Cross Country Heads to NCAA Championships for Season Finale
11/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 21, 2010
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State cross country team concludes its 2010 season when it travels to the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday, Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Ind. The meet is hosted by Indiana State and racing is scheduled to begin at 12:08 p.m. with the women's race, followed by the men's race at 12:48 p.m.
The women will be making their 10th straight NCAA Cross Country Championships appearance as a team, the longest active streak in the Big Ten Conference. This is also the 12th-consecutive year MSU has had at least one individual competing in the race.
MSU qualified as a team after placing first at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Saturday, Nov. 13. Emily MacLeod took home top honors with her time of 20:18.8. Patrick Grosskopf qualified as the lone male representative after he placed 13th with a time of 30:39.1. Grosskopf was one of the top-five runners in the region not associated with an NCAA qualifying team.
This will mark the Spartans' second time competing at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course this season, as the Green and White also ran the course for the NCAA Pre-National Invitational in October. Overall, the women placed sixth in the blue race with a score of 279. Emily MacLeod was ninth individually in the race with a time of 20:33.5.
Individually, the top-40 runners in each race will receive All-America honors.
NCAA Championships History - Men
Monday will mark the second consecutive year the Spartans have had a representative in the NCAA Cross Country Championships as the team qualified in 2009. Patrick Grosskopf is running as an individual for his second-straight year in the year-end race. Overall, MSU has seen one runner crowned individual champion. Crawford Kennedy placed first in 1958 with a time of 20:07.1
Last year, Patrick Grosskopf turned in a time of 31:17, placing 125th overall. The team finished 31st with 654 points.
NCAA Championships History - Women
The women enter the championships looking for their first NCAA title program history. The highest the team has placed is fourth in 1981. MSU also has a fifth-place finish under its belt back in 2007. Former Spartan Nicole Bush's fifth-place showing at the 2007 NCAA Cross Country Championships with a time of 20:14 is the best finish by an individual at the event.
Last year, the Spartans placed 26th with a team total of 601 points. Emily MacLeod recorded the Spartans' top individual finish when she crossed the line in 20:57, good enough for 42nd overall.
Post Season Honors
Emily MacLeod continued to pull in post season honors as she was tabbed the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year for the second-straight year. MacLeod became the first in Michigan State history to win back-to-back regional titles. Also, receiving additional accolades was director of cross country and track & field Walt Drenth. Drenth was named the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Women's Coach of the Year for the third time his MSU career (2006, 2007).
Receiving Great Lakes All-Region honors was MacLeod, Carlie Green and Rebekah Smeltzer as they all placed within the top 24 individually. Patrick Grosskopf also received Great Lakes All-Region honors as he was 13th in the men's race.
MacLeod was named Big Ten Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year following her championship run three weekends ago at the Big Ten Championships. Drenth joined MacLeod with postseason conference honors as he received Big Ten Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year for the first time in his career.
Receiving first-team All-Big Ten honors after their performances at the conference meet was MacLeod and Green.
Where We Rank
In the final U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) weekly poll, the women find themselves ranked 16th nationally. Regionally, the women continue to sit atop the Great Lakes Region standings while also holding the best national ranking in the Big Ten.
Conference Recognition
Over the course of the 2010 season, MSU has seen a runner named Big Ten Runners of the Week on five occasions. Most recently, sophomore Kristen Smith (Clarkston, Mich.) and freshman Travis Borchard (Saginaw, Mich.) were named Big Ten Runners of the Week for the week of Oct. 12. The sweep gave MSU a total of five runners of the week distinctions this season, ending the season as the leading Big Ten school.
Smith earned her first career honor after she turned in a fifth-place showing at the Michigan Intercollegiate Championships in Rochester, Mich. Smith's time of 18:17.4 is a career-best mark, and allowed her to earn All-Michigan distinction this weekend.
It also marked Borchard's first weekly Big Ten honor, and the second MSU male this season. Borchard turned in a time of 26:50.3 at the Michigan Intercollegiate Championships. The honor marked the first time Borchard had been the top MSU finisher at a race.
As a result of her two solid races this season, senior Emily MacLeod has received Big Ten Runner of the Week honors after two of the three events she competed in this season. MacLeod earned the honor after placing second at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 2 when she turned in a career-best time of 20:15.8. MacLeod earned the first honor of the season after the Spartan Invitational on Friday, Sept. 17 when she won the event for the second straight year with a time of 20:46.
Following the Spartan Invitational, MacLeod was joined by junior Aaron Simoneau as male runner of the week following his performance at the lone Green and White home race of the season. Simoneau earned his first career conference distinction after tracking down Nick Willis, a silver medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 1,500m, for the his first collegiate win. The Traverse City, Mich., native, bested his previous fastest race by 50 seconds to finish the 8k race in 24:28. Simoneau and MacLeod gave MSU the only weekly sweep by a school this season.
Last Time Out
The women continued its winning ways as it won the 2010 NCAA Great Lakes Regional with a team score of 80 points, 16 points better than Michigan in second, to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. This marked the team's first regional crown since 2007 when MSU had won the event in back-to-back seasons (2006, 2007). Winning the race individually for the second-consecutive year was senior Emily MacLeod with a time of 20:18.8.
The men finished the race fifth with a score of 148, trailing Wisconsin (32), Indiana (76), Notre Dame (117) and Ohio State (131). Leading the men was Patrick Grosskopf who placed 13th overall with a time of 30:39.1. Grosskopf earned all-region honors for the second-consecutive year and earned a berth in the NCAA Championships race as an individual.
Players Mentioned
