Weekly Release #9
11/16/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Upcoming Schedule
Monday, Nov. 22 -- at NCAA Championships (Terre Haute, Ind.), 12:15 p.m.
This Week: NCAA Championships
The No. 13-ranked Wolverines will send seven runners to the NCAA Championships on Monday (Nov. 24) in Terre Haute, Ind. Hosted by Indiana State, the men's 10,000-meter race is slated for an 12:15 p.m. start at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course.
Scouting the NCAA Field
Thirty-one teams, comprising 18 automatic and 13 at-large bids, will compete for the 2004 NCAA Championship. U-M is one of seven Big Ten Conferences teams to earn selection to the championship and one of nine from the Great Lakes Region. Automatic qualifiers include American, Arizona State, Arkansas, Brigham Young, Colorado, Florida, Florida State, Georgetown, Iona, Minnesota, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Providence, Stanford, Texas, William & Mary and Wisconsin. Joining Michigan as at-large team selections are Air Force, Butler, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Central Michigan, Colorado State, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, New Mexico, Northern Arizona and Ohio State. Additionally, 38 individuals whose teams did not qualify for the NCAA Championships will have the chance to race after finishing among the top 25 individuals in their respective NCAA regional championships, irrespective of their teams' finishes. Meet Sites: NCAA | Indiana State
Michigan at the NCAA Championships
Michigan has made 23 previous appearances at the NCAA Championships, including 13 of the last 14 years. During his 31 years at the helm the Wolverines' cross country team, head coach Ron Warhurst has guided U-M to a dozen top-10 national finishes, including program-best fourth-place showings in 1997 and 1998. Individually, U-M has boasted 38 NCAA All-America citations from 21 different Wolverine athletes, including four-time All-American Kevin Sullivan (1993-95, '97) and, most recently, back-to-back distinctions by current Wolverines Nate Brannen (Cambridge, Ontario/Preston HS) and Nick Willis (Lower Hutt, New Zealand/Hutt Valley HS).
U-M at the NCAA Championships
| | 1974 12th (304 points) 1975 22nd (506 points) 1976 18th (456 points) 1978 21st (467 points) 1979 13th (360 points) 1980 7th (243 points) 1982 6th (177 points) 1983 17th (345 points) 1984 8th (296 points) 1988 16th (321 points) 1990 13th (312 points) 1991 6th (244 points) | | 1992 5th (214 points) 1993 10th (296 points) 1994 7th (222 points) 1995 11th (267 points) 1996 14th (383 points) 1997 4th (116 points) 1998 4th (183 points) 1999 5th (282 points) 2001 11th (364 points) 2002 8th (309 points) 2003 9th (332 points) |
Last Year at the NCAA Championships
Earning All-America honors with 17th and 18th-place finishes, respectively, junior Nate Brannen and sophomore Nick Willis paced U-M to its second straight top-10 performance as the Wolverines claimed ninth (332 points) among the 31-team field at last season's NCAA Championships in Waterloo, Iowa. Both of U-M's lead runners recorded big personal bests as Brannen shaved 26 seconds from his previous mark with a time of 29:54.0 while Willis clocked 29:54.8 to trim 29 seconds from his best. Rounding out the Wolverine scorers were a trio of senior runners -- Tom Greenless, Nick Stanko and Alex L'Heureux -- with finishes of 98th, 138th and 153rd place.
Recapping the NCAA Great Lakes Regional
Senior captain Nate Brannen captured his first collegiate cross country title while U-M put all five scorers among the top 35 in a fourth-place team performance (111 points) at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. Six Wolverines registered personal-best times while four competed in their first collegiate 10,000-meter race. Freshman Mike Woods -- the top regional freshman placer -- claimed 16th at the second U-M runner across the line at 30:31.5. U-M's graduate/seniors Matt Mulvaney and Jonathan Kieliszak claimed 27th and 32nd, respectively, while shaving a minute and a half and 15 seconds off their previous best times. Junior/sophomore Andrew Bauer scored in his second consecutive postseason race, rounding out the U-M top-five in 35th place with a time of 31:10.2.
Following the Leader
Senior captain Nate Brannen has led Michigan across the finish line for seven consecutive scored meets in which he participated, dating back to last season's Big Ten Championships. Brannen paced the Wolverines in each of the 2003 postseason meets -- claiming second at the Big Ten Championships, fourth at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional and 17th at the NCAA Championships en route to All-America honors -- and has been the top U-M finisher at this season's Great American Cross Country Festival, NCAA Pre-Nationals, Big Ten Championships and NCAA Great Lake Regional with top-five performances in each event.
Brannen, Bauer Claim Big Ten Weekly Honors
Junior/sophomore Andrew Bauer (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lahser HS) earned the final Big Ten Runner of the Week accolade of the season -- the first of his career -- to give the Wolverines three weekly honors during the 2004 campaign, more than any other school in the conference. Bauer earned the recognition following his runner-up performance at the EMU Classic. Senior captain Nate Brannen was named conference Runner of the Week twice during a in three week span in recognition of a runner-up performance at the NCAA Pre-Nationals (Oct. 16) and a fourth-place finish at the Great Lakes Invitational (Oct. 1). With three career Big Ten weekly honors, Brannen equals Mark Pilja (1998-2001) for the most in U-M men's cross country history.
Willis Named New Zealand's Top Middle Distance Runner
Junior Nick Willis was named Athletics New Zealand Middle Distance Runner of the Year at the organization annual awards banquet last Saturday (Oct. 16) in recognition of his performance in the 1,500-meter run at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Willis just narrowly missed advancing to the final, placing sixth in the slower of the two heats with a time of 3:41.46, just 0.19 seconds out of the final automatic spot. In the first round, Willis outkicked five opponents down the final stretch to register a time of 3:39.80, automatically qualifying for the semifinals with a third-place finish.
In the Polls
After bouncing all over the MONDO Collegiate Cross Country Poll during the last several weeks of the season, the Wolverines will hold on to the No. 13 spot in the final national rankings of the season, released on Tuesday (Nov. 16).
MONDO Collegiate Cross Country Poll (11/16/04)
Rank, Team (1st place votes) Region Pts. Prev. 1. Wisconsin (12) GL 418 1 2. Arkansas (2) SC 403 3 3. Stanford W 395 2 4. Colorado M 379 4 5. Notre Dame GL 361 5 6. Georgetown MA 334 7 7. Arizona State W 333 8 8. BYU M 317 9 9. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo W 284 6 10. Butler GL 280 13 11. Providence NE 275 16 12. North Carolina State SE 243 11 13. MICHIGAN GL 237 23 14. Air Force M 235 14 15. Minnesota MW 209 22 16. Iona NE 206 15 17. Indiana GL 192 10 18. Florida State S 188 12 19. New Mexico M 166 20 20. Texas SC 156 19 21. American MA 130 -- 22. Oklahoma State MW 128 25 23. Ohio State GL 117 29 24. Colorado State M 97 24 25. Iowa MW 93 17 26. Florida S 90 21 27. William & Mary SE 75 30 28. Michigan State GL 68 -- 29. Central Michigan GL 29 26 30. Northern Arizona M 28 28
Contact: Leah Howard (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
