SAVOY  For a guy whose signature race is the mile, Alan Webb was kept plenty busy by autograph seekers after his first Big Ten cross-country meet.
And with good reason. The - versatile Michigan freshman, who ran the second-fastest mile ever by an American in May, showed Sunday he can run a mean cross-country race, too.
I just couldn''t get away from him, said - runner-up Matt Tegenkamp of Wisconsin.
Running on the relatively flat but  on this day  formidably windy Illinois Blue Golf Course, Webb and Tegenkamp waged a duel that put the former - in the record books. Since the Big Ten went to an 8-kilometer distance for its men''s meet in 1977, the fastest time was 23 minutes, 22 seconds by Wisconsin''s John Easker in 1983.
Not anymore. Webb, who broke the legendary Jim Ryun''s 36-year-old U.S. high school mile record earlier this year, finished in 23:19.9. Tegenkamp, the fifth-place finisher in this year''s World Cross-Country Championships, barely missed the old mark with a 23:23.2.
Credit Tegenkamp, Webb said, for setting a pace that made a record possible.
He wanted to keep hammering up front, so I hung back and hung on by a thread until the very end, Webb said. Matt was really tough out there. He is such a strong runner. It was just my day. I hung with him until the end.
Tegenkamp held the lead for most of the race, fending off Webb near the 6K mark. But down the stretch, Webb''s mile instincts took over.
With 300 meters to go, I just turned on the jets and gave it everything I had, and it turned out in my favor, he said.
Tegenkamp suspected he might be in trouble when he hadn''t shaken Webb entering the stretch run.
I was trying to do everything I could to get away from him, the redshirt freshman said. I tried to surge in the wind. I tried to treat it just like a hill and break him, try to get a little distance between us, take some (of his) kick away.
All he had to do is stay within probably 10 feet of me the whole race, and if it came down to the last 400 meters, he was going to get me. He''s got awesome foot speed.
By winning, Webb put himself in position to join a select group of four-time individual champions in Big Ten men''s cross-country. It''s been done three times before, including by former Illinois great Craig Virgin, who was among those who offered their congratulations to Webb after his victory.
Though Tegenkamp couldn''t extend Wisconsin''s streak of individual Big Ten titles to four, he led a Badgers pack that blew away the team competition. With four runners in the top six and its final scorer coming in 13th, fourth-ranked Wisconsin won by 43 points over runner-up and No. 12 Michigan.
It was the largest margin of victory in the league meet since 1985, when the Badgers finished 47 points ahead of Purdue.
It''s awesome, Tegenkamp said. It was supposed to be a tight team bout between us and Michigan, and we destroyed them.
Illinois finished last in the 10-team field for the second year in a row but produced an All-Big Ten first-teamer (top seven) for the first time since 1996. Junior John Kronforst, whose previous best 8K time was 24:44, ran a 24:13.4 to finish seventh.
That''s a phenomenal performance for him, Illini coach Gary Wieneke said.
Kronforst''s finish was the highest by an Illini in this meet since 1996, when Jason Zieren placed fifth and Barry Pearman sixth.
Definitely a goal was top 10, Kronforst said.
But as the race unfolded and he found himself in a pack running sixth through 15th, Kronforst sensed a top-seven finish was there for the taking.
You keep getting closer and closer, and you realize that you''re right there at the end, he said. With 2K left, I just took off and said I was going to run as hard as I could to the finish.
The finishing kick earned Kronforst a first-team honor by the barest of margins. He overtook Ohio State senior J.J. O''Rielly with 5 feet left to beat him by 0.4 second.