Exceptional strength from underclassmen and the distance crew propelled the Wisconsin men's track team to a record eighth straight Big Ten championship with 127 points, winning four events in front of a home crowd over the weekend.
Sophomore Brandon Bethke took away two Big Ten titles, winning the distance double - the 3,000 and 5,000-meter races. Junior James Groce won the 600 meter run, and the distance medley relay also came out on top.
I don't think at the beginning of the year anyone would have picked us to win because of all the people we graduated last year,"" head coach Ed Nuttycombe said. ""That was just a tremendous team effort, and I do think we were helped by being at home.""
Wisconsin scored seven more points than last year's national championship team with freshmen and sophomores more than replacing graduating seniors by scoring 76 points, more than 60 percent of the team's total.
In just four distance events - the mile, 3,000, 5,000 and distance medley - the Badgers put up 76 points.
In the second-last race, the 5,000-meter run, UW scored 25 points to clinch the team title, keeping second-place finisher Purdue, which ended with 102 points, out of range. The Wisconsin runners banded together in the last half mile, and Bethke broke away on the final lap to win his first-ever collegiate 5k in 14 minutes 23 seconds.
Junior Matt Withrow drifted back into the chase pack to sixth place in the final quarter mile and let out an incredible kick in the final 150 meters to capture third place in 14:29. Freshman Landon Peacock and junior Stuart Eagon finished right behind Withrow at 14:30 for fourth and fifth, respectively.
""Within each event we had a little rivalry going with each other, and we saw the milers throw up 23, and we knew the only way we would beat them is one of us would have to win, and the rest could only lose to one other guy,"" Withrow said.
Freshman Evan Jager earned runner-up in the mile in his Big Ten debut, after his final-stretch kick could not get him past Ohio State's Jeff See. Jager lost to See by three-tenths of a second, going 4:22. In the final 400, junior Craig Miller, sophomore Ryan Gasper and sophomore Jack Bolas were right on the heels of Jager and See.
The runners basically jogged the first 800 in 2:27, but the field turned it on right at the halfway point, with See and Jager finishing the second half-mile in 1:55. Miller, Gasper and Bolas finished third through fifth in 4:23 to 4:24.
""It was an awesome experience - the crowd just screaming the whole time,"" Jager said. ""It just gets you so pumped up. It helped having a lot of Wisconsin fans out here cheering you on.""
The 3,000 meters brought in 18 points for Wisconsin as Bethke unleashed a last quarter-mile surge to win in 8:10. Sophomore Andrew Lacy took fourth, going 8:18, and Eagon went 8:21 for sixth.
""It was awesome, when I took the lead with about 250 or 300 to go, the whole entire stands stood up and just went crazy,"" Bethke said. ""I knew I could take it all the way. I didn't know if that would be good enough, but I just had to put myself out there and go for it.""
The distance medley relay consisting of Miller, Luke Hoenecke, Joe Pierre and Bolas went 9:54 to beat out Minnesota by two seconds.
Groce took the lead just before the final lap in the 600 meters to run 1:18 and finish a half second ahead of Ohio State's Elon Simms.
""You get a lot of juice seeing the same faces you see on campus and alumni coming back. It really gets you going,"" Groce said. ""I knew I just had to score. They knew I could win, so I had to get the 10 points for the team.""
Groce anchored Wisconsin's 4-by-400-meter relay to a second-place finish. Teammates Andrew Milenkovski, Quinn Evans and Hoenecke kept UW in third, putting Groce in position to get into second and nearly make up for Ohio State's massive lead, but he fell just short. Wisconsin finished in 3:13.35 behind OSU's 3:13.22.
Sophomore Rayme Mackinson earned runner-up in the long jump, hitting 24 feet 5 3'4 inches on his best attempt.
In the heptathlon, freshman David Grzesiak put up six points for Wisconsin by placing third with 5318 points. He won the high jump and placed consistently in the top eight in most other events.
Freshmen Zach Beth and Luke Rucks placed fourth and fifth in the 800 meters, each running 1:53. Other significant contributions came from senior Derek Thiel, who placed fourth in the pole vault, and senior Adam Pischke, who took sixth in the 60 meter hurdles.
""To be honest with you, I thought maybe 100 or 105 points would win it,"" Nuttycombe said. ""I didn't think we could score 127 points.""
