58 // VARSITY March 6, 2014
INSIDE
MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
For the record: Lihrman
continues to impress
Junior's season is one for the record books
BY AJ HARRISON @BADGER_TRACK
M
ichael Lihrman's sea-
son keeps getting
better, as the NCAA
Division I record holder in the
weight throw became the first
athlete in school history to ap-
pear on the watch list for The
Bowerman, one of the pre-
mier awards in the track and
field world.
Lihrman's appearance on
the list comes after the Rice
Lake, Wis., native won the Big
Ten title last weekend with a
meet record heave of 78 feet,
1/4 inches against some of the
best in the nation.
Lihrman, who started
throwing as a junior in high
school, was one of four Bad-
gers to win Big Ten individual
titles to help propel Wisconsin
to its second-straight Big Ten
indoor crown.
"Michael Lihrman came out on top and
showed he is ready to compete at the
highest level and is ready for the NCAA
championships down the road," UW
Director of Track and Field and Cross
Country Mick Byrne said.
The performance at the Big Ten meet
came a week after he unleashed a mas-
sive heave of 79 feet, 7 1/2 inches at
UW's own Red & White Open last month
to set the all-time NCAA Division I record
in the weight throw, breaking the previ-
ous record of 78-9 3/4, set by Slovakian
Libor Charfreitag of SMU in 2001, by al-
most 10 inches.
Lihrman's mark, which shattered his
own school record by four feet, ranks
first in the world in 2014.
The Big Ten rewarded Lihrman's im-
pressive season by naming him the Big
Ten Field Athlete of the Year and the
Men's Field Athlete of the Champion-
ships.
The three-time Big Ten Field Athlete
of the Week is the second Badger in the
last three years to sweep Field Athlete of
the Year and Field Athlete of the Champi-
onships, joining teammate Japheth Cato,
who won both awards in 2012.
Lihrman has won all five events he has
competed in this year, and has broken his
school record three times this season. He
enters the NCAA championships in Al-
buquerque, N.M., on March 14-15, as the
top seed in the weight throw.
"We are excited to see what's next for
him," Byrne said.
SCHEDULE
LAST WEEK
Big Ten Championships
Feb. 28- March 1 1st, 118.5 pts
COMING UP
March 14-15 NCAA Championships
