Men’s XC: Buckeyes Look for Strong Showing at Big Ten Championships – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Ohio State begins its championship season in Ann Arbor, Mich. Sunday at the 2008 Big Ten Championships; watch a video preview with head coach Robert Gary
COLUMBUS, Ohio It’s been two weeks since Ohio State has been out on the course, and this time it will be a little different. But as the temperature is dropping outside, the Buckeyes are preparing to make a heat wave Sunday, Nov. 2 when they run at the 2008 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Ohio State will compete in an 8K race set to take place 11:30 a.m. at the University of Michigan Golf Course against all Big Ten schools other than the Northwestern Wildcats, who do not have a cross-country team.
Ohio State is looking to improve on its third-place finish in the Big Ten Championships from a year ago and will hope to claim its first league title since 1923.
Even though only 10 teams are competing in the race, the Buckeyes will face extremely tough competition. Five of the teams are ranked in the Top 30. Wisconsin is the nation’s No. 6 team, and they seem poised to claim the Big Ten crown for the second-straight season. The Big Ten’s other nationally-ranked teams are No. 9 Michigan, No. 19 Indiana, No. 20 Minnesota and No. 30 Michigan State.
“I am very interested to see how this group responds,” Ohio State coach Robert Gary said. “We have made it a habit to have our very best races during the championship season and making a huge jump in performance from Pre-NCAA to Big Ten’s and NCAA’s. Despite redshirting a number of proven distance runners, we still had a goal of Top 4 and qualifying for the national meet. I am not looking ahead to next year. Those goals have not changed.”
The Buckeyes’ third-place finish last year put them ahead of the then-No. 10 Wolverines. Wisconsin won the title with a team score of 33 points and No. 22 Minnesota followed the Badgers in second place. Jeff See led the Buckeyes with a sixth place finish in 23:56.43. See, who is red-shirting this season, earned first-team All-Big Ten honors with his high finish.
The 2008 Buckeyes head into the conference championships with freshman Taylor Williams as their top runner. Williams and Christopher Olinger, Ohio State’s No. 2 runner for the most of this season, will try to land spots as an all-conference performers Sunday.
Ohio State has another two-week break after the Big Ten Championships before they run in the NCAA Regional Championships Saturday, Nov. 15, in Lafayette, Ind.
