Season Preview: 2018 Michigan Men's Cross Country

» A decorated senior class will give way to a talented core of returners and newcomers that will comprise the next generation of Michigan distance running.
» Top returners Jack Aho, Isaac Harding and Ben Hill will be joined by transfer Devin Meyrer and a talented group of freshmen.
» Michigan will look to follow up on a banner 2017 season that saw it win the Big Ten title and finish 10th at nationals.

Last year's decorated senior class has officially handed off the torch to a new generation of University of Michigan men's cross country runners who aim to continue in 2018 the success the Wolverines achieved in 2017.

Under the guidance of fifth-year head coach and former U-M standout Kevin Sullivan, a crop of young talent will look to defend Michigan's Big Ten team title and return to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 17 in Madison, Wisconsin, to match last year's 10th-place finish.

The men have been practicing since Friday, Aug. 17 and departed on Aug. 22 for their eight-day preseason camp at the University of Michigan Biological Station near Pellston, Michigan. Before they left, they worked out on the hills of the Nichols Arboretum, a longtime favorite training location for Michigan.

Name a better place for a hard hill workout than the Arb.#Team100 crushing it on day 2. This is where champions are made. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/sOmCg4GPiO
— Michigan Cross Country / Track & Field (@UMichTrack) August 18, 2018

Wolverine Bites

• Last year was a storybook season for the Wolverines, going from unranked nationally in the preseason to winning the Big Ten title and finishing 10th at the NCAA Championships. The conference title was Michigan's second in three years, and the 10th-place nationals finish followed up on a ninth-place effort from 2015.

• Gone from last year's Big Ten champion team is the veteran core: NCAA 10,000-meter track champion Ben Flanagan, Big Ten outdoor 5,000-meter champion Aaron Baumgarten, and multiple-time Big Ten scorers Connor Mora, Micah Beller and Billy Bund. While what is arguably one of the most accomplished classes in school history has moved on, plenty of talent mentored by that group remains. Sophomores Jack Aho and Isaac Harding were Michigan's Nos. 4 and 5 scorers at the NCAA Championships last fall, with junior Ben Hill also returning as U-M's No. 7 from nationals.

• Also returning for the Wolverines are junior Keenan Rebera and sophomore Jacob Lee, who were both part of the 2017 postseason squad as either a competitor or an alternate. The Wolverines also will hope to see the return of a healthy junior Jordy Hewitt, who was a 2016 All-Region performer.

• Baylor transfer Devin Meyrer will add a big boost to the scoring lineup, and a talented group of incoming and redshirt freshmen will also look to make an impact.

• The Wolverines have advanced to the NCAA Championships in eight of the last 10 years, and have finished top-three in the Big Ten in six of the past seven seasons with titles in 2015 and 2017.

Breaking Down the Roster

• Aho acquitted himself well as a true freshman in 2017, finishing as the Wolverines' No. 4 runner at the NCAA Championships with a 122nd-place result in just his third collegiate race. By place, he is the highest-finishing returner from U-M's national 10th-place team a year ago.

• Harding also returns as a scorer from Michigan's 2017 nationals team, finishing just two spots behind Aho in 124th. The redshirt sophomore is perhaps Michigan's most consistent returning runner from a year ago, having finished among the Wolverines' top-five in each of his six races last season.

• Hill had a breakthrough fall for the Wolverines in 2017, slotting into the five-man scoring lineup at No. 5 at both the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Great Lakes Regional. He was also Michigan's No. 7 at the NCAA Championships.

• Those three consistent 2017 scorers will be joined by newcomer Meyrer, who was twice an All-Region honoree at Baylor for top-25 finishes at the NCAA South Central Regional. He was ninth a year ago as a sophomore -- just missing the NCAA Championships by one spot -- and was 12th at the Big 12 meet. He is coming off a summer during which he claimed the German U23 national title at 5,000 meters.

• Though he saw limited action in 2017 as he recovered from injury, Hewitt will be looking to regain the form he demonstrated in 2016. That fall, he was an All-Region honoree with a 23rd-place showing at the Great Lakes Regional.

• Rebera and Lee will look to continue their development into consistent top-seven runners for the Wolverines in 2018. Rebera was a three-time scorer for Michigan in the team's first three meets and was the U-M No. 7 at both Big Tens and regionals. Lee was twice a top-seven runner early in the season and was a postseason alternate who went on to finish 10th in the Big Ten Outdoor 10,000m final on the track.

• Redshirt and incoming freshmen could also have an impact on the roster in 2018. Among redshirt freshmen, look for Dominic Dimambro and Christian Hubaker to take steps towards the scoring lineup this fall. First-year Wolverines John Tatter and Cole Johnson also are two names to watch. Tatter was fourth at the 2017 Foot Locker Nationals, and Johnson is a former New Balance Nationals champion in the mile.

2018 Schedule

First comes the regular season, with important meets at N.C. State (Sep. 14) and Wisconsin (Sep. 29, Oct. 14) before running the postseason gauntlet with the Big Ten Championships (Oct. 28) in Lincoln, Nebraska, the NCAA Great Lakes Regional (Nov. 9) in Terre Haute, Indiana, and NCAAs.

The road to the postseason begins Friday, Aug. 31 with the Michigan Open, the team's lone home meet of the season. The Wolverines will be in action at 10:30 a.m. on the 5K course at Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter, Michigan.

• How Cross Country Works