Wolverines Take Sixth in Strong Great Lakes Regional

Saturday, November 16

West Lafayette, Ind.

12:30 AM

Michigan

NCAA Great Lakes Regional

11/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The University of Michigan men's cross country team earned a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional this afternoon (Saturday, Nov. 16) at Purdue University's Varsity Cross Country Course. In a tight race, the No. 19 Wolverines earned 142 points behind career performances from all five of their scoring runners. Fourth-ranked Wisconsin and No. 7 Eastern Michigan earned 57 and 70 points, respectively, to take the race's two automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.

Nick Willis had a strong performance in his first 10,000-meter race.

Sophomore Nate Brannen (Cambridge, Ontario/Preston HS) and freshman Nick Willis (Lower Hutt, New Zealand/Hutt Valley HS) led the way for the Maize and Blue with fifth- and sixth-place results. Brannen's time of 30:44.2 was 44 seconds faster than his previous career best and was 31 seconds off the winning pace of Eastern Michigan's Boaz Cheboiywo. Willis finished just over one second behind Brannen at 31:45.7 in the first long-course race of his career.

The Wolverines also received scoring performances from senior/junior captain Nick Stanko (Wyandotte, Mich./Roosevelt HS), junior Tom Greenless (Milford, Mich./Milford HS) and redshirt sophomore Sean Moore (Saline, Mich./Saline HS). Stanko placed 32nd with a time of 31:31, over 2:34 ahead of his time in the 1999 NCAA Great Lakes Regional. In 40th place, Greenless set his personal best with a time of 31:40, while Moore also ran a career race, spanning 10,000 meters in 32:06 to finish the first long-course race of his career in 59th place.

Michigan awaits the announcement of the 31-team NCAA Championships field on Monday (Nov. 18). The NCAA Championships will be contested Monday, Nov. 25, in Terre Haute, Ind. The men's race will begin at 1:15 p.m.

Top 10 Teams

 1. Wisconsin 57 2. Eastern Michigan 70 3. Central Michigan 123 4. Indiana 124 5. Ohio State 138 6. MICHIGAN 142 7. Butler 145 8. Michigan State 208 Notre Dame 208 10. Purdue 290

Top 10 Individuals

 1. Boaz Cheboiywo, EMU 30:08.1 2. Gavin Thompson, EMU 30:27.8 3. Mark Tucker, Butler 30:32.0 4. John Jefferson, Indiana 30:41.5 5. NATE BRANNEN, U-M 30:44.2 6. NICK WILLIS, U-M 30:45.7 7. Matt Tegenkamp, Wisconsin 30:46.7 8. Jake Flynn, CMU 30:48.2 9. Bobby Lockhart, Wisconsin 30:49.2 10. Simon Bairu, Wisconsin 30:49.2

Other Michigan Individuals

 32. Nick Stanko 31:31.9 40. Tom Greenless 31:40.9 59. Sean Moore 32:06.4 63. Ryan Hesselink 32:15.5 65. Tarn Leach 32:21.2

Q U O T E S

Head Coach Ron Warhurst
On the race ... "It was a close, tight race. After those top two teams there was a battle in the middle and three of those top five spots were open for anyone to grab. It was a cold day out there, but I feel like everyone did what they could do."

On his team ... "We did well. Nate (Brannen) and Nick (Willis) ran very well within themselves this afternoon and the rest of our team was very solid front to back. I think that everyone ran close to their best."

On Michigan's chances of getting an NCAA Championships bid ... "I'm pretty positive we'll make the field. I think our region is strong and we'll have six or seven bids come out of the Great Lakes. Iowa won the Midwest region, and if you look to see, they were the seventh place team at Big Tens. Minnesota was second in their region, so there are two automatic qualifiers we've already beaten."

Contact: Andrew Ladd (734) 763-4423