MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin men's track and field squad will make its third trip to California this year for the 2018 NCAA West Preliminary Championships in Sacramento, California. Action on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Hornet Stadium is slated to start at noon and the meet can be seen live online via FloTrack.

The top-12 finishers from the NCAA West Preliminary Championships will join the top-12 finishers from the NCAA East Preliminary Championships at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, June 6-9, at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Fans can follow Badger action on Twitter (@BadgerTrackXC) for live updates and follow up on UWBadgers.com for recaps after each day of the meet. 
 
1. TWO TICKETS TO PARADISE: Two Badgers have already earned their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships thanks to standout performances in the decathlon. Senior Sawyer Smith and junior Trent Nytes will both make their first career appearances at the outdoor championships in June. Nytes, who earned second-team All-America honors in the heptathlon earlier this year, comes in as the No. 12 seed with 7,683 points and Smith is the No. 22 seed with 7,496 points. 

2. UNSTOPPABLE OLLIE: Sophomore Ollie Hoare is coming off of earning his fourth Big Ten victory of the 2017-18 season heading into this weekend's NCAA West Preliminary Championships. Hoare sealed his 1500 meter Big Ten title with a nail-biter race that ultimately ended in a battle down the home stretch, where he was able to out-kick his opponent. Hoare is seeded No. 4 in the 1500 meters with a time of 3 minutes, 37.84 seconds, which ranks sixth-best in program history and also ranks No. 4 by a Badger during the collegiate season.

3. THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM FOR HARDY: Senior Joe Hardy looks to advance to the NCAA outdoor championships for the third time in his career after competing in the 1500 meters in 2015 and the 5000 meters in 2017. Last year Hardy finished fifth in his section of the 5K at the NCAA West Prelims to advance to the outdoor championships, where he finished 14th. This year Hardy enters the first round of the championships with a seed time of 13:46.85 set at the Bryan Clay Invitational.

4. MIGHTY MCDONALD The 2018 NCAA West Preliminary Championships will mark the fourth-straight appearance for senior Josh McDonald, the most of any Badger competing at this year's meet. McDonald is slated to compete in the shot put and discus events with qualifying marks of 58-11 1/4 (17.96m) and 184-6 (56.23m), respectively. The Wentzville, Missouri native has advanced to the NCAA outdoor championships twice in his career; in 2016, where he finished 21st in the discus and in 2017, where he finished 24th in the shot put.

5. TIME TO FLY For the second-straight year, the UW duo of Rashid Coulibaly and Tim Guthrie will compete in the pole vault at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships. Last year Coulibaly advanced to the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships thanks to a PR clearance of 17-6 1/2 (5.35m) that is tied for third in school history. This year Guthrie became the 14th Badger ever to clear 17 feet in the outdoor vault and he and Coulibaly enter this weekend with a seed mark of 17-0 3/4 (5.20m).