Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - October 31, 2013

Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.

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INSIDE MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY BY AJ HARRISON @BADGER_TRACK SCHEDULE COMING UP Sunday Big Ten 9:45 a.m. Championship Nov. 15 NCAA Great Lakes Regional Nov. 23 NCAA Championship Badgers prepare for a Big Ten battle at Purdue No. 7 Wisconsin looks for 15th-straight title fter an impressive fourth-place showing against tough competition at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Oct. 19, Mick Byrne plans on using the same plan as his team prepares for the 2013 Big Ten Championship, set for Sunday on the Boilermaker Cross Country Course in West Lafayette, Ind. A "We're not changing anything up," said Byrne, UW's sixth-year head coach. "I know there's been talk a couple of weeks about running freshmen. We're not going to do that. We're going with the same lineup for adidas and we're confident that these guys have a lot of confidence coming off of the adidas meet." The UW harriers thrived Noon 11 a.m. at their home meet, as the Badgers had three runners place in the top 50 en route to their fourth-place showing against a field that featured 19 ranked teams. The finish catapulted Wisconsin from No. 20 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll up to No. 7, matching its preseason ranking. "We feel we got over the hump," Byrne said. "It brightened a lot of people and we're excited that this group has gone forward and they're going there with one thing on their mind, and that's to defend their Big Ten championship." Wisconsin enters the meet winners of the past 14 Big Ten championships, which is the third-longest active conference winning streak in the nation. Wisconsin has won 46 of the first 96 Big Ten championships, including 30 of the past 35 championship meets. "They know they're Badgers andwhen they put on that uniform they've got a target on their back," Byrne said. "They love it. They love the pressure. They showed just a couple of weeks ago at adidas they can handle it. And it's exciting moving with this group through that transformation. "You have to have a bit of swagger about you going into a meet like this, because certainly Michigan and Indiana are coming after us and they want to win just as much as we do."

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