Michigan
Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational
Wolverines to Face National-Caliber Field at Notre Dame
9/28/2017 9:52:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
» In its biggest test of the season thus far, Michigan will face off with five national top-30 teams and four other teams that received votes in the latest national coaches' poll.
» In addition to the undefeated Ben Flanagan, the Wolverines will debut last year's top runner, Aaron Baumgarten, and returning scorer Connor Mora for the first time this season.
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THIS WEEK
Friday, Sept. 29 -- Notre Dame Joe Piane Invitational (South Bend, Ind.), 1:45 p.m.
Meet Information | Live Results
The championships portion of the schedule for the University of Michigan men's cross country team is still a month away, but the Wolverines' push for the postseason will begin at the Notre Dame Joe Piane Invitational on Friday (Sept. 29) as they aim to rack up head-to-head victories over a national-caliber competition.
Led by two-time individual winner Ben Flanagan and coming off a team title at North Carolina State two weekends ago, Michigan aims to finish as high as possible in the team standings against nine other teams either ranked or receiving votes in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll and, in turn, lay a solid foundation beneath its aspiration for an NCAA Championships return.
The Wolverines -- the first team receiving votes outside the USTFCCCA national top 30 but bolstered by the 2017 debuts of last year's top runner, Aaron Baumgarten, and returning scorer Connor Mora -- will compete at 1:45 p.m. in the top-level "Blue Division" race, which will be contested on the five-mile (8.05-kilometer) course at the Notre Dame Burke Golf Course.
After taking down a partially complete No. 30 NC State squad last time out, the Wolverines will face a much bigger challenge on Friday with 10 total teams from this week's national coaches poll in the field.
Including the full-strength Wolfpack, they will also race against the likes of No. 4 Colorado, No. 11 Washington State, No. 13 Southern Utah and No. 29 Eastern Michigan, as well as rival national-vote-receiving teams in Air Force, Texas, California and Eastern Kentucky.
"This race presents a number of opportunities for us," head coach Kevin Sullivan said. "It is a much more competitive environment than we've been in so far. The competition is going to be a lot deeper and the field size is a lot bigger, so it gives our guys a good sense of running in some traffic and finding one another.
"This is really about starting to gear up toward the championship portion of the season. We've got championship-caliber teams we're going to be competing against, so our guys need to come in with a very intense focus and prep as best they can to line up against those guys."
This will be Michigan's first appearance at the meet since 2014, when eventual All-American Mason Ferlic led the squad to the team title, 97-112 over BYU.
Undefeated through two races so far in 2017, redshirt senior Flanagan is a contender to follow in Ferlic's footsteps. As a sophomore in 2014, Flanagan was 23rd for that team title-winning squad. This year, he has opened with victories at the Michigan Open and adidas XC Challenge.
For the first time since 2015's ninth-place showing at the NCAA Championships, Flanagan will hit the trails alongside Mora and Baumgarten, all of whom are in their final seasons of fall eligibility. The trio was 83rd, 129th and 194th at NCAAs that year at the same E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park venue in Louisville that will host this year's national meet on Nov. 18.
Both men's debuts were pushed back as they finished summer internship opportunities, but both are coming off track seasons in which they twice scored at Big Ten Championship meets and ran personal bests.
Those three will team with redshirt senior Billy Bund, who has run second for the Wolverines in both of their two meets thus far. A talented group of underclassmen will comprise the rest of Michigan's pack in sophomores Keenan Rebera and Ben Hill, and redshirt freshmen Isaac Harding, Jacob Lee and Jacob Branch.
Friday's race will be the longest of the season thus far for the Wolverines and is right in line with the eight-kilometer (4.97-mile) distance they will cover during the Big Ten Championships on Oct. 29.
It also marks the first race of the season with a distance greater than 75 percent of the 10-kilometer (6.21-mile) measurement of the NCAA Championships course. Only races meeting that requirement count toward teams' head-to-head victory count in the battle for NCAA postseason qualifying.
The top two teams in the Nov. 10 NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Terre Haute, Indiana (and in the eight other regionals around the nation) will automatically advance to NCAAs in Louisville, Kentucky, on Nov. 18, but teams that finish third or lower will be placed in the national pool for 13 total at-large berths. Head-to-head victories over national-caliber teams are significant factors in the at-large selection process.
"We just want to see good, solid, consistent performances," Sullivan said. "If we run to the talent level we're showing in practice, we're a very solid team right now, knowing that we have room to improve as the season goes on. I want to go in and make sure we have a strong competitive effort, compete for one of the top spots, and hopefully ultimately compete for the win there. I think those are goals we should be looking at, but everyone also recognizes there are bigger goals down the line."
FULL TEAM LINEUP (with USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll position)
Air Force (RV), Alabama, Baylor, Butler, California (RV), No. 4 Colorado, Eastern Kentucky (RV), No. 29 Eastern Michigan, Florida State, Iowa, Michigan (RV), New Mexico, No. 30 NC State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, No. 13 Southern Utah, Texas (RV), UTEP, No. 11 Washington State, Weber State
A LOOK AHEAD
Friday, Oct. 13 -- at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational (Madison, Wis.)
Friday, Oct. 20 -- at Eastern Michigan Fall Classic (Dexter, Mich.)
Tweet of the Week
The guys hit the trails hard at Radrick Farms last week to get ready for Friday's big race at ND. #GoBlue
— Michigan T&F / XC (@UMichTrack) September 25, 2017
?? by @masonferlic pic.twitter.com/9gCfyVYWmx
Players Mentioned
