M Cross Country wins B1G Championship

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Today in Chicago, after years of coming up just short and seemingly endless runner-up finishes, the #5 ranked Michigan Men finally got it done.

Michigan won their first B1G Championship since 1998. With Mason Ferlic leading the way finishing runner-up as an individual, the Wolverines won it comfortably.

Michigan placed 3 in the top-10 (Ferlic, Flanagan, Smoragiewicz) and had two more within the top-25 (Mora at 19th, Renberg at 25th).

In Kevin Sullivan's second year as head coach, Michigan's greatest runner in program history has led the Wolverines back to where he left the program when he graduated: the top.

 

The #2 ranked Women finished runner-up in a very close race, finishing just 5 points short of the title. Erin Finn won the race, giving her her second B1G Championship making her the second Wolverine to ever do so.

The XC programs will head out to Madison, WI for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in two weeks. 

Quite a weekend. 3 trophies won by Michigan.

Football obviously brought the Jug back home, M Soccer kept the Big Bear Trophy and now a B1G Championship by MXC.

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oriental andrew

November 1st, 2015 at 5:45 PM ^

That would be impossibly fast for a 10k. A 10k is 6.2 miles, so you'd have to be running at a sub-4 minute mile pace to hit 23:19. Per google, WR 10k time is 26:01.2. 

Back when I was in HS, a senior on my team routinely ran a 5k at around 15:10 on a very tough course. I know a kid from Michigan did it in close to 14 flat a while back. Even on a fast course, that's pretty insane. 

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justingoblue

November 1st, 2015 at 7:57 PM ^

Evan Jager (American record holder for 3k Steeplechase) finished IHSA finals in Peoria (insanely flat course) in 14:22 his senior year of high school. That's a five star recruit time on a completely flat course.

The 2012 Olympic qualifying time on a track was 13:33, but obviously isn't the same 5k that your teammate ran.

Joined: 11/16/2010

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justingoblue

November 1st, 2015 at 11:57 PM ^

I've only run an 8k at Detweiler but the splits for the 2015 championship appear to work out to three miles, which I was not aware of (he qualified as an individual, we weren't that good after his guaranteed one). I remember the big majority of meets being 5k, with our home course being one of the few three mile courses.

I also had junior and senior year confused, 14:23 junior year and 14:07 senior.

Joined: 11/16/2010

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wolfman81

November 1st, 2015 at 6:21 PM ^

As a former D1 XC athlete, let me say that there is no single distance that is run every (other) Saturday for our races. Most of the time, men run an 8k, but they sometimes run a 10k. Most (all?) conferences run an 8k for their championships. But the NCAA regional and national meets are a 10k. So some invitationals run a 10k to prep this distance, but it is not compulsory. Women, on the other hand, traditionally ran a 5k every week as this was the distance for the NCAA competitions until about 2002 or so. Since then, the standard distance became 6k, and most competitions reflect this distance now, though there may still be a few invites who run a 5k for historical reasons and/or laziness. I will also point out that not all courses are standard (especially the weekly invite courses) so 8k at Chicago State may not equal 8k at EMU...spend some time to talking to current team members and coaches and you'll know who has notoriously short courses.

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macdaddy

November 1st, 2015 at 6:16 PM ^

Thanks for posting WD. Always good to add to the B1G championship tally. Speaking of which, what are the overall standings all-time in that department? I know, of course, that Michigan leads by a fair margin.

Joined: 07/05/2008

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Alton

November 1st, 2015 at 10:14 PM ^

That was Michigan's 377th official Big Ten Championship.  The standings:

1. Michigan (377)
2. Illinois (241)
3. Ohio State (212)
4. Wisconsin (196)
5. Indiana (170)
6. Minnesota (139)
7. Iowa (107)
8. Michigan State (99)
9. Penn State (79)
10. Northwestern (75)
11. Chicago (73)
12. Purdue (71)
13. Nebraska (9)
14. Maryland (6)
15. Johns Hopkins (1)
16. Rutgers (0)

That's taking the totals in this season's Big Ten Record Book and adding Cross Country (M & W), Field Hockey and Women's Soccer from this season.

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gjking

November 1st, 2015 at 7:59 PM ^

This was a fabulous performance by the Men and very exciting! Go Blue!

I was expecting the woman to win easily, so its a surprise to see them get beat by PSU. Looks like the usual #2 Osika was all the way back at the UM 5th women. She must have had an off day and it cost them.

Both teams have NCAA podium potential, so I am jazzed about watching the NCAA XC Championships.

 

 

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