March 12, 2011
• Complete Results 
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The No. 17 Wisconsin men’s track and field team closed the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday the same way it opened the national meet a day earlier, by adding to its list of All-Americans.
On the heels of All-America performances by sophomores Mohammed Ahmed and Maverick Darling in the 5,000 meters Friday, the Badgers added three more athletes to its list of honorees on the meet’s final day at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
Senior Zach Beth closed out his indoor career in style by scoring the first All-America laurel of his career with an eighth-place finish in the 800 meters. Sophomore Reed Connor, making his NCAA debut, earned second-team All-America honors with a 10th-place finish in the 3,000 meters.
In his NCAA debut, redshirt freshman Japheth Cato finished a 15th-place showing in the heptathlon to become a second-team All-American.
Beth, competing at the NCAA indoor meet for the second time in his career, raced his way into the 800 meters final with an outstanding run Friday. His finishing time dropped off in the final, but the mark of 1 minute, 50.42 seconds secured an All-America finish for Beth in a tightly-bunched pack that was separated by just over two seconds from front to back at the finish line.
Alabama’s Fred Samoei won the national title in 1:48.33.
Connor impressed in his first-ever race at the NCAA indoor championships, clocking a time of 8:07.07 to take 10th place and earn second-team All-America distinction. The native of nearby The Woodlands, Texas, slid toward the back of the pack as the field strung out through the race’s midway point before applying a charge in the late stages.
Connor picked off seven places in the race’s final 400 meters and finished third-highest among underclassmen in the field. Stanford’s Elliott Heath came through the field to take the championship in 8:03.71.
Cato, two weeks removed from claiming the Big Ten title with the second-highest score in school history, finished off a score of 5,436 points Saturday to close out his 15th-place showing in the heptathlon.
A setback in the shot put Friday put Cato in a hole, but he did plenty of digging out of the gate on day two. He opened with a time of 8.27 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles and then obliterated his previous personal-best with a clearance of 17 feet, 3/4 inches in the pole vault.
That clearance made Cato the class of the field by four inches and also tied him for third on UW’s all-time list in the event, becoming just the fourth Badger to surpass the 17-foot plateau indoors.
Cato closed the seven-event competition with a time of 3:02.03 in the 1,000 meters. Clemson’s Miller Moss claimed the title with a score of 5,986 points.
The Badgers now turn their attention to the outdoor season, which begins with the Aztec Invitational in San Diego next weekend, March 18-19.
