Michigan
NCAA Championships
Wolverine Weekly: NCAA Championships News and Notes
11/14/2018 4:58:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
» The No. 20 University of Michigan men will compete against the nation's best cross country teams at the NCAA Championships on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. CST.
» Led by a young corps including All-Region honorees Jack Aho, Isaac Harding and John Tatter, the Wolverines will look to take a big step forward and earn a third top-10 finish in the last four years for the program.
THIS WEEK
Saturday, Nov. 17 -- at NCAA Championships (Madison, Wis.) / 11:45 a.m. CST
Watch: FloTrack Pro | Live Results | Meet Homepage
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Riding some momentum after a strong third-place finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, the No. 20 University of Michigan men's cross country team will look to close out the year in similar fashion as it competes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships this Saturday (Nov. 17) in Madison, Wisconsin.
The young Wolverines, who will likely field a lineup without seniors, are striving to keep up the program's recent streak of success when the gun goes off for the 10-kilometer (6.22-mile) race over the grounds of the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course at 11:45 a.m. CST.
Michigan has finished top-11 in three of the last four seasons, including a 10th-place national result a year ago.
Returning from that squad are last year's Nos. 4 and 5 scorers in sophomores Jack Aho and Isaac Harding, respectively, as well as No. 7 runner junior Ben Hill.
Aho and Harding, who both earned All-Region honors last Friday, and Hill are joined by a resurgent All-Big Ten awardee in Jordy Hewitt and one of the nation's top freshmen in All-Region honoree John Tatter. Redshirt sophomores Jacob Lee and Jacob Branch join with them to create one of the deepest seven-man lineups in the field.
Michigan's lineup has been interchangeable throughout an up-and-down regular season, with Harding, Lee, Aho and Hewitt all taking turns as the No. 1 Michigan runner at least once this season. In what could be a sign of a higher ceiling for the Wolverines than the rankings indicate, the lineup has yet to truly fire on all cylinders so far this season as one or more of those four have had "off days" in all four meets since early October.
A Michigan team that can put all the pieces together on Saturday could be a threat for the top 10, considering the depth they've shown throughout the season. At the two major invitationals held at Wisconsin in October, only two-time-defending national champion No. 1 Northern Arizona consistently showed better depth in the Wolverines' races.
A live stream of the race -- as well as the women's race that will pecede it at 10:45 a.m. CST -- can be viewed on FloTrack Pro, with live results available via Record Timing and NCAA.com. Michigan-specific updates can be found on the program's social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Lineup
Teams are allowed to field a lineup of seven runners from among a declared NCAA postseason roster of as many as 12 runners. The first five runners across the line will combine to constitute a team's score, while the next two are score "displacers" that serve to boost the scores of opposing teams.
In addition to the aforementioned seven who competed at the Great Lakes Regional last Friday (Nov. 9), the Michigan lineup could include the likes of, in alphabetical order: Anthony Berry, Dominic Dimambro, Christian Hubaker, Gabe Mudel, and Ryan Wilkie.
• After a down race at the Big Ten Championships, both Aho and Harding responded well when it mattered at the regional meet with 10th- and 11th-place showings. The two were also narrowly separated as last year's Nos. 4 and 5 scorers in 122nd- and 124th-place at nationals, respectively.
• Aho has been either first, second or third across the line for Michigan in each of his three outings in-uniform this season. Aho's big breakthrough as a true freshman in 2017 came at the regional meet when he was 25th for All-Region honors before going on to take 122nd as a scorer on Michigan's 10th-place NCAA Championships team.
• Just as Aho was a true freshman who assumed a role in the five-man scoring lineup a year ago, Tatter could do the same this year. He showed guts when he bolted out to second place during the second half of the Great Lakes Regional and held on well to finish 20th for All-Region honors as Michigan's No. 3 runner.
• Hewitt had a breakthrough day at the Big Ten Championships two weekends ago in a 13th-place finish to earn second team All-Big Ten honors. Though he could not replicate it last Friday as he finished 33rd at the regional, he will have a chance to bounce back like Aho and Harding did in his first-ever NCAA Cross Country Championships race.
• Hill has been trending upward from last year's performances all season long, most recently finishing 21st as Michigan's No. 2 runner at Big Tens and 35th as Michigan's No. 5 at regionals. He has made a name for himself with his late-race strength; he kicked down seven runners over the final two kilometers at regionals to help the Wolverines hold off Purdue and Indiana for third.
• Michigan's top runner at the Nuttycombe Invitational, Lee, will be looking to rebound after disappointing 38th- and 54th-place finishes at the Big Ten Championships and Great Lakes Regional. This will be his first NCAA Championships.
The Team, The Team, The Team
• Led by former Great Lakes Region and two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year Kevin Sullivan, the U-M men made a big jump up to No. 20 in the final National Coaches' Poll announced Monday (Nov. 12) by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
• Among Big Ten teams nationally, Michigan is ranked second behind No. 3 Wisconsin and ahead of No. 22 Purdue and No. 24 Indiana. Saturday could be a redux of the tight battle Michigan, Purdue and Indiana all found themselves in down the stretch of the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.
The Course
Name: Thomas Zimmer Championship Course
Distance: 10 Kilometers (6.22 miles)
Players Mentioned
