Cross Country Heads To Big Ten Championships
10/25/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 25, 2000
EAST LANSING, MICH. - The MSU men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Madison to compete in the 2000 Big Ten Championships. The meet will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin and held at the Yahara Hills Golf Course on Oct. 29. The women's 5K race is scheduled to begin at 11:45 a.m., and will be followed by the men's 8K, at 12:30 p.m.
The Spartan men enter the competition ranked 16th by the USSCCA/MONDO polls and look to top last year's Big Ten champion, Wisconsin. The Badgers enter the meet as the sixth-ranked team in the country and are joined in the top 20 by fellow Big Ten members Penn State, who sits at 18 and Minnesota,24th. Michigan State is poised to dethrone the "kings" of Big Ten cross country, as the duo of Jason Mueller (Shelby, Ohio/Shelby) and Ben Evans (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Brother Rice) hold the second and third fastest 8K times in the Big Ten this season.
The Spartan women go into the championships unranked, but sport runner Ann Somerville (Ironwood,Mich./Ironwood) who is only 12 seconds behind last year's Big Ten individual champion, Wisconsin's Erica Palmer best time of the season (17:08). Somerville is expected to challenge for the Big Ten individual title. In team competition No.3 Wisconsin looks to win the Big Ten title for the sixth straight time. The Badgers will be challenged by Michigan, who is ranked 12th, and Minnesota,18th.