Badger rookie is first to take both Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Athlete of the Year
20 years is a long time.
The year was 1993. Bill Clinton was president, “Groundhog Day” and “Jurassic Park” were the blockbusters of the year, “What is Love” was the hit single and Wisconsin’s now-redshirt freshman Malachy Schrobilgen was one-year-old.
It’s been twenty years since 1993 and the last time a freshman won both the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Cross Country Athlete of the Year awards. When Schrobilgen was honored with both Nov. 6 this year. he joined both Michigan’s Kevin Sullivan (1993) and Indiana’s Bob Kennedy (1988) as the only freshman to achieve this feat since the Big Ten began giving out postseason awards in 1987.
No ‘I’ in team
Schrobilgen began his cross-country career in middle school in his hometown of Oak Park, Ill. It wasn’t until his sophomore year of high school that he quit the soccer team and began focusing on cross country full time, realizing he had a future in competitive running.
Schrobilgen first met his former high school and college cross-country teammate Jack Stapleton in middle school when Schrobilgen began running with the high school team to get in shape.
The duo competed off-and-on for the next five years together.
Their relationship was undeniable in Schrobilgen’s decision to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Stapleton tried to balance the role of friend and recruiter throughout the process for Schrobilgen, though Stapleton made sure to show Schrobilgen the upsides of attending a university like Wisconsin.
“It was an interesting process because it went far beyond just athletic recruiting,” Stapleton said. I wanted him to do what was best for him. If I felt this wouldn’t be a good fit for him, or if he wanted to go a different direction, I wouldn’t have recruited him at all … I tried to be fair but I’ll admit I pushed it pretty hard.”
Schrobilgen found UW hard to resist, even without his friend’s influence. The opportunity to run at an elite level but still attend a world-class school was too much to pass up.
“I think I knew that I wanted to come to Wisconsin the minute I stepped on campus,” Schrobilgen said. “I loved how the guys on the team held a high standard for themselves and thrived under the pressure to be the best. I also loved the energy on campus and how everyone seems to thrive off of each other’s support and passion for working hard and yet still taking the time to enjoy the accomplishments of that hard work.”
Finding a stride
Humility and hard work are undeniably the keys to Schrobilgen’s early college success, though Stapleton knows this is nothing new for Schrobilgen. The challenges college presents for a student-athlete are something Schrobilgen has embraced, and although stress is inherent in a university environment, he has found a way to take it all in stride.
“Malachy is one of the most self-motivated athletes I know,” Stapleton said. “In high school, it’s easy just to show up for a couple hours after school, get your running done, and have that be your routine. In college, you have to take on the challenge of college classes, tougher running and living on your own ... Collegiate running is a lifestyle and he’s embraced it.”
In order to be better prepared for his college career Schrobilgen took a redshirt year, making full use of the opportunity for an entire year of training before his first official college race. Head coach Mark Byrne believes Schrobilgen’s redshirt year played an integral part in his early collegiate success.
“We redshirted him last year, all preseason, so he spent a lot of time training and getting stronger,” Byrne said. “What you try and do with all freshman that are redshirting is, we broke the year into a couple of blocks of training, he survived all the training, which stepped up in quality and quantity from high school.”
Schrobilgen also gives huge credit to his redshirt year, saying it helped him not only adjust to the college lifestyle and higher demands of running at Wisconsin, but also helped him become comfortable and confident with the development process of training and working hard without the incentive of races.
According to Byrne, Schrobilgen’s experience with the USA Junior Olympic Cross Country team made another huge impact on his running success.
“Making the USA team for the world junior team kind of showed him that training is going well,” Byrne said. “Once you make that team you get to see things in a different light. You get to run against the best juniors in the world.”
Last winter when he came back from Poland, Byrne tapered Schrobilgen’s training down for a while, finally ramping the volume back up in mid April, maintaining a grueling regimen until Wisconsin’s season opened in the fall.
Keeping his cool
Byrne wasn’t bashful in talking about the significance of Schrobilgen’s accomplishment and what it does for his program looking to the future. The true test of an athlete, he says, is the legacy he leaves for others to follow.
“You look at the history of this in the Big Ten over the past 20 years, I don’t remember when the last time a freshman won the Big Ten cross-country athlete of the year award,” Byrne said. “He ran a real smart race. He timed it very well. He didn’t panic. He showed maturity and that’s rare to see in a freshman. It wasn’t the fastest race in the world for the first 5K but how he handled that and kept a cool head, that’s exciting for a coach to see that.”
Schrobilgen, on the other hand, kept a modest demeanor when describing the feat.
Accomplishments mean nothing without those who have helped along the way, according to Schrobilgen.
“I was really humbled to earn both awards,” Schrobilgen said. “After seeing all the great runners that have come through this conference and won that award, I definitely had to let it sink in. It’s an awesome feeling.”
Bright future
In the regional meet held Nov. 15 at the 10 kilometer Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis., Schrobilgen finished ninth overall and second for Wisconsin behind junior Michael Van Voorhis, despite losing a shoe with four kilometers to go.
The performance for UW, which included five All-Great Lakes Region honorees, propelled the Badgers to a second-place finish and an automatic bid to the Nov. 23 NCAA National Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.
It was the 42nd consecutive bid UW has earned to the national championships, a streak dating back to 1972 when the regional format was introduced for the first time.
“I always tell my guys you’re only as good or as bad as the last race you ran,” Byrne said. “You have to stay pretty humble and focused. We have a big race [this weekend in] the NCAAs. In saying that, the way Malachy handled the Big Ten race showed a tremendous amount of maturity. He’s a pretty level headed kid. He’s got a great sense of balance for putting it all into perspective.”
