The University of Wisconsin men’s track team will travel to Tucson this weekend for the Jim Click Shootout as they look to continue to improve heading into the outdoor season grind.

Fellow conference member Penn State will join Wisconsin, and both schools will represent the Big Ten in the outdoor track meet. Many of UW’s athletes will look to better their own personal marks in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA regionals, but some Badgers have already accomplished that feat.

Freshman polevaulter Mickey DeFilippo qualified for the NCAAs with his mark of 16 3/4 feet. The qualifying mark was not easy to obtain for DeFilippo, who went through some struggles last year.

“It was a rough year overall,” DeFilippo said. “A lot of it was mental, and I wasn’t in the best shape.”

DeFilippo, who redshirted last year’s indoor season, struggled in his first outdoor campaign but has been able to post some quality marks this season. Head coach Ed Nuttycombe, however, is not that surprised with the performance of his young athlete.

“He has been very steadily improving and it is not surprising,” Nuttycombe said. “There are definitely higher heights for him to reach in the near future.”

DeFilippo credits his improvement to the changes he has made in the offseason and the hard work he put in.

“This year I have got some more experience and I am in much better shape,” DeFilippo said.

Not to be outdone, fellow Badger Robert Dehn, a sophomore from Owatonna, Minn., recently posted a NCAA-qualifying mark in the javelin by throwing 214 1/2 feet. Dehn was happy to qualify so early in the outdoor season, especially since it took longer to qualify last year.

“I don’t have to worry about it anymore, and I can just focus on getting better,” Dehn said.

DeFilippo agreed with his teammate and also stated how glad he was to get qualifying out of the way.

“I won’t have to put that much pressure on myself,” DeFillipo said. “I can just try to jump the best that I can each time out.”

DeFillipo and Dehn will be leading the men’s team into Arizona this weekend with sole intention on getting better individually and as a team.

“We’re trying to just clean things up technically and trying to work on some mental things,” Dehn said. “We are getting pushed by some good competition and it brings out the best.”

Although the majority of the team is beginning to ramp things up for the bulk of the outdoor season, Nuttycombe reiterated some of his athletes still need some more time to recover.

“A lot of the athletes will not open up until about two more weeks,” Nuttycombe said. “Some guys just need a bit more training time to recover from the indoor season and get ready for the outdoors. They need the time off from a competitive standpoint, and they could use the training time to get ready for the second half of the season.”

While some members of the team are still in recovery mode, DeFilippo, Dehn and the rest of the men’s team will look to use this weekend’s meet as another opportunity to get stronger. This team has high hopes and is anxious to get back on the track to show that they can perform.

“The expectations have always been high and they will continue to be,” DeFilippo said.