Many firsts await Badgers in Iowa City

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Black and Gold Premier

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Many firsts await Badgers in Iowa City

January 25, 2017 | Men's Track & Field

Wisconsin heads to University of Iowa’s Black and Gold Premier meet

BY AJ HARRISON
UW Athletic Communications

MADISON, Wis. — After back-to-back dual meets in Madison, the Wisconsin track and field programs head to Iowa City, Iowa to compete at the two-day Black and Gold Premier, hosted by the University of Iowa.

The meet marks a lot of firsts for UW. It will be the Badgers' first-ever trip to the new multi-million dollar track at the UI Recreation Building, as Iowa bought the track used at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships.

The Black and Gold Premier, which features Notre Dame, Illinois, Minnesota and Tulsa, also marks UW's first invitational meet of the year. Wisconsin previously split its duals against SIU-Edwardsville and Minnesota to begin the 2017 season.

"It's a two-day meet which kind of spreads things out," UW Director of Track and Field Mick Byrne said. "It's a different feel from last week although there are some good schools going; Notre Dame, Tulsa, Minnesota is sending some of their team, the Illinois men, and Illinois State. It looks like it's going to be competitive across the board.

"It's a learning experience. That's what this weekend is about. Throw down some good performances, learn from those performances and be a little bit better than last week."

Wisconsin multi-event athletes will also get to compete in their first competitions of the year. Georgia Ellenwood, the school record holder in the pentathlon, will compete in the five-event discipline on Friday, while senior Brandon Mortensen and redshirt sophomore Trent Nytes lead the UW men into the heptathlon.

"The multi-event athletes get to compete for the first time, which is exciting," Byrne said. "We have some good, young athletes with some excellent seniors. On the women's side, Georgia Ellenwood and Casie Pawlik will open up, while on the men's side we have Brandon Mortensen and Trent Nytes, both experienced athletes, and some young guys in Paul Afflitto, Isaac Hale and Zach Lorbeck."

"This weekend is important for all of our multi-event athletes competing," Mortensen said. "For Paul (Afflitto), Zach (Lorbeck) and Isaac (Hale), this will be their first multi, and for the veterans, this is a chance to put up a score for the NCAA meet. We only do two or three heptathlons and pentathlons a year, so the first one is important in terms of seeing where we are all at. Coach (Nate) Davis has done a great job of getting us prepared, so there's no question in my mind that we are all ready to go."

The heptathlon starts on Friday at 11 a.m. with the 60 meters, while the first open running event is the 3000 meters at 5:30 p.m. Action resumes on Saturday at 10 a.m. with the heptathlon 60 hurdles. Live results will be available on UWBadgers.com and a live video stream will be available on HawkeyeSports.com.