50 // VARSITY April 10, 2014
INSIDE
MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Heating up: Badgers look
forward to warm weather
After months indoors, UW is back outside
BY AJ HARRISON @BADGER_TRACK
T
he No. 6 Wisconsin
men's track and field
team turned in solid per-
formances at the prestigious
Florida Relays last weekend,
winning the distance medley
relay and earning nine top-10
finishes.
But UW Director of Cross
Country and Track & Field
Mick Byrne might have been
more excited that his team got
to compete in warm weather
instead of indoors.
"When you're inside for
three months like we've been,
you are excited to head outside
and compete in warm weath-
er," Byrne said. "You could see
some of our athletes were
struggling with hitting that
extra gear due to the fact that
we've been either running on
turf inside or an indoor track."
But with temperatures in the 60s this
week, the Badgers are training outside at
the McClimon Complex.
"It's awesome to come back to nicer
weather," Byrne said. "Now that we can
get outdoors, we can start doing the
work that we need to do to get better."
The Badgers have another opportu-
nity to improve this weekend, as a group
of throwers and decathletes will head to
Georgia, while a Wisconsin contingent
will also compete at the UW-Platteville
Invitational on Saturday.
"We're excited to see what some of
these young guys can do in the decath-
lon," Byrne said. "We know what to ex-
pect out of Zach Ziemek but we also have
Charlie Foss and Ben Schreib opening up
in the decathlon."
Throwers Danny Block, Andrew
Brekke, Scott Erickson, Michael Lihrman
and Alex Thompson will also compete
for Wisconsin at the Spec Town Invita-
tional. Lihrman set the school record last
weekend in the hammer throw, while
Block earned top-10 finishes in invita-
tional sections of the shot put and discus.
After this weekend, the Badgers will
head west for the Mt. SAC Relays.
"This weekend is an easier weekend
for us," Byrne said. "But next weekend,
at Mt. SAC, is a huge weekend. Our goal
for some of our distance guys out there is
to get a regional qualifier. Our 800, 1500
meter guys, we're going out to California
to do that."
SCHEDULE
LAST TIME OUT
April 4-5 Florida Relays
April 6 Rex Foster Invitational
THIS WEEK
April 10-12 Spec Town Invitational
April 12 UW-Platteville Invitational
