The Wolverine

November 2015

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/589596

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 170 of 193

  OLYMPIC SPORTS NCAA Prospects: The rankings don't matter when it comes to the postsea- son. Michigan has to earn everything it gets when it competes at the Big Ten Championships Nov. 1 and the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Nov. 13. However, if the Wolverines run like they are capable of, and how they have all season, they should emerge from the regional with a spot at the NCAA Championships Nov. 21, and could even challenge for a top-five finish. Coach Kevin Sullivan: "The team's gone pretty much how we hoped it would. We've been relatively healthy, which is always a key for us. "Wisconsin is the strongest compe- tition going into Big Tens, but we'll have some really tough battles on our hands with Michigan State, and prob- ably Penn State and Illinois also. "As a whole, we need to continue just to improve. That's the idea week in, week out. "The goal for us is to be running our best at our final three meets and it's going to require that the guys up front continue to run consistently. But it's also the guys in the six, seven, eight, nine spots continue to push their way forward so we can close our gap from one to nine." U-M's Best Runners: Fifth-year senior Mason Ferlic has been a standout, claiming first place in two of three U-M meets this season … Ferlic was named the NCAA Division I Cross Country Men's Athlete of the Week Oct. 5 after winning the Greater Lou- isville Classic Oct. 3 with a time of 23:51:52 … Junior Aaron Baumgarten has also been a strong performer, fin- ishing in the top five of two meets. "It's easy to look at our All-Amer- ican Mason Ferlic — he's consis- tently leading our group and really demanding that the rest of the guys step up their game," Sullivan said. "We're getting a lot of really nice con- tributions from a lot of the guys on the team. "We've got a really nice crew of some upperclassmen and some younger guys that work really well together." WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY Projected Big Ten Finish: With three first-place finishes in scored meets this season, including the prestigious NCAA Pre-Nationals Oct. 17, and head-to-head victories over Big Ten foes Wisconsin, Penn State, Minne- sota, Purdue and Illinois, Michigan rose to No. 2 in the Oct. 20 USTF- CCCA Coaches' Poll. The Wolverines are considered the favorite to capture the confer- ence crown Nov. 1. Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State will give the Wolverines everything they have, though, and this should be one of the closest finishes in league history. NCAA Prospects: U-M has firmly established itself a national title con- tender, but the Maize and Blue still have to go through the process of the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Great Lakes Regional Nov. 13 to qual- ify for the NCAA Championships Nov. 21 in Louisville, Ky. If Michi- gan runs to its potential, it should record its third top-five NCAA finish

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of The Wolverine - November 2015