By Adam Hensley
In the first championship meet of the season, the Iowa cross-country teams competed in the Big Ten Championship on Sunday.
The Hawkeyes struggled in Minneapolis; the men finished 12th (out of 12 teams), and the women placed 11th (out of 14).
Wisconsin (63 points) edged Michigan State (66) in the men’s 8,000-meter race. In the women’s 6,000 meters, Michigan (63) took home the title.
Injuries plagued the men’s team. Michael Melchert and Daniel Soto, two of the team’s top runners, did not compete. Head coach Randy Hasenbank turned to his underclassmen — six of the nine runners on the men’s side were freshmen or sophomores.
“Obviously, the results that we earned today are not what we have been working toward,” Hasenbank said in a release. “Neither squad was able to establish a front runner so that team scores were inflated.”
Senior Ben Anderson (25:45) finished 54th, Iowa’s top spot in the 8,000 meters.
“We definitely aren’t happy with the results,” Anderson said in a release. “Moving forward, we are going to get ourselves ready for regionals, which we happen to host.”
Ian Eklin and Daniel Gardarsson followed behind Anderson, making up the top three spots.
In only his third race of 2016, Kevin Docherty, a Minnesota native, crossed the finish line with a season-best time of 26:33.
Bailey Hesse-Withbroe, Anthony Gregorio, and Nathan Mylenek snagged top seven finishes for the Hawkeyes.
“We did not respond well to the opportunity and as a team we did not compete well overall,” Hasenbank said in a release. “The men’s team suffered a few key injuries that we did not recover from. I would expect a very motivated group of men moving forward.”
In her final Big Ten Championship, Tess Wilberding led the way for the Hawkeyes. The senior finished 47th (22:30). This was the sixth-straight race that Wilberding has led the team.
“There is a lot of work to do on both sides,” Wilberding said in a release. “Hopefully, next meet we will show more of our potential.”
Andrea Shine (66th) and Claire Dupuis (74th) rounded out Iowa’s top three positions.
Just as on the men’s side, a sizable group of underclassmen competed for the Hawkeye women.
“On the women’s side we had three freshmen and two sophomores in the lineup,” Hasenbank said in a release. “I think the meet was an eye-opener for them. They needed the experience; they will eventually get much, much better.”
Madison Waymire (23:09), Lauren Opatrny (23:10), Kelly Breen (23:53), and Julie Hollensbe (24:16) were the rest of Iowa’s top seven finishers.
Following his last conference championship race, Anderson emphasized the positive.
“The thing we can take away from this is that we need to take a negative and turn it into positive,” he said in a release. “We need to take how we feel after this, and channel it into positive energy, and have it motivate us.”
Anderson and the Hawkeyes will have one weekend free before their second championship race this season on Nov. 11: the NCAA Regional, which will take place at the Ashton Cross-Country Course.