin	20:51.3
22.	Alicia Monson	Wisconsin	20:54.7
23.	Alissa Niggemann	Wisconsin	20:55.2
26.	Shaelyn Sorensen	Wisconsin	21:01.8

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Senior Sarah Disanza led the No. 17 Wisconsin women's cross country team to a third-place finish at the 2017 Big Ten Cross Country Championships Sunday morning at the IU Cross Country Course.

The senior captain led UW to its best Big Ten team finish since 2014 as Disanza crossed the line in 20 minutes, 31.1 seconds, her best 6K time so far this season, to finish eighth overall.

A quartet of Badgers all finished in the 20s, as sophomore Amy Davis was 21st in 20:51.3, while fellow sophomore Alicia Monson was 22nd in 20:54.7.

Alissa Niggemann was right behind Davis and Monson, finishing in 20:55.2 to place 23rd while junior Shaelyn Sorensen rounded out the scoring for the Badgers with her 26th place finish and a time of 21:01.8.

The Badgers beat out No. 9 Penn State, who finished fourth. No. 10 Michigan won with a score of 55 points while No. 19 Minnesota was second with 86 points.

Notables

It marked Disanza's second top-10 finish at the Big Ten conference meet after finishing second at the 2014 Big Ten Cross Country Championships.
For her efforts, Disanza earned second-team All-Big Ten accolades.
In addition to topping No. 9 Penn State, the Badgers also finished ahead of No. 20 Michigan State and No. 29 Indiana.

Straight from the Course
Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne
On the overall performance:
"All any coach can ask from his/her student athletes is to wear their uniform with pride and compete hard. The long and short of it was we put ourselves in a great position early in the race, fought hard and at the end of the day we were a solid third with the same team as last year that finished sixth. We have six ranked teams in our conference and we should be encouraged by today's performance. There's still lots of racing to be done and our women are in a good spot heading into regionals and NCAAs."

Sarah Disanza
On the team's finish:
"I think we all ran with a lot of heart today. We all really, really wanted it going into it, we all had our eyes on the prize and we were all focused and made the decision that we wanted to win several weeks ago. Sometimes it just can't all come together at the same time for everyone. I had struggled towards the end and I know that not everyone felt 100 percent today, but going forward we are in so much better position than we were last year. We weren't even ranked at the time, so coming in third today and being disappointed with that performance just goes to show how much further along and how much of an improvement we've made since last year. It can give us a lot of confidence going into the postseason."

Up Next:
Wisconsin returns to the state of Indiana for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Nov. 10 in Terre Haute, Indiana. The top-two teams from the meet automatically qualify for the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships.