Michigan men’s cross country all-Big Ten runners senior Bobby Aprill and redshirt sophomore Brendon Blacklaws ran the opening three miles of the first 8,000-meter race of the season at a comfortable pace. They bided their time and studied the course, which will be the site of the Big Ten Championships in six weeks.
Then, in the final two miles, they decided to shift into a higher gear.
“The plan was that at three miles we’d drop the hammer and see what we had,” Aprill said. “A few of us were running a kind of race-workout: setting up in the back, setting up controlled and finishing strong to get an idea of how the Big Ten course is going to be this year.”
Michigan sent seven runners to the Illinois Orange & Blue Preview to compete against athletes from Illinois and Wisconsin in the season’s first scoring event. The Wolverines finished last, with junior Zach Ornelas placing fifth at 24:35 to earn the team’s top finish.
Overcoming their initially controlled pace, Blacklaws and Aprill finished eighth (24:46) and ninth (24:51), respectively. The two standouts ran together step-for-step until the final meters of the race .
The Wolverines are six weeks away from the Big Ten Championships and are still focused on establishing what Michigan coach Alex Gibby calls a “working rhythm.”
“There is still a very heavy aerobic focus to what we are doing,” Gibby said. “We’re looking to refine cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory efficiency. So the work we are doing tends to be very voluminous and very blunt.”
Michigan races again next week at the Florida Mountain Dew Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., where Michigan will toe the line against two ranked opponents in No. 27 Florida and No. 30 North Carolina.
Every race prior to the Big Ten Championships provides opportunities for Michigan to develop talent and find team depth. Among other problems, the Wolverines struggled last season finding athletes to support the top runners on the team.
“Compared to last year, we’re so much better in every way: leadership, preparation, discipline, organization, execution and the amount of people that we have,” Gibby said. “The freshmen that are going to redshirt this year are guys that might have been contributors last year.
“They can’t even sniff the varsity right now.”
Still, Michigan is most concerned with where the team will be in the upcoming weeks and months. Gibby explained that unsuccessful October teams can become extraordinary November ones.
Although Michigan took last in Urbana, the team found success in areas outside of the final score and the Wolverines remain confident.
“I think everyone did their job today and did it well. We’ve got some experience now,” Aprill said. “And when it comes to races later in the season, we’re going to have some experience closing hard over the last two miles of a race.”