CHICAGO -- On a beautiful fall day in the Windy City, sophomores Morgan McDonald and Joe Hardy earned top-10 finishes at the 2015 Big Ten Cross Country Championship for Wisconsin, which finished eighth as a team Sunday.
 
The Badgers saw their leader, junior Malachy Schrobilgen, drop out midway through the race due to an injury. Schrobilgen entered the meet as a two-time champion and was looking to become the eighth runner in conference history to win three Big Ten titles.
 
"Malachy came down Wednesday after practice and a joint locked up," UW Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "We had him worked on around the clock for the last 48 hours and he went out like a real champion trying to defend his title, just couldn't do it and he had to pull out.
 
"If you would have asked me this morning if he was going to run, I would have said no. I tried to get him to think about the regionals and the national meet because that's what we train for, but being here at home, being in Chicago in front of his friends and family, it was hard for him not to go for it.
 
"I told him to go warm up and he looked like he was limping a little bit in the warmup, but he just said 'Coach I'm going for it, this is my title I'm going to and defend it,' and gosh that kid ran out there and ran with guts."
 
McDonald was fifth, crossing the 8-kilometer course at the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course along Lake Michigan in 23 minutes, 30 seconds. Hardy was close behind, taking 10th in 23:49.3.
 
Junior Russell Sandvold was UW's third runner, finishing 41st in 24:29.1. Rounding out the scoring for Wisconsin were Carl Hirsch in 78th (25:10.9) and Tyson Miehe in 83rd (25:20.7).
 
"They are young and they have to understand what it means to compete at this level," Byrne said. "Hopefully they'll learn something from this experience."
 
Despite his injury, Schrobilgen toed the line for Wisconsin, and grabbed an early lead on the field. The Oak Park, Illinois, native led the group of 103 runners for the first three kilometers before giving way to Purdue's Matt McClintock and Michigan's Mason Ferlic near the halfway point of the race. Schrobilgen continued for another kilometer or so before dropping out.
 
McDonald was among the top 10 throughout the race before accelerating over the final two kilometers to nab a top-five finish. It was an improvement from the 12th-place showing in 2014 that earned the Sydney, Australia, native Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.
 
"The race went pretty much as expected, but our team turned in a poor performance," McDonald said. "I don't really know why exactly, but it was a real bad day for our team.
 
"I would have liked to be a little more up there but I'm still happy about it. The difference between first and fifth in team points isn't that big of a difference so I'm pretty content with that." 
 
Hardy got off to a slow start but was able to also improve on an 18th-place showing from a year ago in taking 10th.
 
McClintock won his first Big Ten cross country title, finishing in 23:12.1, while Ferlic led Michigan to the team championship with 63 points. The Badgers finished with 199 points to place eighth.
 
Wisconsin returns home to host the 2015 NCAA Great Lakes Regional at the Zimmer Championship Course on Nov. 13. The meet serves as a qualifying competition for the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, on Nov. 21, with the top two teams in each region automatically earning spots at the national meet.
 
"Every meet from here on out is important," Byrne said. "We've got to go back and reevaluate and try to take a good look at ourselves and see where we go from here."