The Syracuse men’s team has placed first in all three of its meets so far this season.

That streak will be challenged on Friday when the No. 10 Orange travels to Madison,Wis., to compete in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational.

SU is set to compete with 20 of the top 30 teams in the country. Placing first will be a little more difficult in this invitational.

“It won’t be like this anymore,” SU head coach Chris Fox said. “It will be spread out from fifth place to 100th place.”

Fox said this will be an individual race. In the past invitationals, Syracuse pack-raced, which is a team-oriented style of running, leading to a sea of Orange harriers consecutively crossing the finish line together.

Pack running is a strategy the men’s team has used for the past couple of years. Based on seniority and the depth of the team — there is only one true freshman — creating a pack mentality was easy. The team members work out in big groups to give everyone the experience of running in a pack and the feel of running as a unit.

“They definitely gear all of our training for that workout,” redshirt freshman Andrew Bennison said. “To make sure we stick together in workouts and are sticking together if someone is having a bad day.”

Bennison found himself falling behind in the Toledo Bubble Buster Invitational, not placing in the Top 10 with the other Syracuse harriers.

“Normally I’m with the pack,” Bennison said. “That was just a bad race for me.”

Placing fourth in the Harry Lang Invitational and eighth at the Dartmouth Invitational, Bennison knows what it’s like to finish with his teammates.

“You just get that huge confidence boost when you’re running with eight, nine or 10 guys around you,” Bennison said.

Fox has run all his eligible runners, but his top seven are not quite defined. Each race, a different harrier leads the pack. At Colgate it was redshirt senior Griff Graves. At Dartmouth it was junior Joe Whelan. And most recently at Toledo it was redshirt Martin Hehir.

Fox credits the team for following the plan well this season. In each race, the SU runners have gone to the front of the pack and kept a consistent pace in the first half, and came out tougher the second.

“We wanted to go out front and dominate the races because we thought we were the best team in these couple races,” Fox said.

But SU will be tested as the level of competition will intensify at this point in the season. Though pack running is comforting for the team and described as easier because it helps runners maintain contact with teammates, it may be difficult to execute against elite competition.

Pack running is also an attitude and intimidation factor the Orange hopes to bring to Wisconsin, but they may have a few other tricks in store.

“There’s a little more strategy in the one at Wisconsin and a little less strategy in those,” Fox said. “They’ve run well, but Friday we’ll see how good they are.”

Published on October 11, 2012 at 12:53 am

Contact Melissa: qsbronso@syr.edu