Hoosiers finish 6th at Big Ten championships

The No. 22 IU men's cross country team caught a tough break just prior to the start of the 2005 Big Ten championships and finished in sixth place. The finish marks one of the lowest in recent history for the Hoosiers, who were hurt by senior All-American John Jefferson being unable to compete due to a chronic hip injury. IU was left with only two members of its front-running trio.\nThere were bright spots, however, as All-American Sean Jefferson ran a strong race to finish fifth overall in 24:13 for the 8,000-meter race. Jefferson was the only runner to break up No. 2 Wisconsin's near perfect score of 16 points, as the Badgers took the other eight spots in the top nine. \n"I probably could've run a little faster and been third or fourth, but I wanted to make sure and not go out too fast and die in the end," said Jefferson. "Instead I just reeled in the Wisconsin guys that died after they went out really hard."\nSenior All-American Stephen Haas showed significant improvement since his season debut two weeks ago, finishing 12th overall in 24:43, earning him Second Team All-Big Ten Honors. Also showing significant improvement was senior Charlie Koeppen, who was IU's No. 3 finisher in 37th. Rounding out IU's scoring were senior Eric Redman in 43rd and junior Marcus Aguilar in 47th. IU's only other runner was freshman Brian Sullivan, who finished 50th.\n"We're a little disappointed in our finish, but hopefully we'll get John back and be a strong team at Regionals," Jefferson said.\nIU will be back in action in two weeks for the NCAA Regional, which will be held in Bloomington Nov. 12.