Those windy, cold November days are upon all the fall sports, which makes it especially tough for teams to make a good showing for themselves.

This was the case last Saturday, when the men's cross country team participated in the Big Ten Championships at the University of Illinois. The weather was very cold, with the wind-chill factor making it feel like nine degrees.

Add this to running roughly five miles in nothing but shorts and tank tops, and your legs begin to numb less than half-way through the course.

Nonetheless, when it was all said and done, the third ranked University of Wisconsin Badgers ran away from the rest of the pack. They outdistanced the University of Michigan, the second place team, by 36 points, en route to an impressive win.

Rounding out the top five teams were: Michigan State with 83, Penn State with 88, and Illinois with 143 points.

"Wisconsin had by far the best team at the meet," said Penn State Men's Cross Country Coach Harry Groves. "They have five guys who can run well, and that's all you need to win a national championship."

The evidence is there with Wisconsin placing all five of its runners in the top ten, three of whom finished in the top three individual places.

The top ten individual finishers were: Donavan Bergstrom, Wisconsin, 25 minutes and one second; Jason Casiano, Wisconsin, 25:04; Jerold Schumacher, Wisconsin, 25:05; David Smith, Michigan State, 25:08; Daniel Oden, Michigan, and, Anthony Hamm, Michigan State, 25:11; Anthony Carna, Michigan, 25:13; Mark Wimmer, Penn State, 25:13; Jon Morrison, Wisconsin, 25:19, and, Lee Zubrod, Wisconsin, 25:20.

The other Penn State runners who placed were: 14th, Aidan O'Reilly, 25:37; 17th, Rob Gough, 25:40; 25th, Phil Mellott, 25:33, and, 28th, Austin Morrow, 25:55.

The cross country team will next be in action November 16th at the Region II Meet to be held at Lehigh University.

The top three team finshers in that meet will receive an automatic bid in the NCAA Championships at Arizona University later this month.