2010 Wisconsin Badger X/C Thread

The women ran as well as they could with what they had.

Sisson hung tough and tried to make a push with a K to go to win it and while it didn't work out, she at least went for it.

Comfort great race as well, not taking the easy way out and settling back in with a much slower pack, she was in no-man's land for much of the race with another runner or two here and there.

The other scorers on average finished about 5-10 spots better than where I thought they would. 7th is better than 9th, which is where I figured they'd be.

The Men had a nice day.

Wonder who will be the 7 for regionals. Phil Thomas Or Alex Brill? I assume Shields will be the 6. I think Brice was sick. In any event, no margin for error for the top 5.

Based on the Big 10 results I'd have to say Thomas. However, they've rested top guys in the past and still won the region, so Brill or Brice could run too. Last year Krause sat out and this year I could see Ahmed possibly sitting out in order to focus on Nationals. He's still coming up to speed. Ahmed at full speed should have easily won the Big 10 race. He just didn't have anything left the last 100 meters or so.

If Connor can stick near Darling or whoever ends up being the #4 at Nationals I think they have a shot at 3rd. As much as I'd like to see it there is no way they can hang with OK St or Stanford unless one of them completely blows up. Wisconsin should get 4 in ahead of Stanford's 4 and 5, but their top 3 will keep them ahead.

Some of the comparisons seem 'obvious' but are not quite so. Specifically, how do we know that the OSU guys are faster than the Stanford guys or the Wisco guys? Big Tens, for instance, is the first time that Wisconsin has really needed to go hard and so they were probably further ahead of the Indiana guys than the OSU guys were at Chile Pepper once you factor in that the Indiana guys are middle distance guys more and the 10k at Chile Pepper put them in a lower performance level.

I got up Sunday morning and pulled out the Madison newspaper and to my delight there was a small story on the Big Ten CC meet. Within the story there was a quote from Helmer the Indiana Coach responding to a question about the Zimmer course: "Regarding the course, Helmer said it's "beautiful" and a "great place," but he wishes "it was a little more challenging."

I then went to the meet later that morning and saw the implosion of the Indiana team and then thought back to Helmer's quote that he wished the course were more challenging. Ironic!

slide show pics from Sunday

Interview with Peacock and pics from the women's race.

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=419&Itemid=115

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=416&Itemid=118

I was at the meet but I think I got more from those photos than I did running around at the course. That photographer did an amazing job of covering a CC Meet!

Awesome video interviews with Peacock and Byrne.

Interesting quote from Byrne in his interview saying that the Badgers were tired of doing the "dirty work" in these Big Ten races like they have over the last 18 months in CC and Indoor/Outdoor. In the Outdoor 5K they couldn't have set it up any better for Poore and Rombough if they tried.

It will be interesting to see what strategy they use in track this year.

Those slideshows were great. It looked like the TFN guy used almost the same strategy as the guy who did the videos that are on youtube. A couple of times they had to be literally right next to each other.

Note that Wisconsin was down about 19 points with the 5,000 and 4x400 left. They had to push the pace and do all the work in the 5,000 if they wanted a chance at the team victory.

kinda helped that Indiana fell off pretty hard. it seems like as the season goes on, they have less fitness. They are always up front, and then fade pretty far...

They "do all the dirty work" at times because they're so much better than the rest of the conference. IU had some comparable times coming in, but they also achieved those times in rabbitted races on perfect tracks and 5 seperate weekends (chances). If I remeber correctly, Badgers ran their times at one Washinton and then home meet (terribly slow track).

Badgers are just way better. Byrne knows deep down how much better they are. Hard to motivate guys when they dominate all the time. Look at IU in cross country; naive to think they're close to Badgers.

I suspect that several guys this year will be racing at Stanford to get quality times. That probably means all the top 9 XC guys plus the milers not covered by that. I would not be surprised to see a 28:20 or better from Ahmed and a couple of others might not be too far behind (or in the 5000).

So is Grinaker done with her NCAA eligibility now? She sure has been injury-ridden. Story of the WI women's distance program, sadly.

Grinaker has been hurt all year. I would love to see her get one more shot.

I was speaking indoors.

Point is, Wisconsin is better than the rest of the conference COMBINED.

There is absolutely something fishy to have all those distance kids, have time for them to almost always redshirt entire first year, and have a balanced tyrack team to place in the top 3.

How do the "stretch" their money so far (especially with distance guys from every state except Wisconsin!

Stanford has strange acadmic money and need-based.

Oregon is beyond cheap with easy in-state designation achieved within 6 months. What is Wisconsin's?

I think some of the guys come to Wisconsin for less than they might at other places because the tradition is so deeply entrenched and because success will lead to greater support. No inside knowledge, just a guess. They also do get good in-state guys

Here is the roster as per their site: Only one of the top four guys (Krause) is from Wisconsin, but Brice and Brill might both make the top seven (although injury for Brice means he has ground to make up that he might not be able to this fall)

Eight non-Wisconsin: One Senior, four Sophomores and two freshmen

Ahmed, Mohammed 71 5-11 3 SO St. Catharines, Ontario

Berman, Neal 73 6-1 2 RS FR Philadelphia, Penn.

Connor, Reed 73 6-1 3 SO Houston, Texas

Darling, Maverick 70 5-10 4 RS SO Ovid, Mich.

Finnerty, Rob 70 5-10 4 RS SO Burnsville, Minn.

Hatz, Alexander 0 1 FR Manilius, N.Y.

Peacock, Landon 71 5-11 8 RS SR Morley, Mich.

Shields, Drew 73 6-1 2 RS FR Fishers, Ind.

Nine Wisconsin, six Freshmen and three Juniors

Brice, Michael 72 6-0 2 RS FR Kaukauna, Wis.

Brill, Alex 75 6-3 2 RS FR Madison, Wis.

Buechel, Daniel 73 6-1 5 JR St. Peter, Wis.

Erschen, Jacob 72 6-0 1 FR Pewaukee, Wis.

Hucke, Timothy 72 6-0 2 RS FR Hartland, Wis.

Krause, Elliot 72 6-0 5 JR Appleton, Wis.

McKenna, Matthew 70 5-10 1 FR Madison, Wis.

Thomas, Phil 73 6-1 6 RS JR Greendale, Wis.

Zeman, Tyler 74 6-2 1 FR Hartland, Wis.

I suspect that a lot of the Wisconsin freshmen get little scholarship money; two are from Madison

Pretty good collection of majors among the freshmen Geological Engineering , journalism, Kinesiology , engineering, plus Brice's dad was on the 1982 team that won NCAAs.

Hey 26mi235,

Thanks for sharing your perspective. Seems like you are a dedicated soul for the distance running cause.

As I look at your postings, you clearly have a lot of insider info which you openly share on these boards. In some cases that's cool, but in others such as reporting on health status, that's not cool at all for several reasons. If you are a friend of Bucky, please use more discretion than you have demonstrated about team members health status as well as items that could be deemed competitive advantage.