Track Badgers hope to spring forward at SeaRay
By Tom Ziemer, Sports Writer
The Wisconsin men’s track team will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend to compete in the annual SeaRay Relays.
The event will provide the opportunity for some of the Badgers to really get this outdoor season kicked off.
“For some of these athletes this will be, actually for some of them it will be their first race outdoors,” head coach Ed Nuttycombe said. “So we’re looking to kind of get the outdoor season underway. For others, we’re looking to try to see if we can develop running true multiple relay events and get some individual development through that.”
Coach Nuttycombe believes the meet, which features teams such as South Carolina, Tennessee and Middle Tennessee State, will provide the Badgers with some tough competition.
“There’s probably 50, 60 or 70 schools there,” Nuttycombe said. “It’s a huge meet. It’s a very good, competitive meet. It’s the best meet on the east coast. Yeah, I’d say it’s probably the best meet east of the Mississippi (River) this weekend.”
Fifth-year senior and team captain Jon Mungen, who will compete in the 110-meter hurdles, echoed Nuttycombe’s thoughts about the stiff competition the team will face.
“Just looking at in years past when we’ve competed here, there’ve been some top notch individuals,” Mungen said. “So, we’re just hoping to get our feet wet. For many of us, we had two meets over spring break, but those were just training through those, not really comparing times or anything. So, this is our first test to see where we’re at.”
Mungen is one of several Badgers who will run individually this weekend. The captain says that while the most important accomplishment is simply fighting off the injury bug, recording an NCAA regional-qualifying time would be nice.
“For anyone, the first goal is to remain healthy,” Mungen said. “We both know what meet counts, and those meets, goes up to conference, regionals and nationals. So, first goal, first thing would be to stay healthy. Other than that would be to qualify for regionals.”
Competing with Mungen in the hurdles will be redshirt sophomore Paul Check. Freshman Demi Omole will run the 100-meter. Omole has recorded the fastest time of any Badger this outdoor season in the race, and will look to add another strong placing to an outdoor campaign that has already seen him take first place at two meets.
“Probably the best open athlete we have in there at this point right now is probably the 100 (meter) with Demi,” Nuttycombe said.
Senior Josh Spiker will run the half-mile for Wisconsin, and the Badgers will be well represented in the steeplechase with Drew Hohensee and Codie See.
Wisconsin will also send a bevy of talented relay teams to Knoxville, and coach Nuttycombe expects some solid performances.
“We’re running every relay on the docket,” Nuttycombe said. “We’re running the four by 100, four by 200, four by 400, four by 800, sprint medley, distance medley, and four by 1500 meter. And all of those teams are pretty good teams. I think that they’ll, I don’t know which will fare best in the end, but all of them are very good, competitive teams and I think we’ll do well in all of the relays.”
Nuttycombe hopes that this weekend’s SeaRay Relays will allow the Badgers to build some momentum that will carry on through the rest of the season.
“That’s the goal,” he said. “For some of the athletes it’s the start, and for others it’s a step.”
