Wisconsin Cross Country Takes Third

A little known fact when it comes to Wisconsin athletics is some of their lesser known teams. Especially ones that make noise at the national level, and once again the men's cross country team did just that this season.

Coming into the national championships the Badgers had already made their mark as one of the best in the country. First by winning their "" conference title in October, and then by winning their eighth straight regional title. That only left a quality performance at the national championships to produce another quality season.

Heading into the national championships the Badgers had reached the podium for the six of the last eight years. With a solid group of young runners the Badgers would look to make it seven in eight with a strong showing in Terre Haute, Ind.

Things looked promising for the Badgers early on in the race. Senior Landon Peacock, Sophomores Mohammed Ahmed and Maverick Darling, as well as junior Elliot Krause were all contending with the top twenty. Then Krause started to falter.

Struggling at the end of the 10k race Krause started to dwindle. Falling and stumbling the junior started to look as if he was out of gas. The reason for the collapse...he was out of gas.

Krause would fall all the way to the middle of the pack. From a promising start and a shot at All-American honors. Not to mention leaving the Badgers with a dwindling chance of making the podium again.

Something they would do though. Because of the strong finishes by Ahmed, Darling, and Peacock the Badgers were able to edge top ranked Stanford for third. While still being behind eventual champion Oklahoma State by over 200 points, but even with a strong finish by Krause a national title still may have been without hope.

Regardless of the finish the Badgers have a lot returning next season. With only Peacock departing the Badgers will return two All-Americans (Ahmed and Darling) along with a strong junior in Krause. As well as sophomore Reed Connor, and junior Phil Thomas who both finished in scoring position for the Badgers in the national meet.

On a day that left some questions of what could have been the Badgers will look forward to the future. With four runners returning and a team that recorded three top 20 runners for just the seventh time in school history.