By: Garrett Zatlin
Reminder of the list so far...
4. Wisconsin Badgers
Flotrack’s #4:
Wisconsin Badgers
Coach: Mick Byrne
Notable Departures: Michael
VanVoorhis,
Notable Additions: Olin Hacker, Zack Snider
Notable Additions: Olin Hacker, Zack Snider
Projected Scoring
Five: Malachy Schrobilgen (JR) [ET#6],
Joe Hardy (SO) [ET#29], Morgan
McDonald (SO), Carl Hirsch (SO), Ryan Kromer (SO)
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At this point, you can probably guess who the rest of the
teams are and I don’t think it’s any surprise that Wisconsin is fourth. They are a
historically great team and it doesn’t seem like they are going away this year.
With so much young talent that has experience, a leader in Schrobilgen, and a
strong recruiting class, this Badgers squad is primed for greatness.
Wisconsin entered last season knowing they would have a
solid top two in Schrobilgen and VanVoorhis. After that however, they would
need to rely on their superior recruiting class to back them up. Wisconsin
began their season at their home meet, the Badger Open. It was there that the group
would get their legs back into racing shape and take spots 2nd
through 13th. Clearly this group was talented, but the real curiosity was how they would do against high caliber competition. After giving the B-team
a chance to race at Iowa, Mick Byrne took his squad to the Greater Louisville
Classic where they would face a modest field that included an underrated
Mississippi squad. Still, the Badgers took care of business dropping a solid 48
points and defeating Mississippi by a big 53 points. Schrobilgen would be the top
D1 finisher by placing 2nd overall beating out the strong duo from
Louisville. GLC seemed to be another opening-season shakeout race that
Wisconsin was able to win relatively easily. That luxury, however, would not
stay around long when Wisconsin hosted their well-known Wisconsin Adidas Invite.
The top teams from around the nation would enter the field. Syracuse, Iona,
Portland, Stanford, UCLA, NAU, Washington, Michigan, and more would all pose as
a challenge to a very young Wisconsin squad. The youthful Badgers could’ve
cowered to the best teams in the nation and choked on the big stage. But when
you have a coach like Mick Byrne, that is not an option. Schrobilgen had an off
day and fell to 20th overall, while his sidekick VanVoorhis stepped
up and finished 13th. The freshmen did quite well and held their
own. Hardy ended up in a well deserved 38th while freshman partner, Morgan McDonald, placed 43rd. It wasn’t mind-blowing impressive,
but it was respectable nonetheless. The only issue of this race was that their fifth
man (Carl Hirsch) dropped to 66th overall and tagged on more points to the team score. Although the Badgers were a bit spread out, they kept
their score to 176 points and finished third overall losing to Syracuse and
Iona. It was a very impressive performance for a team that was so young. Of
course, they would need to keep that going in the post-season for brutal
conference and regional races. BIG 10’s would be the next stop for Wisconsin and it
would not be easy with very underrated teams like Penn State, Michigan, and
Indiana all ready to go after the heavy favorite Badgers. The Badgers dismissed
the upset claims by showing that it simply wasn’t possible. Schrobilgen claimed
the BIG 10 title while his partner-in-crime VanVoorhis was second. The rest of
the Badger squad packed into the top 20 and kept the score to only 47 points,
giving the Badgers another BIG 10 title. McDonald was 12th, Hirsch
was 14th, and Hardy was 18th. These freshmen were the
real deal. Great Lakes was next and the result was essentially the same.
Mascari would out-battle Schrobilgen for the individual title. The rest of the
team was able to stay very close together. VanVoorhis, Hardy, and McDonald went
13, 14, 15 while the Hirsch was able to stay with the rest of the pack and
place 17th. The Badgers beat out a surprisingly good Michigan State
team with a total score of 61 points and regained the regional title from
Michigan. The Badgers would head to Indiana and add on to their own NCAA record of 54 national championship appearances. Wisconsin had proven throughout the season that they were more
than capable of making the top 10. However, despite the success the young guys
had throughout the season, there was still questions as to whether or not the
young guys could hang at the biggest meet in the nation. Those concerns turned
out to be valid. Schrobilgen was able to hold his own with a 10th
place finish. The usually reliable VanVoorhis, failed to show up and dropped to
a disheartening 110th place. Morgan McDonald held on for a
respectable 75th place finish, but the rest of the freshmen (Kromer,
Hirsch, Hardy) failed to stick with McDonald and placed 99th, 107th,
and 111th respectively. Overall, the team performance ended up being a disappointing 11th place. The Badgers weren’t exactly thrilled to
say the least…
How can you not love the Badgers this season? Yes, they lose
a big #2 man in VanVoorhis, but the support and depth after him is amazing. We
can start with Schrobilgen who is becoming one of the biggest names in the NCAA.
He has victories (in XC or track) over guys like Ferlic, Rhynard, Mascari, and
McClintock. That’s good company to be in. Although it's fair to point out that there’s not
much of a difference Schrobilgen can make in the scoring considering he can’t
drop much lower (although there are worse problems to have). The group behind
him is what is more interesting. Hardy surprised many this season with some
excellent runs in the 1500/Mile and making it to NCAA’s during the spring. The
kid has shown maturity and poise that most senior guys wish of developing. McDonald
and Hirsch were consistently excellent and placed very well in the post-season.
They’re another duo that has shown that they can grow up fast. Kromer is one of the unsung hero’s
of this class with his ability to step up and have a role in the post
season. All together, Hardy, Hirsch, McDonald, and Kromer are in perfect
positions to have an outstanding year as a Badger. I expect each of these guys to become
top scorers and improve on their races. It was clear at NCAA’s that they still
needed to adjust to the best of the best. They’ve got the room to grow and
history says they will. If you look at my top 50 post about Joe Hardy, you’ll
understand why I’m so excited for the sophomores of this season. I’m also high on
the 2015 recruitment class of Wisconsin. I even ranked them in my top five recruiting classes post. They are extremely deep and add some of the
best recruits in the nation like Olin Hacker and Zack Snider who have some outstanding times.
Personally, I believe that Hacker could be the next big name for Wisconsin.
Some might disagree with me *cough cough Alex Fox* but if you look at how
successful the class last year was, there’s no reason to think that these guys
can’t do it. There’s not too many negative things I can say about Wisconsin. They have a legendary coach, a strong veteran leader, a supportive scoring group,
and mass amounts of potential in their younger guys. The only reason they’re ranked
number four is because they’re simply less established than the three teams (which
are pretty predictable) ahead of them. It’s also not a set-in-stone fact that
the rising sophomores will improve (although that's pretty unlikely). The 2015
season is going to be a good one for the Badgers.
Flotrack’s #4 was Wisconsin as well and I’m pretty sure no
one is surprised. The top 10 is pretty predictable and I would’ve been
surprised if there was more than a two-spot difference in our rankings. Wisconsin
is the number four team for the reasons I mentioned above. There is every
indication that Wisconsin is set to improve leaps and bounds. Now, we simply
need to see it.
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