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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – For the seventh-straight year, Wisconsin has a first-team All-American in the women's pentathlon. Redshirt junior Georgia Ellenwood recorded a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday at the Birmingham Crossplex.

"It was a fantastic effort, finishing fourth at the national championship," said Mick Byrne, the director of cross country and track and field, said of Ellenwood. "Every year at this championship, the bar's been raised. It's just incredible. Any time you come out the national meet in fourth place and you're an All-American, it's a great job."

Ellenwood earned All-America honors for the second straight year, finishing fourth in the pentathlon, improving upon her eighth-place finish of a year ago. The Langley, British Columbia native set three personal bests to score 4,390 points, just two points off her career best set at the Big Ten Conference Indoor Championships two weeks ago.

Ellenwood now has the top-two performances in the pentathlon in Wisconsin history.

In the 60-meter hurdles, Ellenwood ran a personal best of 8.56 seconds to win her heat and finish 11^th overall. She moved up to fifth in the overall standings after clearing 5 feet, 10 ¾ inches in the high jump, less than an inch off her personal best of 5-11 ½ set two weeks at the Big Ten meet.

Ellenwood recorded personal bests in the next two events to move into fourth in the overall standings. She took sixth in the shot put with an all-time best of 41-10 ½ and sixth in the long jump with a career best 19-11 ½. Ellenwood finished eighth in the 800 meters in 2:20.05 to remain fourth in the final standings.

Redshirt senior Zach Ziemek is in second place in the heptathlon with a first-day personal best 3,504 points. He is only 23 points out of first place, currently held by Georgia's Garrett Scantling, who pulled ahead of Ziemek in the day's final event. Scantling cleared a personal best of 6-11 ¾ in the high jump to take over the event lead.

"He's right in the competition," said Byrne. "When you look at day two and the personal bests on (Ziemek and Scantling), these kids are matched event by event so it's going to come down to who wants it more, who's on on day two. It's a great position for Zach to be in, probably better to be in second than first!"

"I'm going for the win," said Ziemek. "I'm in the mix so we'll see what happens.

 "It was a day one PR. I can't control what everyone else is doing. I can control what I can do and that's about it."

Ziemek opened the day with a personal-best time in the 60-meter dash, winning the event in 6.75 seconds. His time is the fastest ever for a UW heptathlete and ties him for fifth on the Badger all-time list.

"It was great," said Ziemek. "I came out and ran an awesome time. From there, I was trying to put pressure on everyone else to try and catch me."

The Itasca, Illinois, native finished third in the heptathlon long jump with an indoor personal best of 24-6 ½ to maintain his overall lead.

The redshirt senior came though big on his final throw in the shot put, recording an indoor personal best of 47-8 to finish fourth and maintain the overall event lead.

"I needed that throw," Ziemek added. "That was on my third attempt. I got one put together and it went far."

Ziemek wrapped up the day with a fourth-place finish in the high jump at 6-8 1/4, less than an inch off his personal best of 6-9.

Unfortunately things didn't go well for redshirt senior Kelsey Card in the weight throw. Card entered the meet with the top qualifying mark of 72-7 ¾ but finished 13^th at 64-10 ½.

"It was one of those bad days," explained Byrne on Card's throws. "You wouldn't know it from her throws during the season but she'll tell you that (the weight throw) is not her event. She doesn't like it, in fact right before the event she said 'Thank god this is the last time throwing this thing.' It was always a difficult event for her. Her strength in the event was her strength, not necessarily her technique.

"I feel sad for her right now but the great thing about it is she's got one more event tomorrow. She'll shake that off and come out tomorrow and have a great day."

Ziemek kicks off the second day of competition on Saturday for the Badgers with day two of the heptatlon. The 60-meter hurdles start at noon followed by the pole vault and 1,000-meter run. Card will compete in the shot put at 5 p.m. while sophomore Morgan MacDonald runs the 3,000 meters at 6:10 p.m.