The Wisconsin men's track and field team wrapped up a busy week Saturday after participating in three events since the beginning of spring recess.
Wisconsin's spring-break schedule began March 14 in College Station, Texas for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Junior Craig Miller highlighted Wisconsin's achievements at the two-day event by finishing as the national runner-up in the mile. Miller's placement in the race earned him his fifth All-America honor of his career and represented the best finish in the event by a Badger. Miller completed the mile in 4:01.34, finishing behind New Mexico senior Lee Emanuel, who ran a time of 4:00.36. Miller, who currently holds the Wisconsin record for the mile run, became the fourth Badger to earn All-America
honors in the event.
On Friday, Wisconsin began its outdoor track campaign, and this time it was freshman Derek Steinbach who stood out for the Badgers.
Steinbach won the decathlon at the Hurricane Invitational at Miami, Fla. Steinbach was one of three Badgers to finish in the top five in the event, which helped secure a team win for UW in the eight-school event.
UW freshman Ian Jansen finished third in the decathlon, and senior Brennan Boettcher finished fifth.
Wisconsin's 22 points edged out runner-up Texas by five points. Rice finished third in the event with a score of 13.
On Saturday, the Badgers participated in the Rose-Hulman Early Bird Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., where the throwers stole the show.
Three different Badgers won three separate throwing events. Sophomore Robert Dehn took the javelin, sophomore Kurt Thompson won the shot put and junior Rory Linder prevailed in the hammer throw.
The Badgers succeeded on the track as well. Wisconsin junior Barry Gill won the 400-meter run with a time of 48.68 and freshman Patrick Plank took the 400-meter hurdles, clocking in at 54.13.
Wisconsin's third outdoor event will be the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28.
Women's Track
Just as the men, the Wisconsin women began their week at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Unfortunately, the women did not have as much individual or team success as the men.
UW senior Gwen Jorgensen finished No. 16 in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:40.61. Freshman Dorcas Akinniyi competed in the indoor pentathlon but failed to register much success in any of the events, finishing 16th in the event out of 16 participants.
Wisconsin fared better later in the week at the Hurricane Invitational, as freshman Jessica Flax won the outdoor heptathlon.
Flax secured a first-place finish in the 800-meter run ahead of runner-up Laurenie Louissaint of Florida International. Badger sophomore Egle Staisiunate took third in the event.
Wisconsin continued its success at the Rose-Hulman Early Bird Invitational, where freshman Jenna Severson won the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:02.28. Finishing second in the event was Badger freshman Megan Rennhack with a time of 1:03.50.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
