The Penn State men¡¯s cross country team placed ninth in the Big Ten Championships, held today at the 8 km Les Bolstad Golf Course at the University of Minnesota. . Junior Dan Mazzocco once again led the Nittany Lions with an impressive 15th place finish against the 82 best runners in the Big Ten, clocking in at 24:57.48

Also scoring were seniors Chris Nirschel (53rd, 25:47.58), Sean Kennedy (53rd, 26:15.03) and Ian McCann (62nd, 26:43.23), followed by sophomore Michael Syrnick (66th, 27:01.83), senior Matt Lincoln (67th, 27:17.73), and sophomore Oskar Nordenbring (68th, 27:31.08)

The University of Wisconsin, led by a first-place finish by senior Simon Bairu, claimed their seventh consecutive Big Ten title. This is Bairu¡¯s third individual Big Ten championship. Two more Badgers, junior Chris Solinsky and freshman Matt Withrow, rounded out the top three individuals.

¡°I¡¯m very proud,¡± said Wisconsin head coach Jerry Schumacher. ¡°They¡¯ve worked hard all season and there is a big three weeks ahead of us yet and that¡¯s what we¡¯re really working toward.¡±

Ohio State finished second in team scoring, followed by Minnesota in third. Complete results can be found at gophersports.com as well as the Big Ten website.