The Wisconsin men’s cross country team took fourth place at the 2013 Wisconsin adidas Invitational last Saturday against a tough field that included 19 of the top 30 programs in the nation.
A total of 35 teams were in the meet, making the Badgers’ fourth-place finish all the more impressive.
The invitational was held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course.
Wisconsin finished with a team score of 217, a number derived by adding the overall positional finishes of the team’s five best runners. Northern Arizona dominated the event, finishing with 121. Rounding out the top five were BYU, Portland and New Mexico.
Leading Wisconsin from an individual standpoint was redshirt freshman Malachy Schrobilgen. He covered the 8-km course in 23:38, good enough for a 20th place finish.
Junior Michael Van Voorhis finished one step behind him at 23:39.
Arkansas senior Kemoy Campbell posted a time of 23:12 to win the meet.
Senior Alex Brill, junior Alex Hatz and senior Jacob Naylor rounded out the rest of the top five UW competitors. They finished 46th, 58th and 72nd respectively.
Seniors Rob Finnerty, Drew Shields and Neal Berman were the other Wisconsin runners, but their times did not count towards the team finish. Of the eight runners to compete on Saturday, seven set personal records.
After the remarkable performance, Wisconsin advanced 13 places in the national poll, going from No. 20 to No. 7.
That returns the Badgers to their preseason ranking as the regular season winds down. Wisconsin just has the UW-Oshkosh Open this Friday remaining on its schedule. After that, it’s off to the Big Ten Championship and NCAA Regionals.
Men’s cross country is one of the most underappreciated sports on campus. Wisconsin has won 14 consecutive Big Ten Championships dating back to 1999.
The dominance extends to the national level. Wisconsin has won five national championships, most recently in 2011. The Badgers have also been the national runner-up 10 times, including last season.
