April 29, 2011
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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Maverick Darling wore blue spikes in his shoes, hoping it would bring him some luck on Drake Stadium’s blue track.
Reed Connor finished with only half of his spikes after shedding a shoe midway through his four-lap leg.
In the end, Luke Rucks could have probably run without spikes and still found a way to win, thanks to the lead that Rob Finnerty spotted him.
The good and the bad all added up to a victory in the 4x1600-meter relay Friday at the Drake Relays, a performance that gave UW its first Drake title in the event since 1937.
“I’ve never been on a relay championship before,” Rucks said, “but with the huge lead, I knew we had it sewed up.
“I’m pretty excited about it.”
The quartet combined to clock a time of 16 minutes, 32.76 seconds -- eighth-fastest in UW history -- and put Wisconsin on the Drake Relays podium in a distance relay event for the third-consecutive year.
The Badgers did so by easily outpacing the squad from Notre Dame, with the runners-up finishing over six seconds back in 16:38.99. Minnesota took third in 16:40.29.
“We came in here thinking we had a good shot at winning it,” Finnerty said, “and it would have been disappointing if we didn’t.”
Despite the 74-year drought, the Badgers have now claimed five Drake titles in the 4x1600 relay. In a five-year stretch from 1912 to 1916, UW won four crowns in what was then known as the four-mile relay -- including three straight from 1914 to 1916.
Connor opened the latest effort with a split of 4:06.7 to keep the Badgers at the front coming to the first handoff.
“There was lots of pushing and it was really slow,” Connor said. “I almost fell on the second lap and then, right after we finished that lap, I lost my shoe.”
That made the man waiting for the baton more than a little nervous.
“I heard the PA guy say that someone lost a shoe, so I’m looking for Reed and I see one black sock and one red shoe,” Darling said. “We’ve been through this before with problems with rails or shoes or guys getting shoved, so I just wanted him to finish on his feet.”
And Connor did, handing to Darling -- who avoided traffic in the exchange zone and quickly passed around the outside to take the race lead. That advantage swelled as Darling made his way through his four-lap leg in 4:06.5 before passing to Finnerty.
“When everyone is coming and they’re all right there, I knew I had to make a move,” he said. “Luckily I was the third guy out from the rail so I had a clear shot … I just took off.
“I didn’t realize how fast I went on my first lap, but I saw (assistant coach) Mick (Byrne) saying, ‘Slow down, slow down,’ and then I got into a groove and tried to pull away a little bit.”
Finnerty made it look easy from there, blazing through his first lap on the way to a split of 4:04.8 that allowed him to make the final exchange to Rucks with a 70-meter cushion on the field.
Rucks was able to cruise through the final 1,600 meters, trotting home in 4:13.4.
“I went out with a pace I felt was comfortable -- maybe it was a little too comfortable -- but it worked,” he said. “When you have that big of a lead, you don’t want to let everyone catch you.”
After going 38 years without a Drake title in a relay event from 1971 to 2009, the Badgers have now claimed four crowns in the last three years. UW won both the 4x800 and shuttle hurdle relays in 2009 and then claimed the distance medley relay last season.
The Badgers were unable to return to the top spot in the 4x800 during Friday's "Under the Lights" session, settling for a fifth-place finish in 7:29.02.
Lead leg Zach Beth stumbled after getting tangled with another runner in traffic, but the Badger rallied after he was dropped to the back of the pack. Tim Hucke, Luke Rucks and Zachary Mellon all picked off multiple positions as UW charged back toward the front, but there was too much ground to make up.
UW’s other relay entry Friday came early, with the Badgers finishing 11th-fastest in the preliminary round of the 4x100-meter relay.
Sophomore Gavin Robertson and juniors Brady Hammon, Adum Gross and Kyle Jefferson combined to clock in at 40.87 seconds, missing a spot in the final by two-tenths of a second.
In the field events, junior Derek Steinbach posted a mark of 204 feet, 8 inches to take ninth place in the javelin.
That’s the third-consecutive meet with a throw of better than 200 feet for Steinbach, a decathlete whose career-best mark of 207-8 -- just a week old -- has him ranked No. 3 in the Big Ten this season.
Senior Robert Dehn -- UW’s school record-holder in the event -- finished 16th with a throw of 195-11.
The Badgers also had three athletes compete in the long jump.
Redshirt freshman Japheth Cato led the way in 17th place with a leap of 23 feet, 8 3/4 inches, followed by junior Josh Flax’s 19th-place effort of 23-6. Senior Rayme Mackinson was 23rd with his mark of 22-1 3/4.
The Badgers conclude their second day of competition in Des Moines with the 4x800-meter relay at 7:55 p.m. Events then resume Saturday at 8:43 a.m. as the Badgers look to win their second shuttle hurdle relay crown in three years.
