The Wisconsin men's track and field team won its sixth straight Big Ten championship, wrapping up a dominating performance Sunday at the Recreational Building in Iowa City, Iowa. The team tallied 124.5 points, 30.5 higher than second place Minnesota.
'I never would have thought we were going to score 124.5 points,' UW head coach Ed Nuttycombe said.
The key to victory for the Badger team, which picked up regular wins in distance events, was the team's ability to collect points in the 400 and 600-meter events.
Junior Chad Melotte finished in third place in the 400 with a personal best time of 47.97 seconds, adding six points to the Badgers' score. Freshman James Groce notched third place in the 600.
After the 600 Saturday, with UW totaling 94.5 points and the meet already decided, Wisconsin topped it all off when junior Demi Omole picked up a fourth place finish in the 200-meters. Omole had already won the 60 meters, his first Big Ten indoor title.
In the 5,000-meters, UW was able to score 20 points. Junior Chris Solinksy won the event with a time of 13:51.34, a new meet record.
Solinsky also won the 3,000-meter race Saturday with a time of 7:54.73, a Big Ten indoor and facility record. The junior broke away with approximately 800 meters to go, beating the second place runner by over 100 meters.
Junior Nathan Brown, a Madison native, notched his first Big Ten title Sunday in the heptathlon with an NCAA provisional qualifying total of 5,304 points.
'There was a great field this weekend,' Brown said. 'I really gathered it all together today. I thought I performed well yesterday in the high jump, and then had a good pole vault and hurdles today.'
Brown, leading the event after Saturday, picked up a third place finish in the 60-meter hurdles and third in the pole vault, while finishing sixth in the 1,000 meters.
