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Emily MacLeod and Michigan State win the 2010 Big Ten Cross-Country Championship

To say that Emily MacLeod knows her role on the Michigan State University women’s cross country team would be to grossly understate not only her ability, but also her leadership and desire.

MacLeod, the Spartans’ only senior runner, did what a true winner and leader in the 2010 Big Ten cross country championship meet would do: she won the 4-mile dash and led her teammates to the conference title. .

MacLeod’s time of 19:54 on the 3.72-mile course was the best of his career by 21 seconds, and the second-fastest time ever recorded in Big Ten Conference championship competition.

MacLeod had great support from his teammates. Junior Carlie Green finished seventh in 20:25, sophomore Katie Haines was 17th in 20:51, sophomore Kristen Smith was 22nd in 20:58, and freshman Julia Otwell was 27th in 21: 03 to round out Michigan State’s score.

Collectively, the Spartans’ 74 points were 14 points better than arch-rival Michigan’s 88, forcing the Wolverines to settle for second (lowest total score of first 5 wins by a 7-member cross country team). ).

Even the bottom two running backs from Michigan State beat out the bottom two running backs from Michigan. Spartan junior Rebekah Smeltzer finished 30th in 21:07 and freshman Sara Kroll 42nd in 21:24. Michigan’s final two running backs finished 43 and 59. Smeltzer was just 2 spots behind Michigan’s fifth scoring running back.

The conference team title was Michigan State’s third overall and first since 2001. Both Emily MacLeod and Carlie Green made first-team All-Big Ten with their first and seventh place finishes.

Last year, Michigan State was fifth in the competition, as MacLeod was sixth in 20:41 and Green was fifteenth in 21:14. MacLeod’s winning time this year was 47 seconds faster, and Green’s seventh-place time was 49 seconds faster, showing a vast improvement and much more success.

The Spartan cross country program, under the tutelage of director Walt Drenth and assistant coaches Kim McGreevy and Lisa Senakiewich, has been steadily improving, as evidenced by the results of the Big Ten conference meet.

Among the men, the Spartan team finished fifth with sophomore Ben Miller 16 in 24:09 and senior Patrick Grosskopf 23 in 24:19 over the 8-kilometre (4.96 mi) course.

The Wisconsin men won the Big Ten championship with an amazing 1-4-5-6-12 finish for 28 points. Runner-up Indiana was second with 75 points, and the rest were much worse.

Landon Peacock senior won for the Badgers in 23:41, Mohammed Ahmed was fourth in 23:43, Elliot Krause fifth in 23:43, Maverick Darling sixth in 23:51, and Reed Conner 12 in 24:02. His average time was 23:48.

Peacock was second with 30 meters to go, but he edged past Indiana’s Andrew Bayer to win by a fraction of a second (both were officially timed at 23:41). Both Landon Peacock and Maverick Darling were high school running backs from Michigan drafted by Wisconsin.

Wisconsin men own the Big Ten meeting. This year’s title was their 12th straight, tying the record for the fourth-longest championship streak in conference history among all sports. It was also Wisconsin’s 44th inter-county program team title, including 29 of the last 34 championship races.

Wisconsin’s men’s roster has just 17 running backs.

Michigan State’s women’s roster has 40 runners, 19 of them are freshmen and 10 are sophomores. Here’s a note of caution to Michigan State Big Ten competitors: You better look in your rearview mirror because Spartan women are serious and on the go.

Copyright © 2010 Ed Bagley

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