The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s men's cross country team impressed in their first meet running as a complete unit to earn a first place title as a team, while the women tested their depth in light of the upcoming championship portion of the season.
Competition at Friday’s Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational wasn’t nearly as steep as the previous week’s Nuttycombe Invitational. Only two teams ranked inside the top 25 were present in each race for the men and women.
The women’s 6k race went first, which included No. 1 NC State and No. 15 Alabama.
Much like what the men’s team did the week prior, the Badgers women elected to rest most of their top varsity and instead showed off their depth against solid competition. Unsurprisingly, their pack of runners was not nearly as strong as the week before. Their first and fifth runners were separated by over a minute, compared to the 16 seconds from Nuttycombe.
The Badgers women placed 13th out of 15 teams, with senior Leané Willemse leading the charge for a solid 18th place (20:11.2). Other notable runners from the Badgers included senior Kylie Finger placing 45th (20:39.8) and freshman Liv Phillips placing 68th (21:05.7).
No. 15 Alabama came away with the team victory for the women’s race, defeating NC State by a convincing 24 points.
The Wisconsin women, ranked No. 10 in the nation as of last week, will look forward to bringing back a strong pack of runners including Shae Ruhly, Lindsay Cunningham and Carolyn Shult for an exciting Pre-Nationals meet at home in two weeks.
The Wisconsin men raced second, with a big matchup against No. 10 Alabama and No. 14 Butler on the line.
Despite Alabama runners posting the top three times in the race, the Badgers were able to edge them out for the team victory by a minuscule four points. Wisconsin, who came into the meet ranked No. 18 in the nation, showed why they deserve to be in the top 10 consideration moving forward.
Graduate student Bob Liking was the first of the Badgers to break the 23 minute barrier this season, posting a strong seventh place finish (22:59.02). Liking, however, was not the most impressive performance of the race for the Badgers. In fact, the reason they won the meet can be attributed to the extremely impressive and consistent pack of two to five runners. Sophomore Johnny Livingstone (14th place), freshman Liam Newhart (15th place), sophomore Micah Wilson (16th place) and freshman Christian de Vaal (17th place) were separated by less than a second as they all finished with a time of 23:29.
Though Alabama headlined the first three finishes, it was the Badgers pack of four runners who undercut the Red Tide in the end, finishing ahead of their fourth and fifth runners to seal the win.
With an upset victory over the No. 10 and No. 14 teams in the nation, the Badgers will use this momentum to continue to climb as they move toward Pre-Nationals in two week’s time.
