Five things to know: U.S. Track and Field Championships

2018 USA Championships

Thursday, June 21 - Sunday, June 24 | Des Moines, Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa – A group of current and former Wisconsin Track and Field athletes will compete this weekend at the U.S. Track and Field Championships at Drake University. Junior Trent Nytes will join Badger veterans Kelsey Card, Evan Jager, Gwen Jorgensen and Zach Ziemek at the senior meet in Des Moines, Iowa.

The meet can be streamed on NBC Sports Gold and NBC LIVE throughout the weekend.

Fans can follow Badger action on Twitter (@BadgerTrackXC) for live updates and follow up on UWBadgers.com for a post-meet recap.

1. NYTES IS BACK: Junior Trent Nytes just wrapped up a wildly successful track season with an 11th place overall finish in the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Nytes is a two-time All-American in the heptathlon and decathlon events and holds UW top-ten marks in both events. The Kaukauna, Wisconsin, native enters the decathlon competition as the No. 9 seed with 7,683 points, a personal best score he recorded back in April at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Asuza, California.

2. THROWING IT DOWN: Former Badger throwing ace Kelsey Card will compete in the discus at this weekend's meet and comes in as the No. 8 seed. The 2016 NCAA discus champion, Card threw 198-3 (60.44m) at the Tucson Elite Classic earlier this season. Card finished third at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials thanks to a throw of 199-3 (60.74m) to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she was the top-finishing American in the event.

3. STEEPLECHASE MASTER: Evan Jager will be competing in his specialty event, the 3,000 meter steeplechase at this weekend's elite meet. A 2016 Olympic Games silver medalist in the event, Jager enters as the No. 1 seed with a time of 8 minutes, 1.29 seconds. He ran that time at the Herculis IAAF Diamond League meet in Monaco and won the event. Jager has seen success so far this outdoor season, with a third place finish in the steeplechase at the Eugne Prefontaine Classic and notching a win in the 5K at the Bryan Clay Invitational. He is eying his seventh-straight U.S. title in the steeplechase.

4. 10K FOR JORGENSEN: Gwen Jorgensen will compete in the 10,000 meters this weekend and enters as the No. 4 seed with a time of 31:55.68. Jorgensen ran that personal best time at the Stanford Invitational and took the crown in the event. An Olympic gold medalist in the triathlon, Jorgenson has also seen success this season, earning a fourth place finish at the Pittsburgh USA Half Marathon Championships and also earning a runner-up finish in the 5K at the Husky Classic with a PR time of 15:15.

5. DOUBLE Z EYES USA GLORY: Another former Badger who enters their event as the No. 1 seed is multi-event specialist Zach Ziemek. The 2016 Olympian recorded a season-best best score of 8,181 points at the Bryan Clay Invitational in April to earn the top U.S. Track and Field Championships qualifying score in the event. "Double Z" fininished third in the decathlon at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials before earning runner-up honors at last year's U.S. championships.

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Five things to know: U.S. Track and Field Championships

2018 USA Championships

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