This weekend, the Wisconsin Badgers will seek to garner their fourth-straight Big Ten Indoor title as they travel to Ann Arbor, MI for the conference championships.

While the Badgers have carried the reputation as being one of the better indoor teams over the past decade, many teams will be aiming to knock Wisconsin off of their conference throne.

Despite the fact that the Badgers’ freshman class was ranked fifth in the nation with highly acclaimed recruits such as Chris Solinsky, Paul Hubbard, and Joe Thomas, coach Ed Nuttycombe stresses the importance of senior leadership.

“It’s my philosophy that if you have a team that you have to lean on from a freshman perspective, you probably don’t have a very good team overall,” Nuttycombe said. “We are pleased (with the freshman) from a building and youth standpoint. Hopefully, we’re going to get some things from some of the upper (class), more experienced athletes to lead the way too.”

Nuttycombe also realizes the importance of heading into this weekend’s Big Ten Indoor Championship as the defending champions for the past three seasons.

“I think there is an advantage to (winning a title) as opposed to being, not only a coach but a team that’s never been there,” he said. “Our guys expect to win and expect to compete well. Whether we do or not, I don’t know, we’ll see. I think the expectations are such that they expect to do well. I think that comes from some leadership and perhaps coaching. Definitely leadership from other teammates, particularly ones that have been there and have won those titles.”

Despite being the defending champions, Nuttycombe sees plenty of challenges in this year’s Big Ten field.

“To be honest with you, on paper we’re not the best team,” he said. “I think Minnesota is the best team on paper. The only saving grace in that respect is that I thought the same last year. We’re close enough where if we compete well, we have a chance but we will definitely have to compete well to win.”

As far as last season’s Big Ten Indoor Championships went, Minnesota may have in fact been the best team. Nevertheless, the Badgers came back from being down 23 points in the last three events to beat the Golden Gophers by a mere two points to win the conference title.

Nuttycombe may be correct in his assumption that Minnesota is the best team on paper this year once again. Glancing at the top performances of the early 2004 indoor track and field season, one can clearly see that the Gophers have great strength in nearly every event, particularly in sprints and middle distance.

In spite of this, the Badgers hope that their vast strength in the distance events will pull them to victory for the fourth straight year.

Wisconsin has strong distance runners this season, featuring members of the NCAA runner-up cross country team. Eight Badgers rank in the top 15 for the 3,000 meters, all of whom are a part of the cross country squad.

The Badgers are also favored in other distance events such as the 5,000-meter and mile with highly acclaimed junior Matt Tegenkamp, who finished second last season in the 3,000 meters and third in the 5,000-meter, and freshman Chris Solinsky, who is looking to start his first ever Big Ten Indoors with a solid performance.

Brent Boettcher and Ryan Tremelling will be seeking to repeat as champions in their respective events from last year.

Boettcher surprised everyone last season as he took first in the high jump as a redshirt freshman with an impressive mark of 7′ 1″, which was also a personal best. Minnesota will give Boettcher his toughest competition in the high jump, however, as junior John Albert appears to be the early favorite along with fellow Gophers Kevin Netzer, Josh Paulson, and Bryant Howe who hold the top four spots for this year’s indoor season records.

Tremelling brings some leadership to the young Badger squad as one of the few returning seniors. At last year’s Big Ten Indoors, he took the heptathlon by storm with a score of 5,495 total points in the competition en route to being named first team All Big-Ten Indoors for 2003, and appears to be a heavy favorite once again this season.

All in all, Nuttycombe and the Badgers still like their chances this weekend.

“We are looking forward to the challenge (of repeating as Big Ten Indoor champions),” Nuttycombe said. “I think there are three teams that can win the championship. We feel we are one of those teams. I think it is going to come down just like any other athletic competition, who competes the best on the day. That’s what it is all about.”