GENEVA, Ohio – After a 10th-place showing at last year's Big Ten indoor meet, the Wisconsin men's track and field left nothing on the SPIRE Institute track on Saturday with a second-place showing at the 2016 Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The Badgers recorded 73 points, finishing second to Nebraska as the Cornhuskers won their second-straight Big Ten indoor title with 116 points. Minnesota took third with 72 points, while Michigan was close behind in fourth with 71 points.

"It was a great overall team performance," UW Director of Track and Field Mick Byrne said. "I'm so proud of the guys they had to fight for every single point out there and that was the message we said to our kids coming into the meet. When you score one point, two points, it's huge. At the end of the day when the competition is over, every single point helps."

"Twelve months ago we were 10th, and to go from 10th to second and become one of the top teams in the conference with some young guys, it's incredible."

After netting 38 points last year, UW had 40 after the first day of competition thanks to wins by senior Zach Ziemek in the pole vault and sophomore Morgan McDonald in the 3000 meters, in addition to a runner-up showing by Ziemek in the long jump.

McDonald continued his success on Saturday with a runner-up finish in the 5000 meters, while redshirt freshman Trent Nytes recorded a third-place showing in the heptathlon and senior Charlie Foss finished fourth in the heptathlon.

McDonald had another incredible performance in the 5000 meters, finishing second in 14 minutes, 1.23 seconds.

"I think it places me as one of the top runners in the Big Ten," McDonald said "I'm going to always try to perform at that standard now. I'll always be going for that win and trying to get as many Big Ten titles that I can."

The Sydney, Australia, native was towards the front of the pack for a majority of the race. Michigan's Mason Ferlic, who won the event in 13:50.81, took a big lead with six laps to go and never looked back.

McDonald moved into third-place with three laps to go, and accelerated into second in the final 400 meters to net eight points in the team standings.

Even without Ziemek, a two-time Big Ten champion in the decathlon, Wisconsin was able to score 11 points in the heptathlon thanks to a third-place finish by Nytes and a fourth-place showing by Foss.

Nytes, in only his second collegiate heptathlon, netted a career-high score of 5,475 points, which ranks ninth in school history. Foss also record a personal-best score of 5,356 along with sophomore Sawyer Smith, who was ninth with 5,197 points, also a personal best.

The second day of the Big Ten met started with the heptathlon 60 hurdles as Foss ran a career-best of 8.35, while Nytes also posted a personal-best time of 8.39. Smith clocked in at 8.74.

The UW trio of Nytes, Foss and Smith would all tie for sixth in the pole vault marks of 14 feet, 6 1/4 inches, a personal-best clearance for Nytes.

Capping off the heptathlon was the 1000 meter run where the trio would all run a career best. Smith would earn a 13th place finish (2:52.98), Foss would place 14th (2:54.26), and Nytes would end up in 16th (2:57.59).

"I worked really hard in pole vault the last couple of weeks and my shot (put) has really been coming along well too," Nytes said. "The shot put personal best on Friday, I never saw that coming, it was awesome."

Redshirt senior Austin Mudd, who had the fastest time in the mile prelims on Friday, finished fifth in the final with a time of 4:09.76 to earn four team points.

Junior transfer Lorenzo Larry was able to score team points in a pair of sprint events, taking fifth in the 200 meters in 21.23 after finishing sixth in the 60 meters earlier in the day in 6.78.

After a career day last Friday at the Red and White Open, Riley Budde broke his personal record in the weight throw with a toss of 68-7 to finish sixth. The mark ranks third in program history and netted three points in the team race.

"This is a very, very tough conference," Byrne said. "There were no easy points out there and so I'm really proud of the team getting out there and fighting for every single point because that ultimately is what it's about as it was a very close contest between us, Minnesota and Michigan.

"We told our kids at our team meeting before the meet that it's all going to come down to those one points, and two points, and three points and that's exactly what happened. The superstars are always going to do their thing, they're always going to score those points, and that can be overwhelming sometimes for those kids who have come to this meet for the first time."

The Badger's gaze turns towards the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, March 11 and 12, in Birmingham, Alabama.