This past weekend was full of buzzer-beaters, game winners and heartbreakers for Badger athletics. In the midst of all the March Madness, sometimes other sports fall to the wayside, but fans should not let the UW men's track team fall out of sight.
The Badgers capped an incredible indoor season with a third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championship meet. They tallied 43 points-the most by any Badger team in the meet's history-and also matched their previous best finish ever, tying the 1971 varsity squad. The Badgers also produced an individual national champion in sophomore Chris Solinsky.
Solinsky's crown came in the 3,000-meter race, where he hustled home in a time of 7:53.59. He is UW's first indoor national champion since 1996. Solinsky trailed senior distance man Matt Tegenkamp for most of the race, but with two laps remaining he was able to pass his teammate. Tegenkamp managed an impressive third-place finish in the race with a time of 7:55.72.
\With two laps to go, I could tell that Matt was kind of slowing down,"" Solinsky said. ""We're in this for the team title so whatever I have left, I had to throw down as hard as I could. I heard someone coming in the last 150 [meters]. With 100 meters to go, I just had this surge of energy. I don't think I've ever closed that fast in my entire life. I felt like I was just floating. It felt great!""
Also placing high for the Badgers were sophomore Alonzo Moore, who grabbed a third-place finish in the triple jump, and sophomore Demi Omole, who finished fourth in the 60-meter dash.
Moore's distance of 53'9.75' in the triple jump was enough to earn him his highest placement in any meet. His leap also vaults him into second place on UW's indoor-all-time list for the event.
Omole, who had been saddled with a leg injury since the Big Ten Indoor Championship meet, showed no signs of his ailment when he ran the 60-meter dash in a time of 6.67. The time was a mere .05 seconds from the UW record, which he set earlier this year.
It was the icing on the cake of a 2005 indoor season full of accomplishment for Badger runners. Nuttycombe was named Big Ten Coach of the Year after his team won its fifth consecutive Big Ten Indoor Championship meet.
""Wow!"" Nuttycombe said of his team's finish in the NCAA Indoor's. ""Our most optimistic goal was to somehow manage to be in the top four. If everything went well, that was possible. As is turns out, (to finish in) third place ... I'm just very excited and pleased for the team.""
Among the team's other highlights as they head into the outdoor season was Tegenkamp, who destroyed his own UW record in the 5000-meter run by nearly eight seconds. Omole also beat the old 60-meter dash record time of former Badger and current Minnesota Viking Michael Bennett by .04 seconds.
-UWBadgers.com contributed to this report
