if Wisconsin does in fact sit out 3 of their top 6, at their own invite, with many of the top teams in the region and nation in attendence, it represents what is and has been wrong with NCAA Division I XC for the past 5-8 years. I for one hope they do in fact race everybody who is healthy and make a statement that a major, mid-season invitational that they are hosting is worthy of running their entire line-up.
Read UW's pre-meet notes:
http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-xc/This-Week-in-M-Cross-Country.html
WHO TO WATCH FOR
The Badgers will have 10 runners competing in this Saturday's Wisconsin adidas Invitational.
Wisconsin will debut its most decorated returnees, including 2009 All-American sophomore Mohammed Ahmed. Ahmed will be joined by fellow 2009 first-team All-Region teammates, sophomore Maverick Darling and senior Landon Peacock. Junior Elliot Krause, a 2009 first-team All-Big Ten honoree, also will join the fray, as well as freshman Reed Connor.
Also running are redshirt freshmen Alex Brill, Michael Brice and Drew Shields, followed by junior Daniel Buechel and junior Phil Thomas.
Freshman Jacob Erschen will be running unattached in the meet.
Wisconsin are going to win their 12th Big 10 Title this year
If the above is true, then Im going(and everybody else races full teams):
1.Wisconsin
2.Oklahoma
3.Indiana
4.Syaracuse
solinsky21 wrote:
Wisconsin are going to win their 12th [STRAIGHT] Big 10 Title this year
Many more than 12 total.
I will be there for sure; good, cool XC weather.
I predict that Borchers will run a slower pace than some of the PSU women in several races.
I predict Borchers will be drunk within 12 hours of start of mens big ten race!
I posted this on the Badger X/C thread today:
There is more today on the website:
On the men:
" The Wisconsin men will run 10 athletes this Saturday, including one of the team's most decorated -- Mohammed Ahmed. A 2009 All-American, Ahmed makes his first appearance of the season.
Despite the hype around Ahmed, Byrne is quick to point out that there are certainly other Badger runners to be watching for, especially junior Elliot Krause.
"Elliot Krause is coming off of a great four months of training and a great 2009 outdoor season," Byrne said. "He will be tough to beat."
Senior Landon Peacock, sophomore Maverick Darling and sophomore Reed Connor also are expected to perform well for the Badgers this weekend, but what Byrne is most excited for is to see which of the supporting cast will emerge.
"The most exciting part for us is to see who is going to step up," Byrne said. "Drew Shields, Alex Brill, Michael Brice and Phil Thomas will be able to show us if they have the capability to play that supporting role, which is important to our team." "
Women: Two top runners are still dinged up and will not be racing, including Grinaker, and without her running well they will have to push to make the NCAAs and to place at all respectively.
" Among the 26 student-athletes running in this Saturday's meet, junior Caitlin Comfort and freshman Emily Sisson are expected to set the pace for Wisconsin.
"After Comfort's finish in last year's adidas Invite, we expect her to finish near the top with Sisson," Stintzi said.
Stintzi still expects other runners to step up in the meet, and looks to freshmen Lavinia Jurkiewicz, Liga Blyholder and Theresa Selestow to contribute based on their finishes thus far. Jurkiewicz finished second overall at the Northern Illinois Huskie Open, leading her team to a first-place finish in a time of 18:45. Selestow and Blyholder took third and fifth, respectively, clocking in at 18:48 and 18:59.
Additionally, the Badgers will be running seniors Karlye Wolff and Karen Greuel. Greuel was one of Wisconsin's top runners from 2009 and is expected to make a veteran contribution.
http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-xc/spec-rel/092910aaa.html
Read more:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3693892&page=2#ixzz112gQweWR
and
An example of the UW depth is that Brice was co-Big Ten XC of the week athlete (along with Penn State's McNalley) September 9. On the current lists of runners, Brice is listed as one of five or so that are vying for slots 6-9 at Big Tens and 6 and 7 at NCAAs. His time would have placed him reasonably well at the Invite last year and a September 9 meet is considerably early compared to Oct 3 date of the Invite last year.
No love for PSU at ND? They beat a lot of ranked teams this weekend. No way they are a bottom 3 team in the conference.
Indiana now is at least a co-favorite to win the Big Ten and I would even give them a bit of an advantage. Several Badgers that are in line for places 5/6/7/8 are out with various maladies; as such they may help at Big Tens but will it be enough?
UPDATED thoughts
Wisconsin is still the favorites. They will be at home and will put Darling back into line-up which would've been enough to make it very close Saturday.
IU looked just as good last year. I would not want to count on Mr Inconsistent in Turner and won't be surprised at all to see Hubers start to fall back as well (he was running as solid #1 man for IU up to this point)
MSU has good pack, but no frontrunner. Wisconsin and IU will place 4 guys infront of MSU's 1st.
OSU doesn't look like they can catch MSU, but always seem to run much better at Big 10's than earlier meets.
Minnesota on reputation alone; did not look good at Griak and losing Mead is huge.
Illinois much improved but usually run out of gas at end.
Penn State isn't good. Notre Dame results smoke and mirrors and ranked teams they best should not have been ranked or have partial teams.
Purdue finally doesn't stink, but they will in another month.
Iowa has really fallen off from a program that occassionally made Nationals from what was once an easy region to automatically qualify.
Michigan. I know that wasn't their A team, but if those guys are even on the roster, aside from Forys and New Zealander, this program is in trouble. Wish Gibby would've stayed at William and Mary.
It's going to be a duel meet between Indiana and Wisconsin. Dawson and Blankenship are the only two non IU/Wisc runners who might be in the top 10.
Im gonna give the nod to Indiana based on how they ran yesterday, but I think it's too close to have a favorite.
The WAY that Indiana ran seems very promising. In addition, I think that they learned from last year. If they want to peak for Big Tens they will probably take it, as Wisconsin will view it as important but will not let it get in the way of Nationals. This could especially be the case if enough of the 6/7/8/9/10 guys are not recovered yet because that would mean that they have to work harder at Regionals.
Ever since Jerry was there (and no reason to think it would change under Mick), Wisconsin has focused on Big 10's with everything (maybe even too much so). If you think having the streak broken at home would be ok if they run great at Nationals, you're crazy. Coul;d this be the start of the Badgers coming up with reason why IU is going to pound them in October? What makes you think IU isn't focued on getting a trophy at Nationals?
On another thread I saw that Darling may have stress fracture issues. If that is the case and he isn't full speed by the race then I think it's Indiana's to lose. Wisconsin doesn't have anyone else that can step up and be close to Connor and make it competitive. Finnerty is supposedly not 100% either. We'll see if IU can replicate their Adidas performance at Big 10s when it really counts.
If Darling is back I think the Badgers will squeak out the win as they can put 4 in front of IU's #3. They would just need Connor to be ahead of or very close to IU's 5, which he was at Adidas. On a good day they can even put 3 in front of their #1. A full, healthy, Wisconsin squad will do everything they can to keep the streak alive and not lose it on their home course.
It's going to be a dog fight, but barring Darling not being able to run I do think the Badgers will win. That's not to take anything away from Indiana as they clearly showed they've got some talent this last weekend. I think that Ahmed is clearly the man to beat for the Title and will run like it when it counts in 4 weeks. 4 Weeks doesn't seem like alot of time, but alot of things can happen. I think it's actually good that Indiana won this weekend, it gives the Badgers reason to focus and not take them lightly.
Any thoughts beyone the top 2 who have seperated themselves from the rest of the conference. MSU beat OSU handily, penn state ran great at notre dame, minnesota is always there, and illinois and purdue were close to OSU - what do people think for after top 2?
Darling has to be 'back' in pretty good form, not just able to run well. Remember, Big Tens allows 9 runners (the year they won NCAAs they ran something like 1/2/3/4/6/7/8/9 - the second team (i.e, take out the top four) would have won against the league that day.
Forgot to add that Indiana's #4 (Hubers) might have been the guy who under-performed, dropping down to 20th and I thought he was #3 for them. If he has a good day then it would be tough to beat.
Look at the speed of the last 2km - 5:28 - which is really flying and probably surprised a lot of people. And, yes, it is an accurately measured course. They have access to it 24/7 for measurement etc and it was very carefully set up. It took a long time to figure out how to set it up so that it fit for 4k, 5k, 6k, 8k, and presumably 10k, which has not been officially shown yet. You really have to see and run the course. It is NOT a golf course, you are not running on fairways, but you are running on terrain that has been carefully tended and is getting better.
There was a guy out there on Friday doing 1K repeats from marker to marker around 3 flat, and he said he hit the last 1K in 2:46 and wasn't going any faster. So take that for what it's worth-- likely not a full 8K.