Michigan
Big Ten Championships
Wolverine Weekly: Big Ten Championships News and Notes
10/25/2018 1:38:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
» A third consecutive conference team title is on the line for the No. 7 University of Michigan women's cross country team as it competes at the Big Ten Championships on Sunday at 10:45 a.m. CDT.
» Led by individual title contenders Avery Evenson and Hannah Meier and buoyed by one of the deepest lineups in the entire country, Michigan will square off against the toughest field of any conference meet anywhere in the country.
» Headed by Michigan, the race will feature five of the top-15 teams in the country for the deepest iteration of the meet since 2006.
THIS WEEK
Sunday, Oct. 28 -- at Big Ten Championships (Lincoln, Neb.), 10:45 a.m. CDT
Watch: BTN Plus | FloTrack Pro | BTN Replay - Monday (Oct. 29), 8 p.m. |Â Live Results | Meet Homepage
A third consecutive conference team title is on the line for the No. 7-ranked University of Michigan women's cross country team as it looks to hold off a formidable field of competitors at the Big Ten Championships on Sunday (Oct. 28) in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Wolverine women are aiming to achieve a three-peat for the third time in program history (1992-94, 2002-06) as they race over the six-kilometer (3.73-mile) course at the Mahoney Golf Course starting at 10:45 a.m. CDT.
Coming off a strong runner-up finish at the Pre-National Invitational two weekends ago in a field with double-digit teams ranked nationally, things do not get any easier for the Wolverines as the postseason revs up. The Wolverines are just one of six nationally ranked squads in the field -- five of which are ranked top-15 -- and will have a battle on their hands to retain possession of the conference crown.
Relying on the frontrunning ability demonstrated by Avery Evenson and Hannah Meier at Pre-Nationals, as well as depth -- courtesy of Claire Borchers, Camille Davre, Jessi Larson, Anna West and Kathryn House -- that was unmatched by any other team in their race, Michigan will now have to contend with No. 10 Indiana, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 13 Penn State and No. 14 Michigan State, as well as No. 21 Minnesota.
The conference has not seen such depth at the front of the race since 2006, when five teams entered the championships ranked top-15 nationally. That year saw the No. 3-ranked Wolverines capture their fifth consecutive conference title over a field with three other top-10 opponents.
Among these top-ranked teams, the Wolverines have seen only Wisconsin in action, though the Badgers reportedly used that Pre-Nationals race as more of a workout.
Michigan easily outpaced conference rivals Nebraska and Purdue at Pre-Nationals, as well as Iowa, Rutgers and Nebraska at the Woody/Greeno Invitational on this same Mahoney Golf Course last month.
Of all the six main contenders in the race, Michigan is the only squad to have previewed the constantly rolling terrain of the Mahoney Golf Course during the regular season. In a runaway win at Woody/Greeno, the Wolverines gathered valuable intel on the course and how it runs. In a meet that could come down to the line, every additional second borne of course familiarity could prove crucial for Michigan.
The Lineup
Teams are allowed to field a lineup of nine runners. The first five runners across the line will constitute the scorers; the next two are score displacers and the final two will not figure into the team scoring, but provide an extra safety net should any of the seven ahead of them have an off day.
In addition to the aforementioned frontrunners, Evenson and Hannah Meier, the lineup could also include, alphabetically: Claire Borchers, Camille Davre, Anne Forsyth, Alice Hill, Kathryn House, Jessi Larson, Haley Meier and Anna West.
• Michigan had unmatched depth in its runner-up finish in the Pre-National Invitational "White Race," with all seven runners finishing top-60 individually. No other team in the field had more than five in the top-60, and no other team even managed seven in the top-100.
• Evenson (eighth) and Hannah Meier (12th) gave the Wolverines firepower out front, and Larson (40th), West (48th) and House (59th) brought home the depth as the best Nos. 5, 6 and 7 runners in the field. Should that depth translate at the Big Ten Championships, Michigan could be in for a strong performance. The Wolverines are two for two when seven Michigan runners place top-25 dating back to head coach Mike McGuire's first year in 1992, and are six-for-10 on winning titles with six in the top-25.
• Evenson is looking more and more like the woman who finished 18th for All-America honors at the 2016 NCAA Championships. She has finished no lower than eighth overall in her three races this season, and her strength over the final two kilometers at Pre-Nats was surpassed only by the top two finishers in the race.
• Hannah Meier continues to excel in her first injury-free cross country season since 2016, with her 12th-place finish at Pre-Nationals planting her firmly in the All-America conversation. For all the success she has had this year, Meier will be looking for her first-ever breakthrough at a conference meet. She was 40th for Michigan at Big Tens in 2016, and finished as high as 33rd at ACCs while competing for Duke between 2013 and 2015.
• Borchers continues to be the rock at the center of the Michigan lineup, with her 23rd-place finish at Pre-Nationals as Michigan's No. 3 runner marking her 11th consecutive race as a top-five runner for Michigan. In the midst of a deeper field, Borchers' 23rd-place effort was superior to last year's 33rd-place showing at Pre-Nats, signaling that an improvement might be forthcoming on 2017's 17th-, 15th- and 98th-place finishes at Big Tens, Regionals and Nationals, respectively.
The Team, The Team, The Team
• Led by reigning Great Lakes Region and Big Ten Coach of the Year Mike McGuire, Michigan moved up to No. 7 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll (Oct. 16) and took control of the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Rankings (Oct. 15).
• This marks the eighth year in a row Michigan has been ranked top-10 nationally at some point during the season. Only one other team in the country (Stanford, 24 years in a row) has a longer active top-10 streak than the Wolverines.
• This week marks the 138th consecutive edition of the National Coaches' Poll that has included Michigan in its top-30, a streak surpassed only by Stanford. Among Big Ten teams, Penn State is next on the list with 30 consecutive appearances.
• No Big Ten team is ranked higher nationally than Michigan, though the conference meet is shaping up to be one of the nation's best with five teams in the top 15 and six in the top 30. Behind Michigan are No. 10 Indiana, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 13 Penn State and No. 14 Michigan State, as well as No. 21 Minnesota.
• The Wolverines have claimed five of the last six regional titles and are in the midst of the third-longest active NCAA Championships qualifying streak in the nation at 15 years running. Never before has a women's team in the Great Lakes Region claimed four consecutive regional titles, but the Wolverines -- winners of three straight -- will look to change that in 2018. The top two teams in the region will automatically advance to the NCAA Championships.
• This marks the 16th consecutive year Michigan earned a top-30 national rank to start the season. Of those 16 years, Michigan (No. 13 to start 2018) has gone on to outperform its preseason rank at the NCAA Championships in nine of those seasons.
Big Ten History
• Michigan and McGuire may be second overall in conference team titles with 11 to the 13 amassed by Wisconsin and coach Peter Tegen, but the Wolverines have been the dominant force in the conference for the better part of three decades. All of Wisconsin's titles came in the year 2000 or prior, while Michigan has claimed the conference title eight times since the turn of the millennium. Michigan State is next on the post-2000 list with five titles.
• Michigan and Wisconsin also share the distinction of being the only programs in the conference that have pulled off team title three-peats in two different decades. Michigan has streaks of 1992-94 and 2002-06 to its credit, while Wisconsin reeled off streaks of 1983-88 and 1995-2000. With a win on Sunday, the Michigan women would add another with 2016-18 and become the first team in the conference with such streaks in three different decades.
The Course
Name: Mahoney Golf Course
Distance: Six Kilometers (3.73 miles)
Course Map
A Look Ahead
Friday, Nov. 9 -- at NCAA Great Lakes Regional (Terre Haute, Ind.)
Saturday, Nov. 17 -- at NCAA Championships (Madison, Wis.)
Players Mentioned
