Michigan
Big Ten Championships
Big Ten Title Up for Grabs for Michigan Men
10/27/2021 3:41:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
THIS WEEK
Friday, Oct. 29 -- at Big Ten Championships (State College, Pa.), 10:45 a.m.
TV: B1G+ | Live Results | Live Video | Championships Home
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The national No. 15-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country team will run for what would be its third team title in its last six attempts on Friday (Oct. 29) at the 2021 edition of the Big Ten Cross Country Championships hosted by Penn State.
In what is annually a hard-fought competition regardless of the rankings, the Wolverines will battle No. 10 Wisconsin and No. 29 Minnesota -- as well as previously ranked Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue -- over 5.2 miles (8.37 kilometers) around the grounds of the Nittany Lions' Blue and White Golf Courses at 10:45 a.m.
Those top-ranked teams all battled at Wisconsin this past weekend, with only the Badgers beating the Wolverines in the overall team standings among conference teams.
Michigan once again will rely on its national-caliber depth to carry the day. In addition to being one of three teams in the field at Wisconsin with six runners in the top-90, they were the first Big Ten team to have its five scoring runners across the line -- and sixth-man Colton Yesney beat the Badgers' No. 5 runner to the finish by a second.
Yesney is part of a tight-knit group of Wolverines that has shown better pack-running discipline than nearly every team it has come up against in 2021. The group of nine runners that will look to continue that trend with the conference title on the line could include reigning Big Ten Runner of the Year and two-time All-American Devin Meyrer; top Wisconsin finisher and track All-American Tom Dodd; Big Ten 10,000-meter silver medalist and All-American Tom Brady; All-American steeplechaser Christian Hubaker; NCAA steeplechase qualifier Joost Plaetinck; Big Ten 1,500-meter silver medalist Nick Foster; 2021 standouts Yesney, Oli Raimond and Zach Stewart; and John Florence, James Gedris, Michael Hancock, Cole Johnson, Will Landowne, Joe Meyers, Thomas Shilgalis and Jack Spamer.
The race will be streamed live on B1G+. Live results will be available through Primetime Timing, and updates will be posted throughout the race on the official @umichtrack social media channels.
Things to Know
• Led by newly appointed director of track and field and cross country Kevin Sullivan, the U-M men will enter ranked No. 2 in the deep Great Lakes Regional rankings and No. 15 in the National Coaches' Poll announced earlier this week by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
• Among Big Ten teams, Michigan is ranked second-best behind No. 10 Wisconsin, and ahead of No. 29 Minnesota.
• The Wolverines were shut out of the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2014 last winter in a season that was largely derailed by a department-wide shutdown as a result of COVID-19 precautions, and will look to return to November's national meet in Tallahassee, Fla., with only two returners -- Devin Meyrer and Joost Plaetinck -- from 2019's historic seventh-place scoring lineup.
• Michigan won the conference team title in both 2015 and 2017. Most recently, the Wolverines were third at the 2019 edition of the meet; the department-wide shutdown forced them out of the postponed 2020 edition of the meet that was run in January 2021.
• The Wolverines continue to outperform their national rank, most recently finishing eighth overall in a deep Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational race after entering as the 10th-best-ranked team in the field. The Wolverines were one of just three squads with six top-90 finishers, and their 21.2-second time spread between No. 1 runner Tom Dodd and No. 5 runner Oli Raimond was second-best in the field.
• The Wolverines were also strong in the closing stages of the race, moving from 17th at the 2K split to 13th at 4K and 11th at 6K. Much of that upward push in the standings was powered by the trio of Joost Plaetinck, Oli Raimond and Zach Stewart, who combined to gain 111 spots in the final four kilometers of the race. Additionally, Nos. 6 and 7 runners Colton Yesney and Nick Foster combined to gain an additional 103 spots during that time.
• As has been the Wolverines' hallmark in recent years, they have stuck together well and run as a largely cohesive unit. In their three intersquad races this year at Penn State, Notre Dame and Wisconsin, they have averaged a 1-5 time spread of 19.47 seconds and a 1-7 spread of 31.57 seconds -- which only three other teams in the deep Wisconsin field managed for even their 1-5 runners.
Course Description
Penn State Blue/White Golf Courses
• Course Map
Distance: 5.2 miles (8.37 kilometers)
Max Elevation: 1,231 feet above sea level
Low Elevation: 1,144 feet above sea level
Distances selected to match with intermediate checkpoints in live results
Start- Mile 1: Steady downhill descent for a half-mile before beginning an uphill climb into the first of two times around the loop beginning at 0.7 miles.
Mile 1-2: Uphill climb continues until runners reach the top of the loop at 1.1 miles, which gives way to a gently rolling downhill for the remainder of the mile, ending right as the second of the two times around the loop begins.
Mile 2-3: Uphill climb returns to the top of the loop at 2.4 miles before descending the remainder of the mile.
Mile 3-4: Descent to the end of the loop continues until 3.2 miles, as runners then exit the loop for a pass around the rolling hills of a fairway before entering the fourth mile with a steep climb.
Mile 4-5: Runners climb a hill between two fairways for a quarter-mile before descending back down the hill. With the finish line visible across a fairway to the right, the last big climb of the course begins at 4.5 miles and continues for nearly a half-mile. The climb relents to a brief downhill at 4.9 miles.
Mile 5-5.2: The course turns onto the final straightaway, which has slightly rolling hills but no major elevation change.
Players Mentioned
