May 14, 2010

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Talk about an opening statement.

Freshman Mohammed Ahmed, in his first race of the outdoor season, laid claim to the Big Ten Conference championship in the men's 10,000 meters Friday night in Bloomington, Ind., leading the way as the Wisconsin men's track and field team grabbed three of the top five places at the conference meet.

Ahmed ran away with his first Big Ten title -- and the Badgers' first in the 10,000 meters since Tim Nelson claimed the top spot in 2005 -- with a time of 29:03.71.

“I felt relaxed the whole time,” Ahmed said. “I just wanted to win this. It’s my first race of the year and, for the past five weeks, I’ve been training while everyone else has been racing.

“I’m a strength guy, not a speed guy, so I knew I had to get way out ahead if I was going to win,” he added. “If they wanted it, they were going to have come and get me.”

In the end, no one could. Minnesota’s Chris Rombough finished seven seconds back of Ahmed in the runner-up spot after clocking a 29:10.67, while Illinois’ Colin Mickow was third with a time of 29:10.74.  

The Badgers' showing, which also included an impressive fourth-place showing for redshirt freshman Elliot Krause (29:12.53) and a fifth-place finish for junior Landon Peacock (29:15.63), has Wisconsin staked to second place in the team standings after the opening day of the 2010 Big Ten Outdoor Championships.

Minnesota, which also scored in the pole vault and hammer throw, holds the team lead at 34 points. The Badgers tallied 19 points in the 10K to stand second, with Ohio State's 15 points good for third place after three events.

“It’s all about the Big Ten team title,” said Ahmed. “I knew that tonight we had to start it big, and I mean big as in winning the race.”

The Badgers' strategy of pushing the pace early and trading the lead among their four runners paid dividends. Ahmed, Krause, Peacock and redshirt freshman Maverick Darling swapped the lead throughout the early going and were running well as a group until Darling made contact with the rail and was forced to retire midway through the race.

“We wanted to make everyone else work, and I think we did that,” Ahmed said.

From there, Ahmed took over in the late stages of the race and built a sizable gap on the field over the final five laps. He closed the race with a split of 4:25 for the final mile, including a 62-second final lap.

The St. Catharines, Ontario, native’s performance broke the 33-year-old Canadian junior record of 29:10.1 set by Peter Butler in 1977.

The victory served as a bit of redemption for Ahmed, who fell while running at the front during the late stages of the 5,000 meters at the Big Ten indoor championships.

“Since indoors, I’ve been extremely motivated,” Ahmed said. “I wasn’t going to let that happen to me again. I wanted this win.”

Since the indoor season, Ahmed's only racing came at the IAAF World Junior Cross Country Championships in March, when he scored a 27th-place finish.

Interestingly, his Canadian junior record comes on the heels of the overall Canadian national record of 27:23.63 set by former Wisconsin star Simon Bairu on May 1.

Also Friday, the Badgers saw sophomore David Grzesiak and senior Seth Pelock position themselves to score valuable team points with strong first-day performances in the decathlon.

Grzesiak stands fourth after the first five events of the 10-event competition after racking up a total of 3,823 points Friday. He trails the leader, Minnesota’s R.J. McGinnis, by 85 points.

Pelock scored 3,606 points to put himself in eighth place halfway through the competition.

The decathlon concludes Saturday, with the110-meter hurdles set to begin the day of competition at 8:30 a.m.