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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN TRACK & FIELD MEDIA CONFERENCEMay 12, 2014Mick ByrneTHE MODERATOR: The No. 15 ranked Wisconsin men's track and field team also heads to the 2014 Big Ten Outdoor Championships this weekend in West Lafayette. The Badgers are the defending Big Ten indoor champs and have won eight outdoor titles since 2000, which is twice as much as the rest of the Big Ten Combined. Director of cross country and track & field Mick Byrne is here. He'll make an opening statement and then take questions. MICK BYRNE: When I hear Brian make that last statement, it gets a little‑‑ makes it put more pressure on this week. Not that we don't have any pressure, but I always say that championship week is a lot of fun. We get the butterflies in our bellies. Not just the student‑athletes, but also the coaches. I love that feeling. It gets me all fired up as we head into the meet. Unlike the women, we feel that we have a great balance of older and younger Big Ten veterans going to the meet. Hopefully, they'll come through for us and teach the younger athletes what it's like to be a Badger at the Big Ten meet. We feel that we're going in there with a great shot this weekend. On paper, if we just look at the top 20 performances across the board in each event, we feel that we are right there with two or three teams‑‑ Nebraska, the defending champion; Illinois has come on very strong, particularly in the sprint group over the last couple of weeks; we think the home team has a great advantage obviously to competing at home. We think Purdue are going to put on a great show. And, obviously, Penn State with a great (indiscernible). So, again, we think we're well balanced across the board between sprints, middle distance, obviously our distance guys and our throws guys who are really peaking over the last couple of weeks. So going into the meet I think we're in a pretty good position. We're very excited about going to West Lafayette this weekend and competing for the Big Ten title. Q. What's it like watching Reed and Mo run together? MICK BYRNE: I think we talked about it before when they went 1, 2, and obviously 3 with freshman Malachy Schrobilgen at the Big Ten 5,000 meter. That's one of the greatest performances I've seen. Very exciting for a coach. All three of those guys feed off each other. But it's great to see a young kid like Malachy Schrobilgen, the Big Ten cross country champion, learning from two outstanding athletes like Mo Ahmed and Reed Connor. They train together obviously. They have competed against each other for five years. They get excited about‑‑ right now this week they're busting chops with each other about who's going to win the 5, who's going to win the 10. Reed Connor says he's going to do a double; Mo Ahmed said he's going to do a double. It's great to see that competition on the team. It's great to see the younger guys get involved in that and say, wait a second, I'm going to win. Malachy Schrobilgen is a great young kid, got a lot of (indiscernible), a lot of strength. And obviously coming in as a cross country champion, going into a race like a 10K, he's not going to hand that to Mo or Reed. Q. Mick, I know your specialty is the distances and things of that nature, but when you came here knowing the reputation the school had for multi‑event people, the decathletes, the heptathletes, and now to have seen how that process works, what have you learned, what have you seen from it that stands out? MICK BYRNE: Being around those guys now for so many years, you get a sense‑‑ to me, I call them distance athletes. They're out there all day long for two days in the decathlon. They report to the arena at 8:00 a.m. They get done midafternoon. It's kind of like what we do on the distance end, going for Sunday morning, 2 hours, 2 1/2 hours, the whole process takes about 4 hours. I equate what they do to be very similar to what we do in the distance arena. They're just tough athletes. They're out there sometimes in fantastic weather. Sometimes extremes can be 80, 90, 100 degrees. They can be out there in freezing weather. And they just have that endurance, that capability of putting aside the elements, putting aside the pressure, putting aside the competition and just dealing with what the event throws at them. It's awesome to see that. I think distance runners are kind of like that. Q. Where does Zach fit into that whole process? Again, you've had so many come through here, but how does he fit into those observations in your mind? MICK BYRNE: I'd put him on the same level as a Mo Ahmed and a Reed Connor. Obviously, he hasn't gone to the Olympic Games or the World Championships like Mo, but he competes with that intensity. I encourage every one of our athletes, anytime we're competing together, to go and watch Zach. You can learn an awful lot from him. He just brings this incredible intensity to the meet, event after event after event. Recollection of the indoor meet when he ran a lifetime best in the 60 meters, the opening event, I mean, the kid was dancing around the place. He still had a bunch of events still coming up. And he brings that excitement. He brings‑‑ you know, he's been dubbed Double Z, nickname. Everyone around the country knows him as Double Z. He's a household name in the event. Just because, I think, people appreciate his intensity. And we love it as coaches. It's infectious to the rest of the team. Q. After breaking the Big Ten record in the weight throw, what can people expect from Michael Lihrman this weekend? MICK BYRNE: They expect him to do it again this weekend. I mean, Michael has just taken the event to another level. He's a great competitor. But it's a very strong event in the Big Ten. Nobody is going to hand Michael a title. Just like indoors, he has to fight every throw. And it's the same this weekend. He's going to have to fight for that title. He's got some great competition. Michigan State has got some great throwers, Purdue. Again, Penn State. There's going to be a lot of guys looking for that title. Michael's going to have to compete at his highest level, as are all of our top athletes. Q. Earlier you mentioned Mo going to the Olympics and doing the World Championships and things like that. In racing a lot of times, there's kind of the rabbit, something to chase or something like that. Is Mo sort of the rabbit? How much do those accomplishments, the Olympics and the World Championships‑‑ how much do those drive a guy like Reed or a guy like Malachy? MICK BYRNE: This is different racing. This is, as you say, championship racing. There's no rabbits out there. At the Big Ten indoor meet in the 3,000 meters, the first event, Mo tried to break away from the field. Wasn't fast enough and they stayed with him and he got outkicked. So a championship run is completely different than what he's used to on the big stage. It's completely different than NCAA‑level running. He obviously will have a target on his back. Just from the times he's put down this season and last season, he's that much better. But, again, his own teammates, they're not going to hand him a title. The rest of the Big Ten field is not going to hand him a title. Unless Mo is on the top of his game Friday and Sunday, he won't win. The competition in the Big Ten is really strong. So he's going to have to be on top of his game and not make tactical errors like he did indoors in the 3,000 meters. When he makes a move, it has to be decisive. You know, I mean, he will play a little game with Reed, and they get into a bit of a competition, but he's going to have to make sure that he's away from Reed, because Reed has a devastating kick. Q. Mick, is Alex Brill better this year than he was last year when he won? MICK BYRNE: Alex struggled a bit indoors. He was injured and didn't get a lot of competition. It's like in any other sport, reps bring you along and make you fitter and better. He's coming along right now. We're glad to say that right now he's 8:47 from out in California a few weeks ago, puts him right up there in the position at the top of the Big Ten. But the steeper chase in the Big Ten over the last two, three years has just improved dramatically. He's going to, again, have to be on top of his game to repeat as champion. Q. Can you put into words the career of Japheth Cato. MICK BYRNE: Wow. I don't know if there's any superlatives out there to. He's been incredible. He's just a great ambassador for the program. Cato is one of those guys, like Double Z, that comes to the meet, you never know what you're going to get, but you know he's going to give it his all. He struggled a bit this outdoor season so far. We made a conscious decision to take him out of the heptathlon. We felt that he was probably at a better position to help us team‑wise by doing some individual events. He was excited about that opportunity. Who wouldn't be? Competing in ten events over two days, you've got to be crazy to do that. So, again, he has struggled. I think when he got to the indoor national meet, you know, runner‑up two years in a row, it kind of took some wind out of his sail. Took him a bit of time to mentally get back from that. But he's one of those guys that just, hey, this is Big Ten. My team needs me. I've got to respond. It doesn't matter what's going on in my head. It doesn't matter what's going on with my body, what I'm feeling. I'm going to get out there and produce for my team. When we get on that bus and get to the meet, it's completely different than today or tomorrow or Wednesday.       He's just one of those guys that can turn it on when you get to the meet site.       So, obviously, from a coaching perspective, having someone like that on your team that‑‑ you know, one of the premier athletes on your team going into a championship is fantastic. Q. In your first year as director, it seems like you've handled it well and had some good success already. But following Coach Nuttycombe, does that add any extra pressure for you personally knowing the success that he's had in particular in the Big Ten meets? MICK BYRNE: No. I mean, I worked alongside Coach Nuttycombe for five years. I think I served my apprenticeship. I couldn't think of a better person to learn the trade from. I'm a competitor. That's why I came to Wisconsin many moons ago. And I get excited about these postseason competitions. Everybody knows that. Being the director of both the Combined programs, yeah, there's been challenges this year, but we worked through them. I believe we've got a great coaching staff, and that's made it a hell of a lot easier. But I'm excited about where we're at right now with both programs. I think I've learned well from Coach Nuttycombe. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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