By the time the last event in the heptathlon rolled around in Saturday's Wisconsin Elite Invitational Track, UW senior Joe Detmer knew he needed to run the 1,000 meters in 2 minutes, 30.95 seconds in order to automatically qualify for the NCAA indoor championships.
Essentially, Detmer needed to rewrite the record books and beat the U.S.-best time of 2 minutes, 32.56 seconds that has stood for over two decades, just to move on to the national stage—and that is exactly what he did.
In 2 minutes, 30.86 seconds, Detmer crossed the finish line and earned his place in history by setting the new U.S. heptathlon record in the 1,000 meter run, falling just shy of the collegiate record by .12 seconds and the world record by .61 seconds.
""The funny thing is I've heard so many different stories about what the actual record was that I had no idea what it was. So, it was kind of funny that I actually broke it,"" Detmer said after the meet. ""That's really cool to have.""
""I'm sure it won't sink in for a couple of years that I hold an American record but it was nice to run that time for the points that I earned,"" Detmer added.
The finish brought his point total up to 5,651 for the weekend and also topped Wisconsin's previous best heptathlon record of 5,549 set by Ashraf Fadel in 2004. In addition to earning an automatic qualification, Detmer also claimed third place in the meet behind 2004 Olympian and former Michigan State track star Paul Terek (5,977) and Chris Boyles of C-Bo Elite (5,769).
In the 60-meter dash, another Badger had a record breaking performance of his own. Senior All-American Demi Omole ran the 60-meter dash in 6.62 seconds, tying his own Big Ten Conference and UW record and breaking the facility record of 6.68 seconds held by Leonard Scott of Tennessee, set back in 2000. His time was good enough to qualify him for the NCAA indoor championships.
Omole also helped the Badgers to earn another solid finish in the 1,600-meter relay. Omole, senior Dan Goesch, senior Nathan Probst and sophomore James Groce came in with a 3 minutes, 19.26 seconds to take the crown in the 1,600 meter relay. Groce also picked up a first place finish in the 600-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 18.86 seconds.
UW senior football wide receiver and long jumper Paul Hubbard had a quality performance as well, placing second with a length of 24 feet, three inches.
The men's track and field team will next head out to Notre Dame, where they will take part in the Meyo Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
