GENEVA, Ohio – For the second time during the 2017-18 athletic year, Wisconsin's Ollie Hoare is a Big Ten Conference champion as the sophomore won the 3000 meters at the 2018 Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
Hoare won his race in 8 minutes, 11.07 seconds thanks to a stellar final 400 meters, which he ran in 55 seconds.
The sophomore was in the middle of the pack through the away point of the race before moving up towards the front of the pack. Hoare was in the top three heading into the final 400 meters before breaking away from the field en route to the title.
The Sydney, Australia, native became the ninth Badger to win the Big Ten 3K title and helped UW win its fourth 3000-meter title in the last five years.
Hoare wasn't the only Badger to shine in the event as
Joe Hardy took fourth in 8:15.45 to help UW get 15 points in the event.
Mighty Multis
The UW heptathletes got off to a solid start as a trio of Badgers are in the top-five after the first four events of the Big Ten heptathlon.
Sophomore
Zach Lorbeck sits atop of the leaderboard with 3,352 points, while junior
Trent Nytes is in second with 3,343 points. Senior
Sawyer Smith is in fifth with 3,154 points while
Paul Afflitto is 10th with 2,865 points.
Smith and Lorbeck went 1-2 in the heptathlon 60 meters to get things going for UW, as Smith ran a PR of 6.97 while Lorbeck was close behind in 6.99. In the high jump, Nytes jumped a personal-best of 24 feet, 1 1/2 inches in the long jump, good for 898 points, while Lorbeck jumped 23-5 1/2 and Smith soared 23-4 1/2.
In the shot put, Lorbeck won the competition with a heave of 57 feet, 5 3/4 inches to jump into the lead, while Nytes earned a throw of 45-8 1/2 and Smith threw the shot 44-2 1/2.
In the high jump, Nytes won his second event of the day, jumping a personal best of 6-11 1/2 while Lorbeck cleared a height of 6-9.
In the Field
- Josh McDonald took third in the shot put with a heave of 62 feet, 7 3/4 inches, marking the second-straight week the senior broke his personal best in the event. McDonald passed Joe Thomas for second on the school's top-10 list as only Danny Block holds a better indoor shot put mark than McDonald.
- For the second-straight year, Tim Guthrie scored in the pole vault at the Big Ten indoor meet as he took fifth thanks to a clearance of 16-8.
Heating up
- On the track, junior Eric Brown put up the top performance in the preliminary round of the 800 meters, winning his heat with a time of 1:49.81. Brown automatically advanced to Saturday's final at 1:30 p.m. CT.
- Also qualifying for the finals in his event was senior Corbin Ellis, who won his heat of the 600 meters with a time of 1:17.43, just a fraction of a second shy of his personal best. Ellis earned a spot in the finals on Saturday at 2:10 p.m.
Straight from the Track
Sophomore Ollie Hoare
On his finish:
"Well, I was in a good spot, I was feeling good, and I just really wanted to give this the best crack I could, and I went for it. I've been working on some speed with coach, and that just really put me through and I just went for it and it paid off, so I'm happy with that."
On Zack Benning's performance:
"At the end of the day, Coach Byrne said it perfectly, this is for the team. The distance boys have a responsibility to score some points, and we all had a job to do for that and we all sacrificed a lot for it. [Zack] Benning was just another piece in the puzzle for us to score a fourth place and a first place in that race. Benning really put us there in that squad and made us comfortable. For us, that's what distance boys are all about to score us points."
On following the footsteps of Morgan McDonald:
"Morgan is a mentor and inspiration to all of us. I'm trying to grow a beard like him, it's not going too well. We miss him, and we've taken on that role to fill Morgan's place, but he's doing bigger and better things for the Badgers, so we're excited about that."
Up Next
UW wraps up the 2018 Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday as the heptathlon resumes at 9 a.m. CT.
