April 16, 2011
• Mt. SAC Relays Results | Bryan Clay Invitational Results
MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin men’s track and field team’s distance runners continued their climb up the Big Ten Conference performance list late Friday at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.
A day after Elliot Krause moved to the top of the league list in the 10,000 meters, sophomore Rob Finnerty and senior Luke Rucks moved to the top of the rundown in the 1,500 meters.
Finnerty was seeded in the Olympic Development section of the 1,500 and raced to a Big Ten-leading time of 3:42.79 to claim seventh place. Running in a separate section, Rucks clocked in at 3:43.27 in his first 1,500 meters of the season – the No. 2 time by a Big Ten athlete this year.
Returning All-American Mohammed Ahmed made his season debut by racing in the Elite Invitational section of the 5,000 meters, the fastest collegiate race of the year in that event. Ahmed came home 16th in a personal-best time of 13:44.98 – the fastest in the Big Ten so far this season.
Sophomore Maverick Darling, an All-American indoors this year, dropped out of the race at the 3,000-meter mark. He suffered an ankle sprain while training in Madison this week.
In a separate section of the 5,000, senior Landon Peacock raced for the first time since the cross country season and recorded a time of 14:17.81.
Already a two-time NCAA qualifier in the event indoors, redshirt freshman Zachary Mellon made his collegiate outdoor debut in his specialty event by clocking a time of 1:50.09 to take eighth in the 800 meters.
While the distance athletes were competing at Mt. SAC, the Badgers’ sprinters were laying down strong times at the Bryan Clay Invitational.
It was all Badgers in the 400 meters at the nearby Azusa Pacific University, as UW claimed the three fastest collegians in the field -- and four of the top 10 in the race overall.
Junior Kyle Jefferson led the charge by blazing to a personal-best time of 46.98 seconds -- a time that ranks fourth in the Big Ten this season -- and finished second to professional Lionel Larry of adidas, who won in 46.76.
Freshman Tyler Woloszyk wasn’t far back in third place, clocking a personal-best 47.63, with redshirt freshman Drew Simmons fourth in 47.79. The Badgers also saw junior Brady Hammon, who ran in a different heat than his teammates, take ninth overall in 48.46.
Back at Mt. SAC, junior Adum Gross grabbed a seventh-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.44 – only one hundredth of a second off his season-best time of 14.43 from last week’s Rex Foster Open. Junior Temi Ogunbodede missed matching his personal-best time by one hundredth, taking 12th place in 14.57.
In the field event, the duo of redshirt freshman Japheth Cato and junior Mickey DeFilippo was strong in the pole vault. Both cleared 16 feet, 8 3/4 inches, with Cato taking second ahead of third-place DeFilippo on the criteria of total misses.
Josh Flax used a personal-best leap of 24-3 3/4 to take eighth in the open long jump, while Paul Annear cleared 6-10 3/4 to match his outdoor personal best and take seventh place in the open high jump
Senior Robert Dehn finished 14th in the javelin with a throw of 214-2.
The Mt. SAC Relays conclude Saturday, while the Badgers also will send athletes to compete in the Beach Invitational in nearby Norwalk, Calif.
