Stinzi's comments on the Regional race do not include Grinaker's name, and he lists seven other runners.
"“The issue is not worrying too much about [Comfort and Sisson], but believing in themselves as the No. 3-7 runners.”
Among those in the lineup for the Badgers besides Sisson and Comfort are freshmen Lavinia Jurkiewicz and Liga Blyholder. Additionally, sophomore Ashley Beutler and seniors Karlye Wolff and Karen Greuel will hopefully make veteran contributions. "
On the Men's side, Byrne does not detail all of the planned runners but has this:
"Since the Badgers' strategy has been working so well year after year, you can expect these guys to be playing similar roles at NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Nov. 13th.
"Elliot Krause will be called upon again to play his role again this weekend," Byrne said, looking ahead to the meet at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.
Aside from athlete roles, the main objective of the Wisconsin men's cross country team is to undoubtedly qualify for the NCAA Championships. In doing so, the Badgers will have to address the change in distance from 8-kilometers to 10-kilometers.
"We are moving up from 8-k to 10-k, and all you can hope for is that the 10k race doesn't beat them up too much." Byrne said. "The guys that would be going to the line the following week at the NCAA Championships will only have a certain number of days to recover from it, so they can't put too much strain on themselves."
Just because the Badgers' main objective is to get to Terre Haute, that doesn't mean Byrne is about take away from the importance of Regionals.
"Not to downplay any other team in the meet, it's just a different ball game for us now." Byrne said. "There was a ton of pressure on our kids going into the Big Tens because it was at home and they were trying to keep the streak alive."
Are the Badgers feeling the same pressure to win their eighth-straight NCAA Great Lakes Regional?
"There is definitely less pressure," Byrne said. "We are going to have other teams watching what we are doing, but we just have to remember our objective."
"Our focus for this weekend is to get out there and run together as a team, feed off of each other, and know that we have to keep a little bit in the tank for the following week," Byrne stressed."
I do not think that Indiana can afford to either take it easy for Regionals or push too hard and leave too little for NCAAs. I suspect that Wisconsin will be watching the Indiana guys and pushing as hard as they need to in order to accomplish their mission (qualifying, plus winning, plus not racing too hard). Since Wisconsin has more 10k guys and Indiana has more miler types, I suspect that the move to 10km will make it easier to monitor the race and titrate their effort.