Season Review: 2015 Michigan Men's Cross Country
12/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
2015 Big Ten Champions
• Team Captains: Mason Ferlic, Ben Flanagan
• Big Ten Conference: 1st Place
• NCAA Great Lakes Regional: 1st Place
• NCAA Championships: 9th Place
The 2015 regular season was one to remember for the University of Michigan men's cross country team, which enjoyed its best season since 2003. The team completed its first Big Ten Conference and NCAA Great Lakes Regional sweep since 1997, and the Wolverines capped the postseason with the 10th NCAA top-10 finish in program history. Under second-year head coach Kevin Sullivan and captained by fifth-year senior Mason Ferlic and junior Ben Flanagan, the Maize and Blue raced its way to the program's most winning season since Sullivan was a senior Wolverine himself.
Team Highlights
• The foremost mission for the Maize and Blue this season was to win the Big Ten championship, and the team met that goal Nov. 1 in Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. U-M scored 63 points to claim the team's first conference crown since 1998, highlighted by an individual runner-up showing from Mason Ferlic. Two weekends later, U-M checked off the next goal its list with a NCAA Great Lakes Regional title, including an individual victory from Ferlic.
• U-M's regular season really got rolling at the Greater Louisville Classic (Oct. 3). After a long track season and summer of training, Mason Ferlic was put on the shelf for the start of cross country and he returned with a bang at Louisville, taking the individual title and leading U-M to a runner-up finish in one of the toughest national meets of the year. The following week, he was recognized as Michigan's first-ever USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week. U-M posted a sparkling 95-3 win-loss record through the regional event, and all three of those losses came before the Greater Louisville Classic.
• Two weeks later, Michigan ran to its best-ever finish in nine years at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational (Oct. 17), placing third as a team. The rest of the nation took notice and rewarded U-M with a No. 5 ranking in the USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll, the program's best since 2004.
• The year culminated in a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships for the Wolverines, the program's best since 2003. All in all, U-M put together a special campaign in Kevin Sullivan's second season at the helm of the program. In fact, the last squad to finish with both the Big Ten and NCAA Great Lakes Regional titles and a top-10 NCAA finish was the 1997 team, anchored by Sullivan in his final season.
Individual Highlights
• Fifth-year senior co-captain Mason Ferlic led U-M in all five meets in which he competed this year and in 18 consecutive races to close his Wolverine career, dating to the 2013 postseason. Ferlic's individual titles at the Greater Louisville Classic and the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships propelled U-M this fall.
• Junior co-captain Ben Flanagan finished no worse than 13th this season in four of five meets, recording a pair of top-10 finishes and securing his second career all-region and third career second-team All-Big Ten honors. Flanagan is already a two-year captain for U-M with another year of eligibility remaining.
• Junior/sophomore Aaron Baumgarten earned his first career Big Ten Athlete of the Week honor (Sept. 16) after pacing the Maize and Blue at Penn State's 8,000-meter Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational. Baumgarten was runner-up in 25:30 and went on to earn his first career all-region award at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet.
• Senior/junior Nick Renberg took the individual win in the open race at the Wisconsin Invitational (Oct. 17), sparking his inclusion in the varsity lineup. Renberg ran 24:15.5, leading from the gun, and showed his mettle with a four-plus-second cushion over the field. From that point on, Renberg was a fixture in the varsity lineup, and he went on to score for the Maize and Blue in all three postseason races, including a top-15 finish at the regional meet.
Honors and Awards
Mason
Ferlic
Ben
Flanagan
Tony
Smoragiewicz
Aaron
Baumgarten
Kevin
Sullivan
Big Ten Conference
Coach of the Year: Kevin Sullivan
All-Big Ten (First Team): Mason Ferlic
All-Big Ten (Second Team): Ben Flanagan, Tony Smoragiewicz
Sportsmanship Award: Tony Smoragiewicz
NCAA Great Lakes Region
Athlete of the Year: Mason Ferlic
Coach of the Year: Kevin Sullivan
All-Great Lakes Region
Mason Ferlic (1st)
Ben Flanagan (11th)
Nick Renberg (15th)
Tony Smoragiewicz (18th)
Aaron Baumgarten (22nd)
USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week
Mason Ferlic (Oct. 5)
Big Ten Athlete of the Week
Aaron Baumgarten (Sept. 16)
Mason Ferlic (Oct. 7)
Academic All-Big Ten
Aaron Baumgarten, Jr., aerospace engineering
Micah Beller, Jr., information
Jarred Bratley, Sr., biomolecular science
Mason Ferlic, Sr., aerospace engineering
Ben Flanagan, Jr., movement science
Colin Martin, So., biomolecular science
Connor Mora, Jr., sport management
August Pappas, Sr., performance music (percussion)
Nick Posada, Sr., history
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
Players Mentioned
