The UW men's track team finished first in the Big Ten Conference championship for the second year in a row.
Again, for the second time the title came down to two events--the 5000 meter and the 4 x 400-meter relay.
In the 5000 meter, senior Isaiah Festa led a 2-3-4-5 finish for Wisconsin. Sophomore Matt Tegenkamp, who almost didn't run due to illness, finished third, while freshman Simon Bairu and senior Adam Wallace rounded out the Badgers the fourth and fifth places.
Heading into the last event, Wisconsin needed to finish second to Minnesota in the 4 x 400-meter relay in order to win the meet. Wisconsin finished second in 3:13.28 to clinch the team title.
Senior Bethany Brewster won her second title of the meet to lead the Wisconsin women's track and field team to a fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.
Brewster won the 3000 meter on Saturday and the mile run on Sunday.
The Badgers moved up one spot from their sixth-place finish of a year ago and were just one point out of fourth.
Michigan successfully defended its title with 129.5 points while host Indiana was second with 115 points. Penn State finished third with 87 points and Ohio State moved ahead of Wisconsin in the final event to finish fourth with 69 points. The Badgers scored 68 points.
Four men's swimmers won Wisconsin's first Big Ten event title since 1999 with a victory in the 400-meter free relay Saturday, the final event of the 2003 Big Ten Championships. The Badgers took fifth overall with 348 points and Michigan won the team title with 727 points.
After finishing the second round of play delayed yesterday, Wisconsin shot a final round 306 strokes to place in a tie for ninth at the Emerald Coast Collegiate in Pensacola, Fla.
Their first 18-hole round of 320 strokes and second round of 309 totaled for a 54-hole score of 935. West Florida took the medal this weekend with scores of 294, 299 and 295 to total 888 strokes.
UW senior Joel Rechlicz had his best finish in the 2002-03 season in a tie for 17th with rounds of 76-78-76--230. Sophomore Kevin Tassistro finished second for the Badgers in a tie for 44th (82-76-79--237). Sophomores Dylan Esterling in a tie for 58th (78-78-83--239) and Brian Brodell in a tie for 74th (88-77-78--243) also turned in scores for Wisconsin.
UW men's basketball is ranked No. 24 in both the ESPN/USA and the Associated Press polls this week.
