Feb. 26, 2007
IOWA CITY, IA –
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THIS WEEK — Members of the Hawkeye men’s track team will have one more chance to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships. The team will send competitors to the Last Chance Qualifier Saturday in Ames. Events are scheduled to begin at 10:25 a.m. and will be held at the Lied Recreation-Athletic Facility on the Iowa State campus. The facilities’ 300-meter track is one of the largest and fastest indoor tracks in the world.
NCAA QUALIFIERS — The Hawkeyes have provisionally qualified four student-athletes for the NCAA Indoor Championships, which will be held March 9-10 in Fayetteville, AR. Their event, qualifying marks and where they rank in the nation are listed below.
Name – Event – Mark – NCAA Rank
Adam Hamilton – Weight Throw – 66-0 1/2 (20.13 m) – 18th
John Hickey – Shot Put – 60-2 1/2 (18.35 m) – 18th
Shane Maier – Shot Put – 60-11 1/4 (18.57 m) – 16th
Micah VanDenend – 5,000 Meters – 14:08.06 – 25th
MAIER WINS BIG TEN TITLE — Junior Shane Maier became Iowa’s third Big Ten indoor shot put champion and the 73rd conference event winner in school history Sunday at the Big Ten Indoor Championships at Bloomington, IN. Maier threw a season-best 60-11 1/4 to win his first Big Ten title. The Hawkeyes finished seventh with 46.50 points. Wisconsin won its fifth-straight Big Ten indoor team title, scoring 120.
The Hawkeyes picked up over half of their team points in the shot put and high jump. Maier and sophomore John Hickey went 1-2 in the shot put. Hickey threw a collegiate-best 60-2 1/4 for second place, making him only the sixth Iowa shot putter to throw over 60 feet. In the high jump, redshirt freshman Trey Stross, junior Jeremy Petsche and sophomore Ryan Kelly placed fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. Stross, who competed in his first Iowa track meet Feb. 16 and is a wide receiver on the Iowa football team, jumped a collegiate-best 6-9 3/4.
Hawkeye senior Micah VanDenend and sophomore Blake Schlotzhauer were Iowa’s other runners-up. VanDenend placed second in the seeded 5,000 meters (14:09.35), while Schlotzhauer placed second in the unseeded 5,000 meters (14:43.75).
Freshman Paul Chaney, Jr., was Iowa’s only double-event scorer, finishing seventh in the 200 meters (21.67) and eighth in the 60 meters (6.91). Chaney, Jr. is a wide receiver on the Iowa football team who redshirted the 2006 season. Other Hawkeyes to finish in the top 10 were seniors Adam Hamilton (5th-weight throw) and Jeff Kent (10th-5,000 meters), junior Aaron Reed (9th-long jump), sophomore Prince Riley (7th-400 meters), and freshmen Adam Hairston (8th-800 meters) and Ray Varner (9th-400 meters).
HAWKEYE COACHING STAFF — Head Coach Larry Wieczorek is in his 11th season at the helm of the Iowa men’s track team. He has coached 24 all-Americans and 40 Big Ten Champions at Iowa. As a runner, Wieczorek was a six-time Big Ten champion for Iowa – winning four track and two cross country titles – and a four-time all-American. He is assisted by three-time Indiana all-American Scott Cappos and World Champion and four-time Northern Iowa all-American Joey Woody.