COLUMBUS, Ohio - The 14th-ranked Wisconsin men's cross-country team traveled to Columbus, Ohio to compete in the annual Big Ten Championships. The Badgers went into the race in hopes of defending their title and bringing home their 50th Big Ten title, and they did just that. To put this into perspective, Indiana and Michigan State tie for second with 14 team titles, all other schools combined only come out to 53 team titles.
Senior
Olli Hoare led the way for the Badgers placing first overall in the 8000-meter race with a time of 23 minutes, 50.9 seconds, and claiming the title of being named a Big Ten champion. He was nearly seven seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, George Kusche from Nebraska. This isn't something new for the Sydney, Australia native. This is now Hoare's sixth Big Ten title, one being his first place finish at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships in 2017. Senior
Olin Hacker was the second Badger to cross the finish line, placing seventh overall with a time of 24:08.1. Hoare and Hacker both earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for their top-seven finishes.
Head Coach
Mick Byrne on Olli: "Sometimes an athlete like Olli is taken for granted. This is a great conference, a very competitive conference, with some great individual athletes. He lost last year to Morgan (McDonald), he won the year before, it's not totally new to him. He knew the team was counting on him and last night at our team meeting I told the team that he was going to win. That is a bold prediction in such a competitive race like this with some great individuals in the conference. I told the team he was going to win and I told the team they needed to support him and be there for him because he was going to take care of business for the team and they responded to that."
Benjamin Eidenschink came in third for the Badgers and 13th overall with a time of 24:21.8. His top-14 finish earned him a second-team All-Big Ten honor. True freshman
Jackson Sharp came in fourth for the Badgers and 15th overall with a time of 24:23.7. Sharp was the first freshman to finish the race, the next to come in was Abdifetah Ahmed of Michigan State in 36th place. Also running for the Badgers were
Shuaib Aljabaly (20th in 24:30.7),
Seth Hirsch (27th in 24:43.8),
Zack Snider (33rd in 24:48.4),
Jack Meijer (52nd in 25:06.5), and
Conor Perreault (78th in 25:32.4).
With five Badgers placing in the top 20, they were able to secure their first-place finish with a score of 56.
Straight from the course
"Right now I'm ecstatic. We knew that there were three or four teams battling us for this team title. If you look at this season up to this point, certainly Purdue, Michigan, and Indiana got the better of us. We challenged our kids over the last two weeks. It was all about us being defending champions. We have been training really well, we just haven't put it together in races, but that doesn't matter anymore. We told our kids that the most important thing now is that we show up and compete today. We did that in a pretty demanding fashion. You don't ever underestimate the heart of a Badger, and the kids believed that today. Our other saying is 'Badger Tough' and they ran like that today. They were tough when they needed to be tough. The guys responded, it was awesome to see. This is my ninth Big Ten title, but today was very special."
-Head Coach
Mick Byrne
"The race went slow and we made sure as a team to take control of the race. My goal was to take off and make sure I put the guys in the hurt locker. The boys backed me up and we executed the plan perfectly. It is a proud day to be a Badger. With the history and heritage of this program we have won 50 Big Ten titles. We did this for Badgers past, present and most importantly for the future Badgers. We take confidence from this and look forward to channeling what we did today to the next level."
-Senior
Olli Hoare
Up Next
The Badgers will host the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Nov. 15 on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course. The men's 10,000-meter race will begin at 12:30 p.m.
| Team Scores: |
| 1. |
Wisconsin |
56 |
| 2. |
Indiana |
70 |
| 3. |
Michigan |
78 |
| 4. |
Purdue |
82 |
| 5. |
Penn State |
169 |
| 6. |
Nebraska |
172 |
| 7. |
Michigan State |
176 |
| 8. |
Minnesota |
193 |
| 9. |
Illinois |
219 |
| 10. |
Iowa |
224 |
| 11. |
Ohio State |
317 |
| 12. |
Rutgers |
386 |
