Yuku free message boards

It was a great meet in that at various points during it there were four different teams that were in the driver's seat to win it.  Unfortunately, the Badgers were never one of them.  Nebraska had it won until a 21 flat 200 guy finished last at 22-mid, and then he didn't run the 4x400, and he had run 46-mid to finish second in the 400 earlier in the day.  Bad time to get hurt.  I was glad to see Nebraska lose after having been handed hosting it their first year in the conference.  But they do have a quality facility.

The Badgers did about as well as they could with what they had in all field events and running events through the Mile.  You always want a little more, a wow moment (that only Cato came up with), but there weren't any disasters. The 3000 and 5000 were disappointing.  I think/hope that the long distance guys were training hard through indoors because of 1) Wisconsin hosting the Big Ten outdoors this year and 2) it being an Olympic year.  Ahmed didn't compete at all and he has a realistic shot at making the Canadian Olympic team.  For some of the other guys, just making the Olympic Trials is a big deal and should be a goal.  They competed hard in the 3000 and 5000, but they just got beat.  The competition was outstanding -- experienced and had won a bunch of Big Ten titles among them.  Going into the Last Chance meets this weekend, the Big Ten not only has somebody qualified for the NCAA's in every event, which I don't think has ever happened before, but with top quality in a bunch of them, like the 800, Mile, 3000 and 5000.  I have no idea if the Badgers' distance guys will try to do something this weekend.  Hatz is looking good to qualify in the Mile, but nobody else is close.  The distance guys didn't go to the fast meet at Washington where everybody gets their NCAA qualifying time for the first time in forever.

Cato is qualified in the Heptathlon and should be a contender for the title.  The guy is a freak.  Grzesiak in the Hep is exactly on the bubble to also get in.  Block is on the bubble in the Shot Put. 

The good news coming out of the meet is that the Badgers did some damage with freshmen and sophomores, scoring far, far better than anybody else.  I think Minnesota scored 2 points with underclassmen.