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isconsin's Mick Byrne has never been
shy about reminding his runners about
the expectations and ramifications of not
only winning, but also prolonged success. As in 14
straight Big Ten men's cross country championships, the longest streak in conference history.
"When they walk on to that field Sunday," Byrne
said of the 2013 Big Ten Championship in West Lafayette, Ind., "there are going to be a lot of people
who want to beat them. There are going to be a lot
of people who don't want to see Wisconsin win another Big Ten title.
"So you have to be able to walk in there with a
little swag. I remember last year one of the younger
guys saying, 'Oh, my God, they're all looking at us.'
I told him that's because you're Wisconsin, that's
why they're looking at you.'"
For historical perspective, the Badgers have won
30 of the last 35 Big Ten cross country titles. A year
ago in East Lansing, Mich., they had five runners
in the top 15: Maverick Darling (2nd), Mohammed
Ahmed (3rd), Reed Connor (6th), Rob Finnerty
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VARSITY October 31, 2013
(7th) and Alex Brill (15th).
Finnerty, a sixth-year senior from Burnsville,
Minn., and Brill, a senior from Madison LaFollette
High School, are among the returning scorers from
the 2012 meet, along with Alex Hatz, a junior from
Manilius, N.Y., and Michael Van Voorhis, a junior
from St. Paul. They finished 23rd and 36th, respectively.
Based on such heavy graduation losses ― Ahmed
and Darling earned first-team All-Big Ten recognition in four consecutive seasons ― some have
questioned whether the Badgers would be able to
sustain their unprecedented run of success in the
conference.
Byrne has bristled at any such suggestion. "People have said, 'This was it, we're done, this was not a
good team,'" he noted before adding more fuel to his
fire by further noting, "One of those web sites (devoted to track and field) said, 'It is over, the Badgers
are dead.'"
Citing a fourth-place finish at the Coast-to-Coast
Battle in Beantown ― a meet hosted by Boston Col-
