Oct. 29, 2006

Courtesy of Wisconsin Athletics

The No. 1 ranked Wisconsin men's cross country team captured its eighth straight Big Ten Conference championship on Sunday in Bloomington, Ind. The Badgers scored 27 points to best second-place Michigan by 58 points, the third largest margin of victory in conference history. The UW tied its own conference mark for consecutive titles set between 1985 and 1992.

"I think it is great to see the program remain consistently in the game and see the guys really striving to add to the tradition they are part of now," head coach Jerry Schumacher said. "Obviously they did a great job and they are excited about that."

Minnesota sophomore Chris Rombough took home the individual title by covering the 8000-meter course in 24 minutes and 5 seconds, narrowly edging runner up Wisconsin sophomore Stu Eagon, who finished a step behind in 24:06.

"Stu (Eagon) was back a little bit, he came on really nice at the end," Schumacher said. "He did a great job trying to hunt down that individual title but came up a little bit short. Chris Rombough is a great runner for Minnesota and he ran a really great race and obviously they are both sophomores so there will be some good battles down the road."

Besides Eagon, senior Tim Nelson (24:26), sophomore Christian Wagner (24:27) and senior Chris Solinsky (24:39) also garnered first-team All-Big Ten honors, placing fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. Solinsky, who was expected to compete for the individual title, was slowed by the lingering effects of the flu.

Sophomore Matt Withrow (24:41) placed ninth and redshirt freshman Brandon Bethke (24:44) finished 11th to earn second-team All-Big Ten honors.

Also running for the Badgers were freshmen Andrew Lacy (24:58) and Craig Miller (25:14), who finished 17th and 21st, respectively, while senior Codie See finished 22nd in 25:16.

While the team as a whole ran well, Schumacher singled out the performances of the team's younger runners and how they dealt with the pressure of competing in a championship environment.

"When you are talking about a lot of freshman and sophomores, its fun to see how they respond in a big time championship race and they just did a great job," Schumacher said. "It really points to a fun future for them."

Wisconsin will next compete at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Nov. 11th in Bowling Green, Ohio. The race will be held at the Mel Brodt Cross Country Course and is slated to begin at 1:15 p.m.