Never one to settle for less, James Groce has had one goal in mind since he began competing in track — improvement. For two years Groce has worked on his technique, and now his efforts have paid off. Over spring break, the sophomore from Milwaukee was named Big Ten Co-Athlete of the Week — Demi Omole, Groce's 1,600 meter relay teammate, took home the honor outright this past week for winning the 100-meter dash and 400-meter relay at the Auburn Tiger Classic — for impressive performances in both the 200-meter dash and 400-meter at the Yellow Jacket Invitational.

"It was a real good honor, really unexpected," Groce said. "I was happy to represent for the school and for my family. I knew that I ran a fast 400 meters because I won my heat, and I looked at the clock and saw a good time. As for the 200 meters, I wasn't completely fresh, but I just went out there and competed. Luckily it came out good for me."

Groce's times were fast enough to qualify him for the NCAA Regionals. He finished fourth in the 400 with a personal best time of 46.61, good for sixth on UW's All-Time list. And in the 200, Groce placed 10th with another personal best, finishing in 21.32 seconds.

With all the success he and his UW teammates have achieved this season, it would seem easy to get complacent. But that's just not the case. Groce remains committed to progress.

"I keep learning from every meet," Groce said. "Coach (Mark) Guthrie keeps telling us that we should learn something new at every meet. I'm really taking those words to heart and I think that the rest of the team is too."

This attitude Guthrie promotes isn't anything new to Groce. After qualifying for two events at the state meet during his junior year of high school, Groce took fourth in the 800 that summer at the 2004 AAU National meet. It was then that Groce started receiving national attention.

"After that meet letters starting rolling in," Groce said. "It seemed like the first couple of weeks of senior year I'd get several letters a week. My goal that summer was to improve my 400 and my 800 times, and I did that."

Of course, Groce didn't stop there. While his times were good, he knew he could do better. He did, again earning berths in two events at the state meet during his senior season.

Despite entering the fray as the heavy favorite to win the 400, Groce suffered a mental setback, one that cost him the title. He settled for third.

"I think I got kind of a big head going into that meet with the time I had," Groce said.

Still upset about his disappointing finish at state, Groce set out to make a dent on the competition during that summer's USATF Junior Olympics. There, he took eighth in the 400 before finishing with the top mark in the 800. Almost instantly, he was the hottest recruit there.

Surprisingly, Groce still hadn't committed to a school, and it was already early August. He had received a number of scholarship offers from Wisconsin, Tennessee and Kansas, as well as some other schools, but never made up his mind. Following his performance at the junior Olympics, however, his mind was made up.

"After I won the national championship in the 800, both [Tennessee and Kansas] offered me a lot more, and Texas Tech jumped in too. But being only an hour or so away, I chose to come [to Wisconsin] to stay close to the family," Groce said.

So a month after winning a junior national championship, Groce was on the campus of what he calls one of the top universities with the patented one-two punch of academics and athletics.

"That's why I wanted come here," Groce said. "That was such a major role in my decision. I wanted to go to a school that was good not only in athletics but in academics as well."

Now in his second year, Groce has no doubts that he made the best decision when he chose Wisconsin, and he's all smiles when it comes to his future.