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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN TRACK & FIELD MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 27, 2014Mick ByrneTHE MODERATOR: Director of cross‑country track and field, Mick Byrne is here. COACH BYRNE: First of all, we're coming off a meet. We're excited about where we are going into this weekend's Big Ten Championships, it was a great performance from both teams. If you look at the caliber of competition that was at the meet, outside of the women's side, Michigan, who were ranked No. 1 two weeks ago, Georgetown and Oregon and on the men's side, Colorado who is ranked No. 1 all season, Oregon and Oklahoma State, that field that we assembled for that meet was as good as any national meet. So coming off that meet and on the women's side, finishing fourth and the men's third, we're excited, feel great about where we are right now going into this weekend. Obviously Big Ten is a different type of competition than the Adidas meet, probably 150 competitors less, so completely different beast all together. Q. Is this a meet where you have to figure out who is going to have the red shirt and who is not and how do you make those decisions on both sides? COACH BYRNE: We're done. We made those decisions last week for Adidas. What we saw, that's the‑‑ on the men's side that's who we're going with. We don't have a lot of options on the women's side. We have talked back and forth with Coach Miller, our women's coach, we talked about bringing out of red shirt one or two women but I don't think we're going to do that. So the teams that we ran at Adidas basically is what we're going to run with this week and on the men's side we have one exception and that's Alex Hatz who was banged up earlier in the season but it's going to be exciting to have him back in uniform. Q. With the two units you have going there, what do you hope to see how the of Big Ten's and what do you expect to see in terms of spring boards on the NCAAs? COACH BYRNE: On the women's side we're ranked third if you take into consideration, Michigan State is ranked No. 1 in the country right now, I believe Michigan is 4th, they dropped a few spots and we're in there in the top‑10 for the first time. That's exciting. We put a good race together, I think we can finish in the top three. We would like to think we're going to be there in the end with Michigan. We might have a shot at those guys. Right now if you look‑‑ if you take Adidas and look at the results, Michigan State is the obvious favorite for the meet but, again, it's a completely different race and it's head‑to‑head and at all times in the race you see who you are competing against and kind of excited to say this is new for our girls and it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out on Sunday. On the men's side, you know, if you just take the results from Adidas, I guess they're saying we're favorites. But you just don't know. I think Indiana, they're not going to just roll over and give us back what is ours and that's the Big 10 trophy, but it's going to be a good battle between them and Michigan also will be‑‑ come out firing on all cylinders. So after Adidas we looked at the tape and it seemed like Indiana had a couple of guys not going all out in the race so I don't know what they were playing with exactly but in my mind they're the favorite. We kind of figured out their game and now it's bring it on Sunday and we go head‑to‑head and see what happens. Q. Mick, should web surprised at the women's success at Adidas? Obviously they had that potential within them? COACH BYRNE: I keep talk about the difference between the Adidas meet because there are 38 teams, and it's just‑‑ the fact that they were able to handle that number of people, that level of competition, I can't say it was a surprise, but our women did a great job. We didn't panic. And it's easy in that type of a race to panic. They did a great job, their composure was incredible they're going to need that down the road, not just this weekend at Big Ten's, but they're going to need it because you need to spread the energy out over the next three races but they're going to need that in Terre Haute at the National Championships. And I think it was a great stepping stone of what they can expect over the next couple of meets. Q. You mentioned the Big Ten trophy and getting back what is ours. How important is starting a new streak after having it end for the men's team last year? COACH BYRNE: Before that 14 straight titles. Nobody wants to‑‑ for a while all I heard was the guys like Reed Connor, Ahmed, Mavrick Darling, Elliot Krause they kept saying nobody wants to be on a team that loses that trophy. For better for worse we lost it last year and now it's, let's go back and win it back and, yeah, I did say it's "ours" and if you look at the history of the meet and the number of trophies that we have won, that's the plan for this weekend, to go back in there and fight real hard. We think we've got everybody positioned right now, coming off the Adidas meet with a tremendous amount of confidence, especially with the young guys. We're going into the meet this weekend with four guys that have never run at a Big Ten Championships. Most kids would be scared of that but these guys, the two true freshmen, Joe Hardy out of Washington and Morgan McDonald, the Aussie, they were just in my office, saying, "Coach how many more days, what do we need to do?" They understand and recognize the history. They recognize the importance of this meet to the team and to the university. Yeah, I mean, I think that the next couple of days we kind of have to keep those guys, especially the young guns, keep them cool. Q. Based on your emotions and your overview of the Big Ten that was a pretty bitter pill to swallow last year, true? COACH BYRNE: Oh, absolutely. Riding home from Indianapolis, I remember my first Big Ten at Michigan sitting here in a press conference I made a silly statement that we were going to go into Ann Arbor and I think the words I used were "beat the crap out of Michigan" but not‑‑ a young buck like me not understanding what ‑‑ (Laughter.) What the Big Ten was all about, coming from the MAAC Conference and we rode into Ann Arbor and they had signs, "beat the crap out of Wisconsin" and you got at that pick your words carefully and as an Irish guy I don't do that very well (Laughter.) It was hard to take because over the last seven years you grow to understand the importance of that. You recognize that it's bigger than you, it's bigger than that particular team in any given year. It represents everything that our program represents over the last 100 years. The kids feel that, they know about it. I've always said that I was spoiled over the last four or five years with the guys like read and Mo and Maverick and I keep bringing up their names but I truly was spoiled because those guys got it, they understood, they understand the importance of the meet and they embraced it and loved it, enjoyed getting out there and competing for that trophy. So trying to teach these younger guys, I mean, the Aussie today is looking at me, you're crazy already, it's only Monday, this race is Sunday. He will know by the time we get there on Sunday he's going to happen to know everything about that meet and the history. He'll get it. Interestingly when you see the guy from Seattle, Joe Hardy, trying to teach the Aussie what the Big Ten is all about, obviously he grew up knowing about major conference championships. So yeah, were going to have some fun with it. We're going to keep them as relaxed as possible, as much as you can do that with four freshman, but certainly Malachy and Michael Van Voorhis are doing a great job with these guys. Q. I want to talk about, respect to "Bob theBuilder" you mentioned the other week‑‑ Tom the Builder, my mistake, with your rebuilding of the team or anything like that, how important are your six runners going to be? COACH BYRNE: I believe I said that we don't believe in the word "rebuilding" that we are right now building a foundation for the future. I truly believe that. When you look at how young we are, we're going in with four freshmen, we got a ton of freshmen waiting in the wings right now, red shirting. Kai Wilmot the NXN, National Cross‑County Championship, he's a really good athlete he's dinged up and we're trying to get him healthy but you're never going to have to teach a guy like that what it is to compete at a Big Ten Championship or a national championship, he understands it and he gets it. And he's really good. We got a couple of other young kids in the wings waiting, their turn will come next year. For us right now the red shirt freshmen Ryan Kromer out of Hudson, Wisconsin and Karl Hirsch from Brookfield, they were in the wings last year, they sat back and watched what they learned from the older guys and now it's their turn. Unfortunately we don't have the option to do that with the true freshmen, Hardy and McDonald, but they're ready to go. At Adidas they showed that and competed well so we have to run them. Q. It seems you would prefer to win a Big Ten title rather than a national title. COACH BYRNE: Right now I want to go in‑‑ yes, absolutely! Right now with these young guys I want to win back our Big Ten title, I think that's very important for this program. At least go in there and be very, very competitive on Sunday and give it our best shot even though we're so young, I don't want to use that as an excuse because those kids would not want me to do that. But we're holding out three or four really good freshmen, they're all 9‑minute two milers coming out of high school and over the years we have built our program with those type of guys and I don't think we're compromising a whole lot but four years down the road will tell. Q. Is the women's team resurgence as flipped as it might have been appeared on the outside or do you feel the pieces of the puzzle were there to make the climb they've made this year? COACH BYRNE: Yeah, I certainly think with Emma‑Lisa Murphy, All‑American last year at the national meet, Sarah Disanza just took a little bit of time, unfortunately she didn't get the option to red shirt like some of our women and Gabrielle Anzalone, they're the three horses up front and we always said we were going to, when they came in as recruits we were going to build a program around them and it looks like we are. Sarah, obviously her results, she has really taken off and we're excited about that but don't for get Emma‑Lisa is an All‑American coming back from last year and she is starting to run really well. She understands‑‑ it's tough when you lose your leadership role and your team and she is responding real well to that. We need to get a few more places out of Gabi and I think this weekend we will be able to do that and it's finding the right supporting cast right now. The supporting cast is young and it's going to take another year to get those guys where we need them ton and obviously a big part of that is always recruiting. THE MODERATOR: Thanks Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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