The cross country community saw the headlines. 

 

“Michigan Back on Top at Big Ten Championships” - MGoBlue.com

 

“Michigan Men, Penn State Women Record Huge Victories at Big Ten Championship” - FloTrack

 

“Michigan Wins Big Ten Title” - Michigan Daily

 

While the reader sees the simple fact that the Wolverines recorded a Big Ten Conference victory, a deeper story lies within the news —It had been 17 years since Michigan claimed the title, the same generation that second-year Head Coach Kevin Sullivan ran in the Maize and Blue.

For several years, Michigan recorded runner-up, third-place or lower finishes at the conference showdown against NCAA powerhouses like Wisconsin and Indiana. Under several coaching changes between Ron Warhurst (1974-2010), Alex Gibby (2010-2014) and now Kevin Sullivan, the Michigan Wolverines have experienced the highs and lows that many competitive Division 1 programs go through. 

 

An underlying connection between this 17-year gap in Big Ten Conference finishes is that Kevin Sullivan played a major part in the winning Michigan squads between 1993-1997 when he competed under Warhurst. Sullivan captured 16 Big Ten titles during his time as a Wolverine. Four of those victories were on the cross country course (1993, 1994, 1995, 1997), where he helped Michigan earn team titles in 1993 and 1997. 

 

Sullivan went on to earn four NCAA titles and compete at the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympic Games. He recorded his highest finish of fifth in the 1500m at the 2000 Games in Sydney. 

 

After working as an assistant coach at Florida State and Illinois, Sullivan returned to his alma mater in the summer of 2014 when he was given the position of head cross country coach of the men’s program. In his first year of coaching, the Michigan men recorded a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championships and an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the team’s highest finish in over a decade. 

 

2015 has already proven to be another ground-breaking season as the men of Michigan haven’t recorded a team score lower than third all season long. Led by All American Mason Ferlic who finished runner-up at Big Tens, the Wolverines are poised to step up even more after the win in Chicago. 

 

“The biggest thing I saw was this group having a confidence about them,” Sullivan told MGoBlue.com after the conference win. “They felt like they were the team to beat out there, and they positioned themselves accordingly. They managed to hold off a really strong-closing Illinois team.”

 

“We had a lot of guys step up and fill roles they haven’t had to fill before to help out the guys who had off days, and that’s what we need. Everyone was willing to play a contributing role, whether the race pans out for them or not.”

 

The team did indeed step up as the results showed numerous athletes finish higher at the conference meet than ever before in their career. 

 

Ferlic’s runner-up finish was the highest by a Wolverine since Nate Brannen was the runner-up in 2003. Junior Ben Flanagan finished eighth and improved upon his previous best finish of 12th. Tony Smoragiewicz was a second behind Flanagan and closed for ninth. His best finish prior to that was 15th. Junior Connor Mora turned out a 19th-place finish, which improved upon his previous finish by 14 places. And Nick Renberg rounded out the team score with a 25th-place finish, marking a successful first-time Big Ten cross country race.

 

Another important takeaway from the team’s top five scorers is that 2-7 have shown to be interchangeable as seen from performances at highly competitive meets. 2-7 at Greater Louisville Classic, where the team finished second, was Mora, Flanagan, Nick Posada, Smoragiewicz, Renberg, and August Pappas. 2-7 at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational, where the team finished third overall, was Flanagan, Mora, Pappas, Aaron Baumgarten, Smoragiewicz, and Posada. 

 

With a successful pack of interchangeable parts, a clear front-runner in Ferlic, and a coach who has been on the podium many times as a Wolverine, Michigan is beginning to look like the great Maize and Blue of years past. 

 

 

Learn more about the storied history of the Michigan program and the journey of this year’s squad in INSIDE: Michigan Ep. 1, which airs tomorrow! 

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