MADISON, Wis. -- The No. 4 Wisconsin men's cross country team started its season strong earning a win in the Badger Season Opener on Friday at the Thomas Zimmer Cross Country Course.

The Badgers, in hot and humid conditions, earned 44 points to claim the team title, while Loyola, led by race winner Mitch Baum, was second with 46 points. Marquette was third with 59 points, the Wisconsin Track Club was fourth with 96 points while Wisconsin-Platteville finished fifth with 136 points.

Leading the charge for the Badgers were junior Russell Sandvold and redshirt freshman Tyson Miehe, as the duo claimed top-five finishes for Wisconsin. Sandvold finished the 6-kilomter course in 19 minutes, 2.8 seconds, while Miehe was fourth in 19:04.2.

Junior Joe McAsey finished shortly afterwards in sixth place, finishing in 19:09.0, while the sophomore duo of Troy Smith (19:28) and Cullin Burdett (19:52) finished 11th and 20th, respectively.

Freshman Zack Snider, competing unattached in the Badger Season Opener, was the fifth runner across the line in 19:06.4.

"We've got a lot of young guys in there, some of them in uniform, some of them not in uniform," UW Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne said. "Our goal was to try to get them to all run together as much as possible and they did a good job with that holding the group together but probably were a little bit lacking the experience. A couple of kids there from Loyola got away from them mid-race, and they did a good job of not panicking and being able to come back and get a win.

"For our young kids that's important to be a part of something and they know that down the road we got bigger fish to fry and things really ramp up as we get into the month of October and November, so they know that and they're excited about it. We got some new faces out there and it's always good because when you got more guys competing for spots on the Big Ten team, you're going to make a better team."

The Badgers travel to New York to compete at the Iona Meet of Champions on September 19 starting at 9:15 a.m. CT. The meet marks a homecoming for Byrne, who spent 24 years with the Gaels before coming to Wisconsin.