Michigan
NCAA Championships
NCAA Championships on Deck for No. 10 Wolverines
11/16/2017 10:48:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
» UPDATE: Due to inclement weather forecast for the Louisville area for late Saturday morning, the race has been moved to 10 a.m.
» Michigan returns to the NCAA Championships after a year away, going for a second top-10 finish in the last three years.
» Redshirt senior Ben Flanagan enters with momentum after winning the NCAA Great Lakes Regional last Friday, leading a squad with significant veteran experience blended with talented youthfulness.
» The Wolverines will look to crack the top-eight for the first time since 2002 and make the four-team podium for the first time since 1998.
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THIS WEEK
Saturday, Nov. 18 -- NCAA Cross Country Championships (Louisville, Ky. / E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park) 11:45 a.m. 10 a.m.
Meet Home | Live Results | Course Maps | Watch Live on Flotrack Pro
After a year away from the Big Dance, the No. 10-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country team is returning to the NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday (Nov. 18) in Louisville, Kentucky, with momentum on its side.
Led by newly minted Great Lakes Regional Athlete of the Year Ben Flanagan, the Big Ten champion Wolverines are in position to go for the program's second national top-10 finish in the last three seasons when they line up for the 10-kilometer (6.21-mile) race over the grounds of E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park at 10 a.m. (The race had previously been scheduled for 11:45 a.m., but inclement weather forecast for the Louisville area late Saturday morning into the afternoon changed the schedule of events.)
When the Wolverines finished ninth in 2015 and 11th in 2014, they did so with a supporting cast of underclassmen that has grown into the backbone of this 2017 squad. Flanagan leads a corps of five redshirt seniors -- himself, Connor Mora, Aaron Baumgarten, Billy Bund and Micah Beller -- that has combined with a potent group of underclassmen to form one of the deepest squads in the country.
"They bring a huge amount of experience in terms of what to expect in races and how to approach different training cycles," head coach Kevin Sullivan said. "They're really helping the young guys, because we've got great contributions from true freshmen, redshirt freshmen and redshirt sophomores who haven't been at this level before. That is a legacy that these seniors are going to leave with this team."
Running in their final cross country races, this outgoing group of seniors has a chance to post one of the best finishes in program history. Checking in at No. 10 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll, the Wolverines are on the precipice of contending for a spot on the four-team podium.
An eighth-place finish would be Michigan's best finish at nationals since 2002, but moving up into the top-four would be the Wolverines' first venture into such territory since back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 1997 and 1998.
Such an improvement on its pre-meet national rank is far from out of the question, as the Wolverines have exceeded expectations in each and every outing this far. Over the course of October and into November, the Wolverines went from unranked nationally and as low as fifth in the regional rankings to a wire-to-wire win at the Big Ten Championships and a runner-up finish in the region without usual scorer Isaac Harding.
During that span, Michigan proved it can run from the front or react from behind, utilizing the former strategy to claim the conference title and the latter to impress on the national state at Notre Dame and Wisconsin. The Wolverines will need to be prepared for either approach on Saturday, depending the weather conditions and how race unfolds out front.
"I think there are two or three teams that are prohibitive favorites and it's going to be pretty tough to be there, but I think it's pretty wide open for fourth," Sullivan said. "We have to have a lot of things really go our way to be there, but that's what it is about nationals, it's a high-pressure situation for everybody ranked in the top-10 to top-15. Any of those teams have a legitimate shot at being on the podium, and we are certainly one of those teams."
Fans can watch the meet live on Flotrack Pro with a subscription, or follow the live results on NCAA.com. Live updates from the course will be posted to the program's social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook throughout the week leading up to and including the race.
THE LINEUP
For the NCAA Championships, only seven runners are able to compete for each team. Redshirt seniors Flanagan, Baumgarten, Mora, Bund and Beller headline the travel group, as well as redshirt sophomores Ben Hill and Keenan Rebera; redshirt freshman Isaac Harding; and true freshman Jack Aho.
Standard NCAA scoring rules are in effect for the NCAA Championships, meaning a team's first five runners will comprise its score. Each of those top-five runners will be assigned a point value equal to their finish positions (first is one point, second is two, and so on), with the sum of those five runners' point totals making up the team score.
The next two runners (six and seven) will serve as displacers in the team scoring. Though their point totals will not contribute to the team score, they will be key in pushing opposing teams' scoring runners who finish behind them back one spot each in the standings -- a vital advantage in a competition in which each and every point is important.
Flanagan will look to parlay his Great Lakes Regional title -- and his strength over the 10K distance -- into All-America honors for the first time in his cross country career. Given his regionals performance and his 22nd-place finish in a Wisconsin field last month that simulated a national-caliber competition, Flanagan is a strong candidate to make the top-40 threshold for All-America honors.
Of the four Wolverine men before him who won regional titles -- Sullivan, John Mortimer, Nate Brannen and Mason Ferlic -- only Sullivan and Brannen went on to earn All-America honors the following weekend at nationals. All four claimed All-America status multiple times in their careers.
Aggressive front-running has paid dividends for Mora, who has finished top-15 in each of his last two meets including a seventh-place effort in the 10K regional. On the flipside, patience has been a virtue for Baumgarten, whose methodical climb through the field has resulted in 11th- and 20th-place efforts in those same meets.
Combined with the consistent presence of Bund, Harding and/or Hill rounding out the scoring lineup and a wild card in the ever-improving true freshman Aho, the Wolverines have depth rivaled by few other teams in the field.
Despite off days from Bund and Beller at Big Tens, Michigan still managed to put seven runners in the top-25 (Michigan State was next with four on the day), a feat that had not been accomplished in the conference since 2013.
Social Post of the Week
Congrats to @USTFCCCA #NCAAXC Great Lakes Region Men's Athlete of the Year Ben Flanagan @bennyflanagan!#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/GoAW72f1Xt
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack) November 14, 2017
Players Mentioned
