RESULTS

#7 Iona Wins As #4 Wisconsin Jogs In Louisville

Today was the first chance for teams to get a preview of the NCAA XC Championships course, and several of the nation’s top teams took advantage on a wet and chilly day in Louisville.

 

Michigan’s Mason Ferlic and the #7 Iona Gaels ran away with Greater Louisville Classic titles on Saturday at the E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in a battle of four top-ten ranked teams, however the team results appear to be very misleading.

 

Yes, the Gaels were certainly impressive in taking down #4 Wisconsin, #5 Ole Miss, and #10 Michigan, doing so with all five scorers in the top 16, but it was apparent from onlookers in Louisville that the #4 Badgers were running a workout on Saturday, thus explaining their seemingly disappointing 7th place finish. Wisco easily won this race last season with a similar arsenal, so their finish today can only be explained by a laid back approach with little interest in actually competing. 

Four Wisconsin men, including last year’s NCAA 10th place finisher Malachy Scrobilgen, finished at 24:41 this morning, 50 seconds behind Ferlic’s winning time and good for places 39, 40, 41, and 42. According to our man on the ground, the Badgers made no attempt to move up throughout the race, instead content to work on pack-running.

Coach Mick Byrne confirmed that his team was just getting a feel for the nationals course today in Louisville, and purposefully held back.

 

Byrne clearly doesn’t mind that he just gifted a bunch of teams with Kolas points towards NCAA qualification, and he's "not interested" about the impact that their seventh place finish will have on other teams that grabbed points from them today. 

“It was all about getting a comfort zone, get used to running around those turns,” he said..."It's way too early."

We’ll get a much better idea of how good this Wisconsin team is in two weeks time as they host the deepest regular season meet in the country, the Wisconsin Invite. It should be noted that the Badgers ran without sophomores Carl Hirsch and Ryan Kromer today, who each scored for them on their 10th place NCAA team last November.

 

Outside of Wisco’s theatrics, Iona scored a solid victory over three full strength teams in #10 Michigan, unranked Louisville, and #5 Ole Miss. The Gaels were led by third place finisher Chartt Miller, who was right on the heels of runner-up Edwin Kibichiy as they both crossed the line in 23:55. 

 

Behind Miller, Iona put all five men in the top 16 with Kieran Clements (7th), Johann Motschmann (11th), Gilbert Kirui (14th), and Mike O’Dowd (16th) to total 51 points. 

 

The #10 Wolverines were of course led by All-American Mason Ferlic’s individual win in 23:51, and finished runner-up in the team battle with 67 points. 

 

On the backs on three men in the top ten, the previously unranked Louisville Cardinals are sure to find themselves in the rankings on Monday after their third place finish today. The home team got solid performances from All-American Edwin Kibichiy (2nd) and Japheth Kipkoech (5th), as well as from All-American Ernest Kibet (10th) en route to a 82-point performance. Disappointing, however, must be the finish of Louisville’s 5th man, who was all the way back in 52nd place. 

 

The Cardinals had a lower score than Iona through both team’s fourth finishers (Louisville = 34 points, Iona = 35 points), however the Gaels were able to bring in their 5th man a full 28-seconds ahead of Louisville’s 5th, dooming the home team’s chances for a much higher finish. 

 

Admittedly, we put a lot of hope that #5 Ole Miss could ride a talented group of track runners to become one of the best cross country teams in the nation, and upon their first exam, the Rebels still have a ways to go before they are ready to run with the big boys. The men from Oxford tied Louisville with 82 points on Saturday, and were knocked down to fourth place after coming out on the wrong end of the tiebreaker.

 

Led by Syracuse transfer MJ Erb’s 4th place finish, the Rebels had all five scorers in the top-30, however a disappointing race from senior Wes Gallagher (135th) greatly hurt their chances to place much higher. Gallagher was 7th at this meet a year ago, and only time will tell if this race was just a really big off day, or if he is struggling with an injury/lack of fitness. My guess is the former.

Last season, the Wolverines were ranked 2nd in the country at this point in the year, then got hit badly with the injury bug, as both Finn and Osika missed NCAAs with ailments and the team tumbled to an 18th place finish at nationals. Now, the Wolverines are implementing a much more reserved approach.

 

We’ll have much more from Louisville shortly, including interviews and archived races...