Michigan Ties for Ninth at Wisconsin Adidas Invitational

Friday, October 17

Madison, Wis.

11:00 AM CT

Michigan

Wisconsin adidas Invitational

Michigan Ties for Ninth at Wisconsin Adidas Invitational

10/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country

Oct. 17, 2014

Mason Ferlic

• Notes & Quotes | Photo Gallery

Site: Madison, Wis. (Thomas Zimmer Championship Course)
Meet: Wisconsin Adidas Invitational (8,000 Meters)
U-M Team Finish: Tie-9th of 38 Teams (296 points)
Top U-M Individual: Mason Ferlic, 12th (23:59)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Oct. 24 -- at EMU Fall Classic (Dexter, Mich.), 4 p.m.

MADISON, Wis. -- The 11th-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country team raced to a tie for ninth place today (Friday, Oct. 17) at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course. The Maize and Blue was led by a 12th-place finish from senior/junior Mason Ferlic (St. Paul, Minn./Mounds Park Academy), who completed the 8,000-meter course in 23:59.

The 254-man field featured runners from 38 programs, including 19 of the top 30 ranked teams in the nation. The Wolverines bested 10 of the ranked programs to earn their fourth consecutive top-10 finish at the event.

U-M began the race with a strong pace, but the field got out slowly, leading to a team lead for the Wolverines at the 2K mark. However, the deep field caught up to the Wolverines as the lead pack approached the 5K point. Junior Tony Smoragiewicz (Rapid City, S.D./Rapid City Central), sophomore Ben Flanagan (Kitchener, Ontario/St. Mary's) and a few other of U-M's top runners found themselves among the field's top 20 or 30 early on, but they were unable to maintain position through the second half of the race.

By the time the 7K mark was reached, the leading group with Maize and Blue was soon spotted with Syracuse orange and Wisconsin red. Ferlic finished just three seconds off a top-10 finish to pace the Wolverine scorers.

Smoragiewicz was the first Wolverine to cross the finish line after Ferlic, earning 43rd place with a time of 24:18. Flanagan crossed next, at 24:26 to claim 63rd place, followed by sophomore/freshman Aaron Baumgarten (Williamston, Mich./Williamston) at 24:32, good for 83rd overall. Three seconds later, senior/junior August Pappas (Chelsea, Mich./Chelsea) took 91st place to round out U-M's top five runners.

Fifth-year senior James Yau (Troy, Mich./Troy) and senior/junior Nick Posada (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park) rounded out U-M's seven competing runners, finishing with times of 25:03 and 25:11, respectively.

In the men's open race, the Wolverines had 11 athletes compete, and two placed in the top 10. Sophomore/freshman Micah Beller (Niles, Ill./Niles North) and junior/sophomore George Kelly (Lincroft, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) both crossed the finish line at the 24:51 mark to claim eighth and ninth place, respectively. Among a field of 85 participants, U-M featured six in the top 30.

The Maize and Blue returns to action next Friday (Oct. 24) for the EMU Fall Classic in nearby Dexter. The race begins at 4 p.m.

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE

Team Standings (Top 10)

 1. Syracuse            85 2. Iona               154 3. Wisconsin          176 4. Portland           211 5. Stanford           220 6. Northern Arizona   225 7. UCLA               236 8. Washington         267 9. MICHIGAN           296    Florida State

Top 10 Finishers

 1. Maxim Korolev, Stanford                     23:43 2. Futsum Zienasellassie, Northern Arizona     23:47 3. Aaron Nelson, Washington                    23:51 4. Scott Fauble, Portland                      23:53 5. Matt McElroy, Northern Arizona              23:54 6. Stanley Kebenei, Arkansas                   23:55 7. Martin Hehir, Syracuse                      23:55 8. Joe Rosa, Stanford                          23:56 9. Abbabiya Simbassa, Oklahoma                 23:5610. Shane Quinn, Providence                     23:56

U-M Finishers

 12. Mason Ferlic        23:59 43. Tony Smoragiewicz   24:18 67. Ben Flanagan        24:26 83. Aaron Baumgarten    24:32 91. August Pappas       24:35156. James Yau           25:03174. Nick Posada         25:11

"B" RACE

Top 10 Individual Finishers

  1. Joel Hubbard, Syracuse           24:24  2. Jonathan Harper, BYU             24:39  3. Spencer Hanson, BYU              24:42  4. Travis Fuller, BYU               24:42  5. Joe Kush,  Syracuse              24:43  6. Andrew Palmer, Syracuse          24:43  7. Andrew Cusmano, Michigan State   24:48  8. MICAH BELLER, U-M                24:51  9. GEORGE KELLY, U-M                24:51 10. Shawn Wilson, Syracuse           24:54

Other U-M Finishers

 14. Billy Bund         25:02 17. Nick Renberg       25:05 24. Will Burke         25:14 28. Jarred Bratley     25:26 42. Scotty Albaugh     25:45 49. Alex Moran         25:56 58. Eddie Cunningham   26:05 61. Cody Snavely       26:12 80. Austin Benoit      27:55

N O T E S

• This year's running of the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational marks the seventh straight season in which the Wolverines have participated in the event, with the team's best finish coming in 2012 (seventh place). Overall, U-M has four consecutive top-10 finishes at Wisconsin, one of the nation's most competitive regular-season events.

• The Maize and Blue was joined by some of the top programs in the country today, edging out 10 of the 18 other top 30 ranked teams represented. Those 18 teams include: No. 3 Northern Arizona, No. 5 Portland, No. 6 Syracuse, No. 7 Stanford, tied-No. 9 UCLA and Wisconsin, No. 12 BYU, No. 13 Providence, No. 14 Iona, No. 16 New Mexico, No. 17 Arkansas, No. 18 Florida State, No. 19 Eastern Kentucky, No. 20 Oklahoma, No. 23 Indiana, No. 24 Princeton, No. 25 Washington and No. 27 Minnesota.

• U-M has had several runners post collegiate-best marks* in recent weeks and continued that trend today. Tony Smoragiewicz (24:18), Ben Flanagan (24:26), Aaron Baumgarten (24:32) each finished with career-best times in the 8K event. For Flanagan, it is a four-second improvement over his finishing time at last year's race.

• With his 12th-place individual finish today, Mason Ferlic has paced the Wolverine squad in each event this season (three scoring; one non-scoring).

* Times from Michigan's previous event, Notre Dame's Blue and Gold Invitational, are not considered valid at the 8,000-meter distance due to a rain-shortened course.

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head Coach Kevin Sullivan
On the field of competition and how it stacks up to the postseason ... "The field size overall is probably a little bit larger than what the National meet will be, so from that sense it was good for our guys to get that in because that's what we're going to have to do when we're at NCAA's. We're going to have to deal with a lot of pushing, a lot of shoving and not knowing where you are for a lot of the race. There are a lot of parallels between today and what we'll see in Terre Haute."

On the team's overall performance ... "We talked about it as a team and we all agreed that it wasn't our best day but with regard to our ranking, we came in right around the seventh (highest rated) team here, so we dropped a couple of places. But to have an okay day and finish where we did, I thought we showed some pretty good poise. Once we back off training a little bit going into Big Tens, that's a lot of pressure, it will really change the dynamic of what we're trying to finish with at Big Tens."

On overall program growth heading into the postseason ... "One of the things that Coach (Dusty) Lopez and I talked to the guys about -- and Coach Lopez has been here for the last few years -- was that last year this meet was really a focus for the team and they finished ninth and they were pretty excited about that placing. They were pretty happy about where they were and it was a positive, happy bus ride home and now we finished ninth again this year and we're not satisfied. We're not down on ourselves but that's the thing; it's exciting (to have these expectations). We now know we can come in and not have our best day and still be competitive with some of the best teams of the country. When we do have our best day we are going to be really competitive with a lot of the top teams in the country."

U-M Junior Tony Smoragiewicz
On the pace and overall feel for the race ... "The race started pretty slowly. Everyone got out quickly though, so the first K was kind of just everyone getting position. From there the race really slowed down for awhile. We had our top four, maybe five guys in the top 20 so we were really up there towards the front of the pack and our team was scoring well but it didn't mean a whole lot because the race hadn't really begun. Everyone was running pretty comfortably and no one was really racing yet. Once we got to 5K, a couple leaders up front started to push the pace and from there the whole field started to separate some more. Mason and I stayed up towards the front and the rest of the guys started to fall back a little bit. After that I started to fall back as well, but made up some ground from 6K-7K before I lost the ground I made up between 7K and 8K."

On how this field and race will compare to the upcoming postseason events on tap ... "This race was a good indication of what Nationals will be like compared to Regionals or Big Tens. It's a pretty small field at Big Tens because of the limited amount of teams, but compared to Nationals it was a good test for how our team is doing and what we should expect in terms of competition."

On reflecting on posting some good numbers despite not reaching the finish they would have liked to reach as a team ... "After the race everyone was pretty disappointed with the performance but if you go back and look at it, I think the effort that everyone put into today is something to hang our heads on. We still had some guys have good races and hit PR's. We just weren't firing on all cylinders today and hopefully we can improve on that over the next couple weeks so we will all be ready to race hard and be on our 'A game' at Big Tens."

Contact: Chad Shepard