(photo courtesy @Badger_Track)
Sunday was all about the drama at the McClimon Complex as the Wisconsin Men’s Track & Field team took home their first outdoor conference championship since 2007 on their home track. It wasn’t easy as the Badgers needed to outpace Nebraska in the day’s final event – the 4×400 relay – to win in front of the home crowd.
Coming into that event the Badgers trailed by 1.5 points and the guys came through with a 2nd place finish in the event to secure the title in front of a packed house in Madison. Wisconsin won the event with 121 points with Nebraska 2nd with 115.5 points and Indiana finishing 3rd with 115 points.
In the pivital event of the day Wisconsin finished 2nd to score 8 points, while Nebraska faltered and their 4×400 relay finished last, only scoring them one point and thus securing the team victory for the Badgers.
The Badgers came in to the day leading the competition and got huge performances from a ton of individuals to keep pace with the Huskers and Indiana throughout the day.
No performance was better than that of Mohammed Ahmed and the Badgers distance runners. Ahmed won the 5,000 meter event with a meet record breaking time of 13 minutes, 41.06 seconds. He was joined in scoring points for Wisconsin by Elliot Krause (5th) and Maverick Darling (6th) for a team total of 17 points in the event.
Ahmed’s time broke a meet record that stood since 1987 and was held by another Badger runner, Scott Fry (13:47.39).
The Badgers picked up 7 points in the 1500 meters by Rob Finnerty and Connor Reed who finished 5th and 6th respectively while no Nebraska athlete made the finals in the event, allowing the Badgers to keep things close at that point.
Derek Steinbach also chipped in important points by placing 2nd in the Javelin with a throw of 66.14 meters, giving the Badgers 8 points and a 3 point advantage over Nebraska in the event. At that point the Badgers trailed by the margin it would come down to at the end, 1.5 points (97.5 to 96).
On the Women’s side of the event Wisconsin couldn’t hold on to the lead it took going in to today and finished the event 5th with 78 points. The Big Ten Women’s Champions were Ohio State with 117 points, followed by Illinois (110), and Nebraska (110).
Up next for the Men & Women is NCAA Regional action at the University of Texas on May 24-26th.
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