The University of Wisconsin men's indoor track and field team continued their dominance at the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind. over the weekend. The Badgers stretched their streak of consecutive Big Ten Championships to seven.
The Badgers led the way after the first day of competition, earning 34 points. Host school Indiana trailed by four with 30.
Senior Chris Solinsky defended his 3000 meter title with a time of 8 minutes, 9.25 seconds and was followed by fellow senior Tim Nelson, who finished in second place.
Wisconsin advanced a meet-best 10 athletes to Sunday's finals, included four freshman mile runners.
""We had a good first day and we knew that [if] we just kept the pressure on the second day, we'd be okay,"" said UW head coach Ed Nuttycombe.
The Badgers added two championships Sunday while keeping the momentum going.
Milwaukee-native senior Demi Omole ran a meet record 6.63 seconds in the 60-meter dash to defend his Big Ten title.
""It was good to win the title my senior year and put the record away,"" Omole said.
The Badgers' other champion was senior All-American Joe Detmer in the heptathlon. The Lodi, Wis. native attained 5,360 points which edged Ohio State's Scott Hudephol by 22 points.
Wisconsin finished with 120 points, followed by Minnesota with 93 and Michigan with 89.
""We'll try to finish at Triple Crown again outdoors, but more importantly it sets a tempo for ourselves going into the national meet,"" said Nuttycombe. ""We've got a good solid ranking and hopefully make a run at the top three or four.""
Women's track
The University of Wisconsin women's indoor track and field team finishes sixth in the Big Ten with 52.5 points at their respective Big Ten Championships in Bloomington.
The Badgers went into the tournament understaffed because of injuries, said UW head coach Jim Stintzi. ""Four of our better athletes will not be with us this weekend [due to injury].""
The Badgers did not have an event champion, but turned in a number of good performances.
Senior Melissa Talbot boosted her Wisconsin record in the pentathlon from 4,048 points to 4,125 on her way to a third place finish.
Senior A'Havahla Haynes and freshman Hanna Grinaker placed third and fourth respectively in the 5,000-meter run, earning Wisconsin 11 points.
Minnesota dominated the tournament, accumulating 121.5 points, 13 more than the second-place Michigan squad.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
