mweidenbruch
Aug 9, 20183 min
By: Michael Weidenbruch
The race for the individual NCAA title this fall will be a crazy one, and we are still months away from the big dance in Madison, Wisconsin. The individual rankings will certainly fluctuate once competition begins, but one thing is for sure: there are a lot of men who are fully capable of taking home the crown. With the graduation of Justyn Knight from Syracuse, we are guaranteed to see a new champion. Coming in at the #4 spot in our preseason Top 50 rankings is Morgan McDonald. The redshirt senior took a step away from the NCAA action over the past year, in what seems to be an all-out assault to secure a title in his final year of eligibility. McDonald has some of the best experience of anyone in the NCAA, and there is no doubt that he will be bringing everything he has this fall.
McDonald’s most recent cross country race was the 2016 NCAA Championship. In that race, he placed 7th behind guys like Patrick Tiernan, Edward Cheserek, and Justyn Knight. Of the people who beat him, the only one who will be racing in the NCAA this fall is Grant Fisher. If McDonald is in similar form this November, that stat alone puts him in the conversation to win. However, guys like Matthew Baxter and Tyler Day have come a long way and won’t go down without a considerable fight. During that 2016 cross country season, McDonald never finished worse than 3rd in a race (other than NCAAs). This is a veteran who knows how to navigate big meets, so I don’t imagine he will be intimidated when it comes to facing the nation’s best this fall. McDonald has also proven that he has the speed and strength to prosper in any type of race.
Morgan McDonald has personal bests of 3:55 in the mile, 7:51 in the 3000, and 13:15 in the 5000. That time of 13:15 would have been the fastest in the NCAA last spring (he ran that time in Belgium in July 2017 - not during the collegiate season). In February 2018, McDonald won the Australian 5000 meter title in 13:19, taking down a very talented field that included 2016 NCAA XC champion Patrick Tiernan. That performance qualified him for the Commonwealth Games, where he finished 8th. McDonald also ran at the IAAF World Championship in 2017, where he finished 20th. All of these statistics show that McDonald has the tools to win the title, he will just need to put together the right race if he wants to pull it off.
Another factor that could play a role in McDonald’s chances of winning the title is the fact that NCAAs will be held on his home course. Getting to train on the championship course throughout the season, as well as compete there multiple times, will serve as a great advantage not only for McDonald, but for the entire Wisconsin squad. I’m sure that coach Mick Byrne will be having the Badgers run many of their workouts on the course leading up to NCAAs.
Like many of the other contenders for the individual title, Morgan McDonald will have a strong team behind him at once Nationals rolls around. The Badgers have developed some young talent into older veterans who will be looking to make some noise at home in November. It is always easier to run well when your teammates are right there behind you, and that could serve as some extra motivation for McDonald. Guys like Olin Hacker, Finn Gessner, Seth Hirsch and Oliver Hoare will all be looking to improve upon last fall after the Badgers came up of qualifying for NCAAs. This team is certainly capable of getting there and finishing in the top 10, but they need to have a healthy, strong season in order to make it there.
What would be really cool to see from a fan’s perspective is Morgan McDonald taking the win on his home course. At the moment, it seems unlikely at this point that Wisconsin will be in the running for a team title when you match them up against squads like NAU and BYU. However, McDonald should be in the mix with the top guys.
It would be like a football team winning the Superbowl in their home stadium. Part of it is just getting lucky with where NCAAs was placed, but for people who don’t already have a team/individual they will be cheering for, Morgan McDonald could be one of the more fascinating storylines. The Aussie redshirted just about all of the 2017-2018 year, and it may end up paying off for him.
A redshirt senior winning his first championship on his home course might sound too good to be true, and maybe it is. We will just have to wait and see if McDonald has what it takes to be the best in the NCAA.