Michigan
Big Ten Championships
Michigan Men Ready for Hotly-Contested Big Ten Championships Meet
10/30/2019 5:34:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
» The No. 17-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country team will look to win its third Big Ten team title in five seasons as it races at the conference meet on Sunday (Nov. 3) at Ohio State.
» Devin Meyrer enters as the leader of a deep Michigan squad that will battle familiar 2019 regular-season foes Purdue, Indiana and Wisconsin for the team trophy at 10:45 a.m.
THIS WEEK
Sunday, Nov. 3 -- at Big Ten Championships (Columbus, Ohio), 10:45 a.m.
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The No. 17-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country team is in for a tight race at the Big Ten Championships on Sunday (Nov. 3) in Columbus, Ohio, as it goes for its third team title in the past five years.
Michigan will tangle for the third time in the past five weeks with No. 9 Purdue, No. 13 Indiana and defending champ No. 14 Wisconsin, this time with the Big Ten Championships trophy on the line.
Those top four contenders -- Michigan very much among them -- and the rest of the conference will vie for the title over the course of eight kilometers (4.97 miles) on the grounds of the Ohio State University Golf Club at 10:45 a.m.
The Wolverines are looking to reclaim the league titles they won in 2015 and 2017. Another title would make for the most successful five-year stretch in program history dating back to the mid-1970s when the team won three straight in 1974-76.
A well-balanced and deep lineup will be the Wolverines' biggest asset heading into the weekend, with depth and pack-running abilities matched by few other teams in the nation.
Devin Meyrer has emerged as the consistent leader of the squad throughout the regular season, bolstered by 2017 title returners Jack Aho, Isaac Harding and Ben Hill; 2018 Second-Team All-Big Ten honoree Jordy Hewitt; and 2019 breakthrough performers in true freshman Nick Foster and Joost Plaetinck.
With nine runners eligible to compete at Big Tens instead of the traditional seven-man lineup, the Wolverines also could call on the likes of 2018 NCAA Championships returners Jacob Lee and Jacob Branch, Ryan Robinson and Gabe Mudel.
The final lineup will be determined on Sunday.
Admission is free to the general public, with free parking available at the Upper Arlington Municipal Building (3600 Tremont Rd.). Overflow parking is available off-site at the Jameson Crane Sports Medicine Institute (2835 Fred Taylor Dr.) in Buckeye Lot 4 (B4). Shuttles will run every 15 minutes from 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. from B4 lot to the Ohio State University Golf Club.
Remotely, the meet will be streamed live on subscription services FloTrack and BTN Plus and follow along with live results via Primetime Timing. Michigan-specific updates will be posted on the team's Twitter and Instagram accounts, @umichtrack.
Race Preview
• The quartet of Purdue, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan are expected to be the most likely challengers for the crown on Sunday, and all four teams are very familiar with one another at this point. At Notre Dame in early October, Purdue was fourth, Indiana was sixth, Michigan was seventh and Wisconsin was eighth. At Wisconsin two weeks later, the order went Purdue (sixth), Indiana (seventh), Wisconsin (eighth) and Michigan (11th).
• Michigan had the tightest pack runners one-through-five of those four teams at Wisconsin with just 24.5 seconds separating them. The Wolverines were the first to put five scorers through the finish line, but also were the only team in the group without a top-25 finisher.
• Meyrer led the way for the second race in a row, finishing a solid 36th place and not giving up any ground in the final stages of the race. Though this is his first Big Ten cross country postseason competition, he availed himself well on the track outdoors with a fourth-place finish at 10,000 meters.
• Foster has taken well to the 8K distance after running no farther than 5K in high school. The true freshman made the biggest move of anyone in the field over the final 2K at Wisconsin, leaping up 46 spots en route to the finish.
• Plaetinck also made big moves -- his coming more midway through the race -- to have a big breakthrough performance of his own. He moved up 111 spots between 2K and 6K and held firm at 71st all the way through the finish.
• The Wolverines were 11th at Wisconsin -- on par with their pre-meet ranking within the field -- despite off days from returning two-time Big Ten Championships competitors in All-American Jack Aho, Isaac Harding and Ben Hill. Returns to form for all three would significantly bolster Michigan's chances of reclaiming the title.
• Hewitt was strong in his 2019 debut at Wisconsin as well; he ran a consistent race to finish 84th overall. Now in the homestretch of his collegiate career -- he has no track eligibility remaining -- he will look to replicate and improve upon the second team All-Big Ten performance he posted in 2018.
A Look Ahead
Friday, Nov. 15 -- at NCAA Great Lakes Regional (Madison, Wis.)
Players Mentioned
