GENEVA, Ohio – Thanks to a pair of wins from sophomore Morgan McDonald and senior Zach Ziemek, the Wisconsin men's track and field team jumped out to an early lead after the first day of competition at the 2016 Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships in Geneva, Ohio, on Friday.
 
UW has 40 points through five events, while Nebraska has 23 and Illinois has 20.
 
McDonald captures first Big Ten title
After finishing second in a tight race last year to Penn State's Robbie Creese in the 3000 meters, UW sophomore Morgan McDonald toed the line Friday looking to capture the first Big Ten title of his career.
 
After trailing in second place to Michigan's Mason Ferlic for a majority of the race, the Sydney, Australia, native accelerated past Ferlic in the final 300 meters of the race and won the 3000 meters title at the SPIRE Institute.
 
McDonald won the race in 8 minutes, 3.83 seconds to secure 10 points for Wisconsin in the team race.
 
"It was a little bit of a tactical affair," McDonald said. "It was still pretty quick though and there were a lot of people right up there at the front all the time. It came down to a big kick at the end. With about 250 meters to go, I decided that was my time to give it everything and it turned out to be enough."
 
It marked the fifth time in 11 years a Badger has won the 3000 meters at the conference meet. The last Cardinal and White runner to claim victory was Reed Connor in 2014.
 
In addition to the Aussie's victory, true freshman Zack Snider picked up three points in the event with a sixth-place showing in 8:06.53. Snider competed in the unseeded section of the event and led a majority of the race and bested the second-place competitor by almost nine seconds. 
 
McDonald will be back in action for the Badgers on Saturday in the 500 meters at 3:05 p.m. (CT).
 
Ziemek scores 18 points for UW with pair of top-two finishes
In an effort to score more points for his team and with a high heptathlon score already in hand, the Badgers had decorated multi-event athlete Zach Ziemek focus on a few of his specialties at this year's Big Ten indoor meet.
 
The decision paid dividends for the Badgers, as Ziemek won the Big Ten men's pole vault title with a clearance of 17-7 1/2 on Friday and captured his third Big Ten title after winning a pair of decathlon crowns at the 2013 and 2014 Big Ten championships. In addition, Ziemek netted eight points in the long jump with a runner-up showing.
 
"I thought I was going to be able to finish pole vault in time for long jump, and then I realized that it wasn't possible," Ziemek said. "I made a couple bars for pole vault and then went over to long jump and took three jumps pretty quickly and also not in order. They were having me go out of order to get them done. I took those three jumps and then went back over to pole vault and was able to win. Then I passed my jumps in the long jump final round to take second.
 
"We decided that we could potentially get 30 points in three events or 10 points in the heptathlon. Whatever I can do to help the team out is what I tried to do."
 
The clearance was a season-best for "Double Z," as his previous best jump was 17-4 1/2 during the heptathlon at the Jack Jennett Invitational last month. Friday's mark was an inch shy of his indoor personal best of 17-8 1/2, which he recorded in the heptathlon pole vault at the 2013 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
 
Ziemek became the 14th UW student-athlete to win the indoor conference pole vault crown and first since Darren Niedermeyer won in 2004.
 
"Double Z" missed zero bars in his victory, as Nebraska's Steven Cahoy and Ziemek passed to 17-7 1/2. At the height, Ziemek cleared on his first attempt, while Cahoy missed. Ziemek elected to jump at 17-9 3/4, while Cahoy decided to move the bar to 17-7 3/4. Cahoy missed his two attempts at the height to give Ziemek the triumph.
 
Ziemek became the 14th UW student-athlete to win the indoor conference pole vault crown and first since Darren Niedermeyer won in 2004.
 
During his pole vault clearances, Ziemek was able to squeeze in a trio of jumps in the long jump, and his mark of 25-1 1/4 was not only a personal-best, but ranks sixth in program history.
 
Ziemek narrowly lost to Rutgers' Corey Crawford, who won the long jump with a mark of 25-2 3/4.
 
Ziemek is back in action for the Cardinal and White tomorrow in in the high jump at 1 p.m. 
 
In the preliminary round of the Mile, fifth-year senior Austin Mudd clocked the meet's best time of 4:06.93. Mudd sat towards the middle of the pack in the race, but used a strong kick to win the first section of the mile.

Mudd will race in Saturday's mile final at 12:30 p.m., as the two-time All-American eyes his first Big Ten title.

Junior transfer Lorenzo Larry shined in the sprints for the Cardinal and White, as he qualified for the 60 meters and finished eighth in 6.81 seconds. Hours later, the Jesup, Georgia, native qualified for the finals of the 200 meters in 21.08 seconds, which was a personal-best time and the second-best time in program history. Only Michael Bennett has run faster in the 200 meters than Larry.

Junior Ryan Davis placed 16th in the 400 meters in 47.76, but was unable to qualify for Saturday's final.

Freshman Dairius Ragland clocked a personal-best time of 8.09 to finish 13th in the event. 

The distance-medley relay squad of McKena Ramos, Corbin Ellis, Eric Brown and Mudd finished fifth in 9:48.24 to score four points for Wisconsin. 

Trent Nytes, Charlie Foss, and Sawyer Smith represented UW in the multi-events at the Big Tens and finished in fourth, fifth and 10th place, respectively, after the conclusion of the first day of events.

Nytes ended the first day with 3,161 points, Foss with 2,998 points and Smith with a score of 2,918 points.

The athletes first competed in the 60 meters where Smith led the way with a season best time of 7.10 earning a fifth-place finish and 847 points.

Nytes had a career-best mark in the long jump with a mark of 23-3 1/2, which earned him a second-place finish and 838 points. Foss also had a career best mark of 22-11 1/4, gaining 811 points towards his overall composite.

Nytes also had a career mark in the shot put with a toss of 44-8, earning the redshirt freshman a second-place finish. Smith finished in fourth with a mark of 43-1 1/2 and gained 676 points. Foss had another career best mark of 41-4 1/4 which landed him a ninth-place finish.

In the heptathlon high jump, Nytes soared 6-7, Foss leapt 6-4 and Smith earned a mark of 6-1 1/4.

Wisconsin resumes competition Saturday in the 60-meter hurdles to finish off the remainder of the heptathlon. The meet starts back up at 10 a.m. at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.