Due to the tragic death of Penn State University pole-vaulter Kevin Dare on the opening day of the Big Ten Indoor Track & Field Championships, the remainder of the meet has been cancelled. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany announced the meet would not be rescheduled.
“The decision has been made to cancel the competition,” Delany said. “At 12 p.m., the coaches and student-athletes will gather in a memorial service. The women’s meet being held at Penn State will also stop and recognize the tragedy at 12 p.m. as well.
“After deciding the meet would go on last night, I think everyone involved was given time to sleep on it and things changed. The coaches were given time to interact with their athletes and I think it was realized the number of athletes that were not going to compete or were not sure.”
A memorial service will be held at noon on the track. The student-athletes will encircle the track and observe a moment of silence. Delany and Penn State head coach Harry Groves will speak at the ceremony.
“We had a team meeting last night and most of the athletes felt that they could not continue,” Groves said. “We could honor Kevin by either competing or canceling the meet, but I don’t think anybody’s heart would be in it. The intensity of the athletes competing yesterday had been lost. I think this was a good decision.
“Kevin was a great athlete and he had a great future in front of him. Our team is devastated losing one of their best friends. I’ve been around track along time and probably seen a million vaults and I’ve never seen anything like this. So it will be hard for everybody to get through.”
Dare died Saturday while competing in the pole vault competition. A sophomore from State College, Dare, 19, fell during a vault attempt and hit his head on the ground at approximately 2:40 p.m. CT. After being treated by EMTs on site at the University of Minnesota Field House, he was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center where he was pronounced dead a short time later as a result of a fatal head trauma.
According to University of Minnesota Medical Director, Dr. Elizabeth Arendt, “He suffered secondary to severe head and neck injuries. We tried to revive him by instituting respiratory aid and began CPR on site. We continued to perform CPR in the ambulance before he was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center.”
Badgers’ results:
Before the tragic death of Dare, the Wisconsin track and field team was in third place after the first day of competition at the Big Ten Championships.
The Badgers scored 26 points, only five points behind day-one leader Minnesota and only one point behind second-place Purdue.
Redshirt freshman Matt Tegenkamp showed why he is one of the top distance runners in the country as he won his first Big Ten title in the 3000 meters. Tegenkamp and teammate Isaiah Festa finished first and second in 8:07.93 and 8:11.54, respectively.
“It was awesome. It was a lot of fun,” Tegenkamp said of his first Big Ten individual win. The Lee’s Summit, MO, native also credited Festa with running “an awesome race.”
Tegenkamp took the lead about halfway into the race, never let up and took Festa with him.
“I’ve got foot speed but not a lot of it and there are a lot of milers in this race who have really good foot speed at the end of the race, ” explained Tegenkamp.
“[The strategy] was just to go out when I felt comfortable taking the lead, just go after it and just hammer–run an even, hard pace until people started dropping off. ”
Wisconsin was unable to defend its title in the distance medley relay despite the fact that Tim Keller put the Badgers in the lead with three laps to go. Keller was unable to hold off Michigan’s Nathan Brannen, who sprinted by the Badger with less than a lap to go to win in 9:49.62. The UW team of Ryan Ridge, Scott Hogseth, Dan Murray and Keller finished second in 9:52.97.
The Badgers did not score in the finals of either the shot put or the long jump. The pole vault was postponed a day following the death of Penn State pole-vaulter Kevin Dare. Dare missed the landing pit on a vault attempt and landed on his head.
“We had a good first day, not a great first day by any means,” UW coach Ed Nuttycombe said. “It’s going to be very difficult for us to win the meet at this point simply because we had hoped to do better in a couple of the finals today that took place. We had hoped to get a couple more qualifiers but I think we really competed very well.”
Behind personal bests in the high jump, three UW athletes are in scoring position after the first day of the heptathlon.
Sophomore Ryan Tremelling improved his personal best in the high jump by four inches to tie for sixth in the heptathlon after four events. Tremelling tied for third in the high jump at 6-6 to record 2,915 points. Senior Benny Gill recorded a personal best of 6-3 1?2 to finish the first day in eighth with 2,894 points and sophomore Ashraf Fadel had a personal best of 6-4 3?4 to be ninth with 2,860 points.
Minnesota’s Lyndon McDowell leads the event with 3,330 points.
Six Badger athletes qualified for Sunday’s finals in five events.
Wisconsin has two athletes in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles, including junior Jon Mungen, who won his heat with the second-fastest qualifying time of 7.95. Senior Pierre Leinbach recorded a personal best of 8.03 to qualify with the fourth-fastest time.
Junior B.J. Tucker has the fourth-fastest qualifying time in the 60 meters, finishing second in his heat in 6.75.
Redshirt freshman Josh Spiker qualified for the finals of the mile after finishing second in his heat. Spiker has the sixth-fastest qualifying time of 4:13.13.
Redshirt freshman Jvontai Hanserd had the sixth-fastest qualifying time in the 400 meters after winning his heat in 48.55.
Junior Jabari Pride qualified seventh in the 600 meters after finishing second in his heat in 1:20.45.
–Compiled from staff reports
