INSIDE
WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
BY AJ HARRISON
@BADGER_TRACK
SCHEDULE
COMING UP
Nov. 23
NCAA
12:15 p.m.
Championship
Back to the dance: UW set to
run at NCAA meet Saturday
Badgers return to NCAA meet for 25th time
or the second time in the
past three seasons, and
for the 25th time in program history, the Wisconsin
women's cross country squad
will pack its bags for the NCAA
championship on Saturday.
The Badgers earned an atlarge berth after scoring a
fifth-place finish at the NCAA
Great Lakes Regional last Friday in Madison.
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VARSITY November 21, 2013
"That was a great job last
Friday," Wisconsin director of
track & field and cross country
Mick Byrne said. "They really
had their backs up against the
wall. We knew we had to go in
there and beat Ohio State and
Indiana, two teams that had
beaten us at the Big Ten meet."
Wisconsin was led by its underclassmen at the regional
meet, as four of the five scorers
were either freshmen or sophomores.
That included Emma-Lisa Murphy, who
led the team with a 13th-place showing. Murphy has emerged as the leader
for the Wisconsin squad, and her performance impressed Byrne.
"She did a fantastic job up front, staying up with the leaders, and leading this
team into the NCAA meet," Byrne said.
"The way she got out front with the leaders on Friday is incredible. She's only a
sophomore, and she has done a great job
being our leader."
The supporting cast also had a role in
UW's finish, as freshmen Sarah Disanza
and Molly Hanson finished in the top
30, while senior Lavinia Jurkiewicz and
sophomore Kelly Whitley were 34th and
40th, respectively.
"They're very young, and the fact that
they were able to run with such poise I
think speaks volumes for where they've
come over the last two or three meets,"
Byrne said. "The four girls ran together
for the first four kilometers and there
was no separation between them, and
that was exciting to see."
Wisconsin will face even tougher competition at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday at
the NCAA meet, but the team is familiar
with the course in Terre Haute, Ind. UW
earned a perfect score at the Sycamore
Invitational earlier this year, thanks to
top-five finishes from Disanza, Whitley,
Hanson and Jurkiewicz.
Wisconsin is headed back to Terre
Haute for the sixth time in the city's nineyear run as host of the NCAA meet.
