Wisconsin Badgers
Big Ten Outdoor Championships
Final four: Staisiunaite closes Big Ten career in style
May 16, 2011 | Women's Track & Field
May 16, 2011
• Results | Results 
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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Running the fastest time in the history of your school's track and field program can usually be considered a pretty good day's work.
In Egle Staisiunaite's case, the day was just beginning.
A senior competing in her final conference championship meet, Staisiunaite was a fixture in event finals for Wisconsin as the 2011 Big Ten Outdoor Championships came to a close Sunday. She scored in four events for the Badgers as part of a terrific performance that was four years in the making.
Even with a carry in the 4x100-meter relay already under her belt, it turned out Staisiuanite's busy day was just getting started when she blazed to a school-record time of 13.45 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. She followed with another strong run in the 400-meter hurdles before helping the Badgers pick up points with the second-fastest 4x400-meter relay in school history.
With Staisiunaite's contributions, the Badgers amassed 74 points to finish sixth as a team, just a half point behind fifth-place Michigan State. Ohio State won the team crown with 135 points, followed by Penn State (122 points) in second, Indiana (96) in third and Illinois (90) finishing fourth.
A large portion of UW's scoring could also be attributed to the four Badgers that found their way to the awards stand on Sunday. Freshman Emily Sisson took third in the 5,000 meters by running a time of 16 minutes, 16.06 seconds, while three of her teammates scored third-place finishes of their own in the field events.
Junior Jordan Helgren set the tone by grabbing third in the triple jump on the strength of her penultimate attempt in the final round, a jump that measured 40 feet, 7 3/4 inches.
Sophomore Taylor Smith followed with a third-place showing in the discus, unleashing a throw of 171-3 that surpassed the previous facility record at the Francis X. Cretzmeyer Track. Michigan State's Beth Rohl rewrote that standard with her winning mark of 183-6.
Junior Monika Jakutyte wrapped up the field-event scoring by taking third in the high jump, an event she won at the Big Ten indoor meet in February. Jakutyte had first-attempt clearances at her first three heights before getting over the bar at 5-9 3/4 on her second try to secure third place.
The point totals generated by her teammates aisde, there was no denying the effort Staisiunaite put into her final Big Ten championships.
In the day's first track event, Staisiuanite provided the opening carry for UW's 4x100-meter relay squad and successfully passed to sophomore Jameice DeCoster. The baton then went to freshman Maya Vazquez and anchor Katie Duchow, who polished off a sixth-place finish for the Badgers in 46.16 -- the fourth-fastest time in school history.
Staisiunaite's assault on the record book hit its next phase just 35 minutes later, as she streaked to a school-record time of 13.45 to finish sixth in 100-meter hurdles. The wind-legal time shattered the previous mark of 13.60 set by Melissa Talbot in 2007 and dropped Staisiunaite's lifetime best from 13.72.
After another short rest of 50 minutes, Staisiunaite was back on the track for the 400-meter hurdles, for which she clocked a time of 58.82 to claim fifth place in what is widely regarded as one of track and field's most demanding events.
Fast forward another 70 minutes and Staisiunaite was back for her fourth race of day, providing the anchor leg of the Badgers' entry in the 4x400-meter relay. Teamed with DeCoster, sophomore Brittany Harper and Vazquez, the quartet came home eighth in 3:42.93 -- the second-fastest mark all-time at UW.
For her part, Harper had a busy slate on Sunday, as well. Before providing a carry in the 4x400 relay, the sophomore -- who was runner-up in the 600 meters at the Big Ten indoor championships -- gave UW a sixth-place finish in the 800 meters by clocking in at 2:09.43.
Still, it's hard to top Staisiunaite's weekend workload. Over two days, she competed in seven races -- including three preliminary rounds Saturday -- and helped record top-three all-time marks in three of the four events in which she competed.
