This weekend, the UW men’s and women’s track teams will be seeking to garner conference accolades as each compete in the Big Ten Indoor Championships.

The women’s team hopes to improve upon their seventh-place season last year under new head coach Jim Stinzi as they travel to the University of Michigan Indoor Track Building in Ann Arbor, Mich. Without any returning Big Ten champions from a year ago, Stinzi is simply trying to see where his team stands during his current rebuilding process.

“Well, this weekend will determine whether we were successful or not (in our progress),” Stinzi said. “I think we’ve made progress in a number of areas. Our sprints, jumps, hurdles, I think we’ve made some big steps. And I think it’s a matter of maybe a little bit more attention to those areas and the maturity on the athletes’ part, and maybe just hard work on their part. I think they — some of these athletes — felt it was a new beginning and they’ve really used it as an opportunity.”

With last year’s Big Ten indoor heptathlon champion, Melissa Talbot, sitting out the year as a redshirt, the women’s best chance at winning an event will most likely come from sophomore Katrina Rundhaug in one of the long distance events, or from the always improving Andrea Lopez in the pole vault.

Last year as a freshman, Rundhaug finished eighth and second in the 3,000 meter and 5,000 meter events, respectively, while Lopez posted a sixth-place finish in the pole vault. But Lopez has vastly enhanced her skills since last season’s tournament, posting a personal record last weekend with a mark of 12-1 at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Tune-Up. By doing so, the senior became only the fourth pole vaulter in UW history to clear 12 feet indoors, and will be hoping to duplicate the same performance at the Big Ten championships.

“Andrea Lopez has done a great job,” Stinzi said. “And again, That’s one (pole vault) of those areas I think where we have some young athletes who work hard with some ability that just need a little bit of time and Andrea’s a good example. Now I was just telling Ed (Nuttycombe) before we met that she jumped a PR and it looks like a mark that could place in the Big Ten, but it was the week before the Big Ten. Now she’s got to repeat that performance this weekend. So, I mean, and that’s our job. We have to get them ready to go this weekend.”

On the men’s side, the team will head to the Lambert Fieldhouse in West Lafayette, Ind. for the Big Ten indoor championships. The squad will enter the competition with a target on their back as the returning champions. While the Golden Gophers of Minnesota challenged the Badgers at last seasons’ indoors, losing by only two overall points, the Indiana Hoosiers and Michigan Wolverines will be Wisconsin’s top competition this year as they are ranked first and third in the nation, respectively.

With a well-prepared and healthy squad, head coach Ed Nuttycombe is eager to take on the top conference foes this weekend.

“We’re looking forward to the opportunity to go and I guess make a shot at defending our title,” Nuttycombe said. “It’s going to be a very tough meet. The conference has gotten a lot more balanced. There’s three, if not four, very good teams in the conference. But I think we’re ready. We’re relatively healthy and looking forward to the challenge.”

With three returning champions from last season’s Big Ten indoors in sophomore Demi Omole (60 meters), senior Matt Tegenkamp (5,000 meters) and junior Joe Conway (long jump), this year’s team may be one of the strongest under coach Nuttycombe.

“It’s a very good team,” Nuttycombe said. “I mean, we did well last year and we returned a great number of the points back. I think perhaps maybe at the national level it may be one of our better teams, yes. At the conference level, we’ve been fortunate to have a few pretty good teams. This may be one of them.”

If the Badgers were to win this weekend, they would be in position to garner their second consecutive Big Ten “Triple Crown” (conference championships in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in the same year). Nuttycombe has guided the Badgers to six Triple Crowns in the past nine years and is hoping to achieve yet another one this year.

The Triple Crown honor is one accolade that is very important to the track members, especially for the graduating seniors, as they yearn to take some valuables memories from campus with them.

“We’ve won like the last 6-of-10 Triple Crowns and I just hope that going out as a senior I could contribute to another Triple Crown,” senior pole vaulter Darren Niedermeyer said.