Big Ten battle awaits Badgers at Penn State

Friday, May 12

State College, PA

All Day

Wisconsin Badgers

Big Ten Outdoor Championships

Big Ten battle awaits Badgers at Penn State

May 11, 2017 | Men's Track & Field

UW opens conference outdoor meet on Friday

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin men's track and field team dives into the postseason at the 2017 Big Ten Outdoor Championships in State College, Pennsylvania, following an assortment of great performances at the Wisconsin Alumni Classic last weekend.

Wisconsin at Big Ten Outdoor Championships
Date	Friday, May 12 - Sunday, May 14
Location	University Park, Pa.
Video	BTN \| Sunday, May 14 - 6 p.m.
Meet Info	Schedule \| Heat Sheets \| Notes
Follow	Live Results \| @BadgerTrackXC

Competition for the conference meet in the Keystone State begins on Friday at 11 a.m. CT with the decathlon 100 meters and the women's hammer throw. The decathlon 110-hurdles kick starts action on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. while the men's triple jump opens competition on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Track events will be streamed on BTN2Go on Saturday and Sunday while a tape-delayed broadcast of the meet will be shown on BTN on Sunday at 6 p.m.

Leading the Badgers last weekend at the Wisconsin Alumni Classic was junior thrower Riley Budde, this week's Big Ten Field Athlete of the Week. Budde broke the school record with a toss of 63 feet, 8 3/4 inches (19.42 meters) in the shot put and placed himself in second all-time for the hammer throw. The junior will be competing in both of those events at Big Tens, with marks in the top five of the conference in both categories. Budde is also set to throw in the discus.

Fellow thrower Josh McDonald enters with top marks in both the shot put and discus and will compete in both at the conference meet. His third-place throw at the Jim Click Shootout in the discus of 189-11 (57.89m) ranks third in school history, and less than a foot behind number two, Alex Thompson. The third member of the group going to Penn State will be Tucker Wedig, competing in the hammer throw. Wedig's mark of 196-9 (59.98m) in late April at the UW-Whitewater meet placed him fourth on the Badger list.

Moving over to the pole vault, UW will trot out Rashid Coulibaly and Tim Guthrie this weekend. Coulibaly has the top mark for any freshman in the conference at 16-10 1/4 (5.14m), which he earned last weekend with a victory in the event at the home meet. Guthrie enters with a mark of 16-1 1/4 (4.91m), claimed during a second-place finish at the Jim Click Shootout, only bested by Coulibaly. Redshirt freshmen Isaac Hale and Zach Lorbeck will make their outdoor Big Ten debuts this weekend as the duo both have season-best clearances of 6-8 1/4 (2.04m).

Four Badgers - Paul Afflitto, Brandon Mortensen, Trent Nytes and Sawyer Smith - are set to compete in the decathlon with Smith holding the top result during the 2017 season. A native of La Crosse, Smith finished second at the John McDonnell Invitational with 7,450 points, including personal bests in the 100 meters, 1500 meters, shot put, discus and javelin throw. Mortensen and Nytes both earned top-six finishes in the decathlon at last year's Big Ten meet.

The UW sprinters are led by senior Lorenzo Larry, who will take center stage in the 100 meters His winning time of 10.34 in the 100 meters at the Jim Click Shootout resulted in the seventh-best mark in program history and a top-three time in the conference this season. Alex Teague and James Stecker will also be suiting up for Wisconsin on the track. Teague won the 100 meters at last week's meet and comes in with a top time of 10.68 in the 100 meters while also taking second in the 200 meters at the Wisconsin Alumni Classic.

Senior Ryan Davis and Corbin Ellis each hold top-15 marks in the Big Ten in the 400 meters. Davis placed fourth at the John McDonnell meet with a time of 47.10 while Ellis edged Davis at the home meet last weekend with a run of 47.30.

The 800 meters is headlined by Eric Brown, as the Milwaukee native enters with a time of 1:48.72, which ranks seventh in the Big Ten. Cooper Barth will also be competing this weekend and recently ran 1:50.75 for a personal best at the Wisconsin Alumni Classic last Friday.

For the distance squad, 11 members of the Wisconsin program are heading to State College. Led by All-American Morgan McDonald, the Badgers aim to make some noise in the distance events.
Carl Hirsch and Ollie Hoare will compete in the 1500 meters as Hirsch holds the No. 4 seed in the event thanks to a third-place run at the John McDonnell Invitational in 3:43.26. Hoare ranks sixth in the conference in the event after running a personal-best time of 3:43.48.

Senior Malachy Schrobilgen enters the 5000 meters with the No. 2 seed after nabbing a personal-best run of 13:49.68 at the Drake Relays. Schrobilgen will also run in the 10,000 meters, an event he won at the 2015 Big Ten meet.

McDonald will make his 5000 meters debut on Sunday as he looks to repeat his success from the Big Ten indoor meet, where he won both the 3000 and 5000 meters. McDonald earned All-America honors in the outdoor 5000 meters last year and ranks fourth in school history in the event.

Joining Schrobilgen and McDonald in the 5000 meters are Russ Sandvold and Olin Hacker, as the duo enter the weekend with the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds, respectively.

Zack Snider, Ben Eidenschink and Tyson Miehe will all compete in the 10,000 meters with Schrobilgen as the quartet will make their season-debuts in the 25-lap race.