Big Ten XC Championships 2013

Big 10 Preview: Will Wisconsin's streak continue and the battle in Michigan

Big 10 Preview: Will Wisconsin's streak continue and the battle in Michigan

Nov 1, 2013 by FloTrack Staff
Big 10 Preview: Will Wisconsin's streak continue and the battle in Michigan
Big Ten Championships: Can the streak continue for Wisconsin?

With the Big 10 Championships this Sunday, the Wisconsin Badgers have a chance to add their 15th consecutive Big 10 trophy to the mantle. The No. 7 ranked Badgers were fielding a lot of doubts early in the season, dropping to 20th in the USTFCCCA rankings before their fourth place finish at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational. And to be honest, Flotrack was one of them.

Earlier this fall, Flotrack went to Madison to express their doubts straight to Mick Byrne's face. We asked him about leadership, Big 10 and NCAA streaks. The result? An INSIDE series that gives an unprecedented look behind the scenes of one of the countries most historic programs.

This weekend half of the equation can be solved. Will the Badgers win Big 10s? Check out INSIDE Wisconsin and see for yourself whether or not the Badgers will keep their streak alive.

But if we had to pick any team to break up the streak, it'll be Michigan. We were under the impression that they've been underrated the entire season. When the latest National Poll was released, our beliefs were confirmed - Michigan rose from "Receiving Votes" to #16.

The Wolverines looked solid at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational, finishing ninth overall (we think they underperformed a little, but that's our subjective view). Mason Ferlic has been a strong leader for Michigan and could even contend for the crown this Sunday.

Ferlic will have his hands full at the front, though. Purdue's super sophmore Matt McClintock, who had an incredible finish at Pre-Nationals, is Ryan Fenton's pick to win (Maine bias).



Michigan State's Caleb Rhynard is a solid choice as well following his solid showing at Wisconsin, where he finished 19th in 23:38.

There's also a few Badgers who will be in the mix. After a tough 116th place finish at his home invitational, Finnerty will look to bounce back at Big 10s. Don't forget - he was seventh at Big 10s last year and Wisconsin's fourth finisher.

Redshirt freshman Malachy Schrobilgen and junior Michael Van Voorhis were almost inseparable at Wisconsin where they finished 20th and 21st, respectively.

Note: These projections are independent of the analysis above. The places for each individual and team are mainly based on the results from Wisconsin and Pre-Nats.


Individual Projections Team Projections
Place  Name                  School
1      Mason Ferlic          Michigan
2      Matt McClintock       Purdue
3      Caleb Rhynard         Michigan State
4      Malachy Schrobilgen   Wisconsin
5      Michael Vanvoorhis    Wisconsin
6      Jannis Topfer         Illinois
7      Carl Smith            Indiana
8      Mark Beams            Michigan
9      Matt Fischer          Penn State
10     Evan Esselink         Indiana
11     Alex Brill            Wisconsin
12     Alex Hatz             Wisconsin
13     Liam Markham          Illinois
14     Jacob Naylor          Wisconsin
15     Morsi Rayyan          Michigan
16     Kevin Lewis           Iowa
17     Ian Barnett           Illinois
18     Robby Creese          Penn State
19     Cory Glines           Michigan
20     Derek Storkel         Minnesota
21     Andrew Larsen         Minnesota
22     Jordan Redd           Ohio State
23     James Yau             Michigan
24     Ben Carruthers        Michigan State
25     August Pappas         Michigan
26     Nick Renberg          Michigan
27     Robert Finnerty       Wisconsin
28     Connor Mora           Michigan
29     Jr Ricker             Indiana
30     Rorey Hunter          Indiana
31     David Madrigal        Michigan State
32     Ben Flanagan          Michigan
33     Marcus Paulson        Minnesota
34     Robby Nierman         Indiana
35     Adam Zutz             Minnesota
36     Brendan McDonnell     Illinois
37     Thomas - Jeremy Cough Indiana
38     Nick Soter            Michigan State
39     Tommy King            Illinois
40     Caleb Kerr            Purdue
41     Nicholas Pupino       Ohio State
42     Ben Witt              Iowa
43     Will Brewster         Illinois
44     Alex Brend            Minnesota
45     Garret Zuk            Michigan State
46     Curtis Hanle          Ohio State
47     Nathan Burnand        Michigan State
48     Steven Stoot          Purdue
49     Brian Hannaford       Ohio State
50     Trevor Vidlak         Nebraska
51     Conner Quinn          Penn State
52     Nate Ferree           Iowa
53     Nick Scarpello        Penn State
54     Nolan Fife            Indiana
55     Quentin Shaffer       Iowa
56     Kevin Docherty        Iowa
57     Paul Zeman            Illinois
58     Drew Shields          Wisconsin
59     Jacob Olson           Nebraska
60     Chris Campbell        Penn State
61     Neal Berman           Wisconsin
62     Jake Waterman         Purdue
63     Matthew Bloch         Nebraska
64     Andrew Cartwright     Purdue
65     Jonah Heng            Nebraska
66     Riley Macon           Minnesota
67     Austin Pondel         Penn State
68     Jarren Heng           Nebraska
69     Clark Ruiz            Michigan State
70     Blake Taneff          Ohio State
71     Connor Gibson         Nebraska
72     Alex Wilson           Michigan State
73     Steve Sulkin          Minnesota
74     Brannon Kidder        Penn State
75     Tate Schienbein       Purdue
76     Caleb Wilfong         Iowa
77     Joe Harter            Nebraska
78     John Simons           Minnesota
79     Graham Morris         Illinois
80     Jeff Hannaford        Ohio State
81     Sam Chaney            Iowa
82     Blayne Dulian         Minnesota
83     Brett Klosterhoff     Purdue
84     Neff Jackson          Ohio State
Place School         Points
1     Wisconsin      46
2     Michigan       66
3     Indiana        110
4     Illinois       111
5     Michigan State 141
6     Minnesota      153
7     Penn State     191
8     Purdue         216
9     Iowa           221
10    Ohio State     228
11    Nebraska       305










































































Women's Big 10 Preview
By Isaac Wood with special guest Kevin Sullivan

The 2013 Big 10 Cross Country Championships will be hosted by Purdue this Sunday and the Women’s race is going to be very exciting up front. There are six teams ranked in the USTFCCCA’s top-30 and the parity within the conference is quite interesting.

Michigan State’s women come into the meet the highest nationally ranked team in the conference and are the favorites of the meet. On paper the Spartans look very good and still have some question marks. After a very solid showing at Griak, MSU was outstanding at Wisconsin finishing 4th as a team and placing two individuals in the top-25. Leah O’Connor has been awesome as the front-runner for the Spartans this season and surprise redshirt frosh Rachele Schulist has come out of nowhere to be a solid no. 2.

The real question mark lies in Sara Kroll. The 2012 Big 10 Individual Champion, Kroll has yet to run a race in uniform for the Spartans, but has done well unattached in the few races she was able to get to on her own. If Kroll suits up for Michigan State this weekend, the Spartans could be looking at running away with the Big 10 title.

In-state rival Michigan is not going to just lay down and let the Spartans take their title they won last season from them. In fact, this race is going to be tight from the get go. Although Michigan lost a ton of studs from last year, they have reloaded with freshman phenom Erin Finn and a slew of girls that were ready to take the reins of this team after their veterans of 2012 graduated.


Anyone remember last year?

Taylor Pogue, Brook Handler and Taylor Manett along with Megan Weschler are all inter-changeable pieces that will be displacing much of the rest of the quality Big 10 teams that will be in the mix.

Minnesota’s women are very deep and have a very solid pack. Laura Docherty, Molly Kayfes, Katie Moraczewski, Liz Berkholtz, and crew will be right in the thick of things and don’t be surprised to see them have a spread of 15-20 seconds between their 1-5.

Penn State has been a bit of a disappointment this season as Tori Perri and Rebekka Simko have been absent this year. They have some solid pieces that if they can get things together they could come up and surprise a few schools.

Wisconsin and Indiana have come out of the wood work this season and are both ready to prove their legitimacy as some of the top 30 teams in the NCAA. Samantha Ginther and Kelsey Duerksen are proven front-runners for the Hoosiers and could find themselves in the top 10. Wisconsin’s best chance for a top-10 individual finisher is most likely Gabi Anzalone who has not run great this season, but has potential to back to the form she was in last season when she qualified for NCAAs in Louisville individually.

Prediction

Team
1) Michigan State
2) Michigan
3) Minnesota
4) Indiana
5) Penn State

Kevin Sullivan's Predictions (he's an unbiased Michigan alumnus)
1) Erin Finn- Michigan
2) Taylor Pogue- Michigan
3) Shannon Osika- Michigan
4) Megan Weschler- Michigan
5) Taylor Manett- Michigan

Note: Though we don't necessarily agree with them, the projections below have Michigan narrowly taking down Michigan State. We'll go with Isaac Wood's (not Kevin Sullivan's) analysis and take MSU this Sunday. Still, we wanted to include the following projections for science. These projections below are mainly based on the results from Wisconsin and Pre-Nats.

Individual Projections Team Projections
Place    Name                 School
1        Kelsey Duerksen      Indiana
2        Erin Finn            Michigan
3        Samantha Ginther     Indiana
4        Leah O'Connor        Michigan State
5        Rachele Schulist     Michigan State
6        Brook Handler        Michigan
7        Katie Borchers       Ohio State
8        Taylor Pogue         Michigan
9        Leigha Anderson      Penn State
10       Sarah Disanza        Wisconsin
11       Megan Weschler       Michigan
12       Katie Landwehr       Michigan State
13       Molly Kayfes         Minnesota
14       Lindsay Clark        Michigan State
15       Laura Docherty       Minnesota
16       Alyssa Schneider     Illinois
17       Shelby Jackson       Michigan State
18       Emma-Lisa Murphy     Wisconsin
19       Marta Klebe          Penn State
20       Katie Moraczewski    Minnesota
21       Liz Berkholtz        Minnesota
22       ANDREA OSTENSO       NORTHWESTERN
23       Alex Leptich         Michigan
24       Maggie Bollig        Minnesota
25       Becca Dyson          Minnesota
26       Michelle Thomas      Ohio State
27       Emily Giannotti      Penn State
28       Megan Rodgers        Michigan State
29       Erica Ridderman      Indiana
30       Amanda Behnke        Indiana
31       LIBBY KOCHA          NORTHWESTERN
32       Katie Rodden         Penn State
33       Anna Pasternak       Michigan
34       Alexa Rumsey         Michigan State
35       Molly Hanson         Wisconsin
36       Chanli Mundy         Indiana
37       Brianna Johnson      Indiana
38       Katie Porada         Illinois
39       Amanda Fox           Illinois
40       Rachel Drake         Minnesota
41       JENNA PIANIN         NORTHWESTERN
42       Erin Cawley          Wisconsin
43       Kait Mincke          Minnesota
44       Kelly Whitley        Wisconsin
45       Blair Doney          Purdue
46       Alexis Wiersma       Michigan State
47       Tori Gerlach         Penn State
48       Sakiko Minagawa      Ohio State
49       Raquel Serna         Michigan State
50       CAMILLE BLACKMAN     NORTHWESTERN
51       Rachel McNally       Wisconsin
52       Sharise Lund         Purdue
53       JULIA BUFORD         NORTHWESTERN
54       Taylor Manett        Michigan
55       Liga Blyholder       Wisconsin
56       Stephanie Aldrich    Penn State
57       Linsey Daluga        Purdue
58       Kristen Fritts       Purdue
59       Sarah Jane Underwood Penn State
60       Helen Willman        Ohio State
61       Brynn Olinger        Purdue
62       Kelli Budd           Minnesota
63       Nicole Hilton        Ohio State
64       ANN POWERS           NORTHWESTERN
65       Katie Adams          Iowa
66       Laura Maibuecher     Purdue
67       ELENA BARHAM         NORTHWESTERN
68       ELENA MILLER         NORTHWESTERN
69       Jill Kanney          Ohio State
70       Shannon Maser        Iowa
71       Courtnet Martin      Iowa
72       Hanna Winter         Illinois
73       Isabel Andrade       Nebraska
74       MEGAN O'BRIEN        NORTHWESTERN
75       Tess Wilberding      Iowa
76       Bethany Neeley       Indiana
77       Minori Minagawa      Ohio State
78       Dana Payonk          Purdue
79       Audrey Blazek        Illinois
80       Stephanie Morgan     Illinois
81       Sarah Larson         Nebraska
82       Rachel Price         Iowa
83       Kristi  Oslund       Nebraska
84       Hannah Edwards       Nebraska
85       Megan Lush           Nebraska
86       Britten Petrey       Illinois
87       Shawnice Williams    Nebraska
88       Theresa Keller       Nebraska
89       Katherine Howard     Nebraska
90       Jessica Wright       Nebraska
Place Name           Points
1     Michigan       50
2     Michigan State 52
3     Minnesota      93
4     Indiana        99
5     Wisconsin      149
6     NORTHWESTERN   197
7     Ohio State     204
8     Illinois       244
9     Purdue         273
10    Iowa           363
11    Nebraska       406