Ed Nuttycombe, the head coach of the University of Wisconsin men’s track and field team, has been named the Big Ten conference’s Indoor Coach of the Year, the league office announced Wednesday. Nuttycombe, who was selected by a vote of his conference peers, recently led his team to the 2004 Big Ten indoor championship.
Nuttycombe earned Big Ten Indoor Coach of the Year honors for the second-straight year and for the sixth time in his career. He was also chosen for this accolade in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2003.
The Badgers won their fourth-straight Big Ten Indoor title last weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich., scoring a meet record 174.5 points. Wisconsin has won the indoor league championships eight times under Nuttycombe.
UW won six individual titles in Ann Arbor, tying the school record for most event championships at an indoor conference meet. Nuttycombe has coached 114 Big Ten individual champions in his 21 years at Wisconsin.
The 17th-ranked Badgers have two meets left in their indoor season. Wisconsin travels to the Alex Wilson Invitational in Notre Dame, Ind., this Friday and Saturday looking for last-chance qualifiers to the NCAA indoor championships. The national meet will be held March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.
On the national scene, Wisconsin has made its mark as a team and individually under Nuttycombe. The Badgers have scored in 17 of 20 NCAA outdoor meets, including seven top-20 finishes. Indoors, Wisconsin has scored in 13 NCAA indoor meets, including the last 10 in a row. The Badgers have four top-20 indoor finishes.
Wisconsin recorded back-to-back top-10 finishes at the NCAA outdoor championships in 1996 and 1997. Wisconsin finished sixth at the 1996 NCAA championship and earned a spot on the awards platform with a fourth-place finish in 1997.
-compiled from staff reports
