For the second Big Ten Conference championship in a row, the winner was decided in the final two events. For UW’s track and field team, the 5000 meters and the 4 x 400-meter relay was all that stood in the way of it running away with another title.
At the 2002 Big Ten outdoor meet, the Badgers picked up 27 points in the 5000 meters and finished second in the relay to beat Minnesota by 4.5 points and claim the title. This year it was even closer.
In the 2003 Big Ten Indoor championships, UW scored 23 points in the 5000 meters and again finished second in the 4 x 400-meter relay to Minnesota, edging the Golden Gophers by only two points, 133.5 to 131.5. Purdue finished in third place with 123 points.
In the 5000 meters, which is typically the Badgers’ highest scoring event, Minnesota’s Will McComb was the surprise winner, passing four Badgers on his way to victory in a time of 14:14.37. UW senior Isaiah Festa led the Badgers in finishing in the next four spots behind McComb, crossing the finish line in 14:16.01 for second place. Matt Tegenkamp, who almost didn’t run due to illness, finished third in 14:17.36 while freshman Simon Bairu was fourth in 14:18.22. Senior Adam Wallace rounded out the Badgers’ near sweep of the top five, finishing at 14:18.32.
Heading into the last event, Wisconsin needed to finish no worse than second to Minnesota in the 4 x 400-meter relay in order to win the meet. A third-place finish combined with a Gopher win in the relay would have resulted in a tie for the championship.
“I told [the relay members], ‘This is what you work for; this is what it’s all about. The game’s on the line now. Take advantage of it and win or lose, give it your best shot,'” UW head coach Ed Nuttycombe said.
The Badgers were in third place after the first two legs of the relay run by Dustin Rabine and Ricardo Rodriguez. Freshman Joe Detmer, who also finished second in the 600 meters, pulled Wisconsin into second place, and redshirt sophomore Jvontai Hanserd held on as Minnesota won the relay in 3:12.83 and Wisconsin finished second in 3:13.28 to win the team title. The UW runners were immediately swarmed by their teammates.
“We seem to be a clutch team that likes to keep everybody in thrills,” Nuttycombe said. “I don’t think Minnesota or Purdue had bad meets. They had pretty good meets. We just had a great meet. Every opportunity that we had, we seized upon that opportunity. We had zero breakdowns today, and that’s what did it.”
The Badgers were able to win the championship after finishing the first day of the meet in second place and capitalizing on momentum they gained in the field events.
“I think the meet turned for us after the high jump,” Nuttycombe said. “We never would have guessed that we would go 1 and 3. I think that kind of got everything going.”
It was the first time since 1985 that a UW athlete claimed the title in the high jump. Redshirt freshman Brent Boettcher cleared an NCAA provisional qualifying height of seven-feet one and three quarter-inches. The leap was a personal best by almost three inches and moved him into seventh place on UW’s all-time list.
“It feels great,” said Boettcher, who was a walk-on member of the UW basketball team last season. “I had a rough beginning of the year, but lately, I’ve been putting it together. I just hoped that I could put it together at the right time and I did.”
Senior Steve Jones finished third in the high jump, tying his personal best at seven feet and one-quarter inch, while freshman Zach McCollum tied for eighth by clearing six feet, nine inches.
Ryan Tremelling’s title in the heptathlon came down to his performance in the 1000 meters, which was the last portion of the event. Trammeling was leading Purdue’s Hence Williams by only 37 points, which translated to approximately three seconds on the track.
Williams was ahead of Tremelling for much of the race, but the Arena, Wis., native moved past the Purdue senior on the last lap to win the two-day event. Tremelling scored a personal best 5,495 points while Williams finished second with 5,432 points. Freshman Nathan Brown, a La Follette grad, finished third with 5,125 points, and redshirt freshman Ben Roland was eighth with 4,891 points.
“It was key that I PR’d (personal record) in the hurdles, and it was also key that ‘Pooh’ (Hence Williams) didn’t do as well as he should have,” Tremelling said. “But then he just reversed that in the pole vault so basically, we were dead even. It really came down to the 1000. I knew I could do it. I just had to put forth the effort.”
Nuttycombe credited points scored by the Badgers in a number of other events as the keys to the team win.
Detmer ran a personal best of 1:19.16 in the 600 meters to finish second while senior Ryan Ridge also ran a personal best of 1:19.76 to finish fifth.
Hanserd finished a surprising third in the 200 meters, running a personal best of 21.55 seconds, and was fifth in the 400 in 48.21 seconds.
Redshirt sophomore Josh Spiker was fourth in the mile in 4:08.28 while junior Dan Murray was fourth in the 800 meters in 1:51.11.
Senior Jon Mungen, who was bothered by a strained hamstring, finished fifth in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.99 seconds while redshirt freshman Paul Check was eighth in 8.13 seconds.
Redshirt freshman Rick Bellford picked up two points as he finished seventh in the triple jump with a personal best of 48-10 1/4.
The win for the Badgers came after a strong first-day performance, which had them sitting in second place.
The Badgers sent nine qualifiers to Sunday’s finals, but Minnesota led all teams with 12 qualifiers. Purdue also had nine qualifiers while Michigan had eight and Indiana seven.
Led by second-place finisher Matt Tegenkamp, the Badgers picked up 16 points in the 3000 meters. Tegenkamp led almost the entire race but was edged by Michigan’s Nick Willis by .51 of a second on the final straightaway. There was some confusion with the race as no bell was rung to signify the final lap and the lap counter at the finish line showed two laps to go instead of one. Several runners ran an extra lap but freshman Bobby Lockhart still finished fourth in 8:11.11 while senior Isaiah Festa was sixth in 8:16.38.
The Badger freshmen had a good opening day of competition with two scoring in the field events and several advancing in their respective events.
Freshman Joe Conway finished fifth in the long jump, moving up on his last jump of 24-4.
Freshman Wes Ulfig, of Sun Prairie, improved his personal best in the pole vault by almost a foot to finish seventh at 16-0.
Freshman qualifiers to Sunday’s finals include Joe Detmer in the 600 meters and Paul Check in the 60-meter hurdles
The freshmen contributed valuable points to the Badgers Sunday to help propel UW to its 30th Big Ten title.
-Compiled from staff reports