Musco Returns Following One-Year Hiatus

April 27, 2010

• Iowa and the Big Ten Network
• Big Ten Network: Free Hawkeye Video
• 24 Hawkeyes to Watch (2009-10 season)
• Download your Iowa Hawkeye iPhone app!

Complete Release in PDF Format

Heat Sheets

MUSCO TWILIGHT XI
The University of Iowa Track and Field team returns home this weekend to host the 11th annual Musco Twilight Meet Saturday, May 1. Field events at Francis X. Cretzmeyer Track will begin at 2 p.m. Preliminary running heats will start at 3 p.m. and final sections will begin at 6 p.m.

MUSCO ON THE BIG TEN NETWORK
A tape-delay broadcast of the meet will air on the Big Ten Network on Sunday, May 16 at 5 p.m. CDT. Steve Schlanger will be calling the action while Molly Sullivan reports from the field.

FRANCIS X. CRETZMEYER OUTDOOR TRACK
The University of Iowa track and field teams practice and compete at the Francis X. Cretzmeyer Track during the outdoor season. Located within walking distance of Carver-Hawkeye Arena and Pearl Field, the track was completed in 1986. The facility was named after the late Francis X. Cretzmeyer, who coached the men’s and women’s cross country and track teams from 1948-78 and led the Hawkeyes to five Big Ten team titles.

Resurfaced in 1993 and 2009, the $2 million Olympic-sized outdoor track features an expansive eight-land, 400-meter Martin surface, which is considered to be one of the finest running mediums in the world. Iowa hosted the 1987 and 2000 Big Ten Championships and will host the conference championships for the third time in 2011.

MUSCO LIGHTING
The annual Iowa Musco Twilight Meet was named for Musco Lighting of Oskaloosa, IA, which has supplied mobile lighting equipment throughout the event’s 11-year history.

INTRASTATE, BIG TEN RIVALS
Iowa will compete against intrastate rivals Northern Iowa and Drake. Musco XI will also provide a Big Ten Championships preview of sorts, with Wisconsin and Minnesota scheduled to participate.

MEN’S HEAD COACH Larry Wieczorek
Larry Wieczorek is in his 23rd season as head men’s cross country coach and his 14th season as head men’s track and field coach at the University of Iowa. He served as an assistant track and field coach for 12 years before taking the helm in 1997. A six-time Big Ten Champion (including two in cross country) and a four-time all-American at Iowa, Wieczorek once held conference marks in the one, two, three, four, and five-mile runs. A member of Iowa’s last Big Ten track championship team in 1967, he still owns Iowa’s indoor two-mile school record and his indoor mile and outdoor 5,000-meter marks rank second in school history. He was honored for his collegiate accomplishments by being inducted into the University of Iowa’s National Varsity Club Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998.

WOMEN’S HEAD COACH Layne Anderson
Layne Anderson is in his second year as the head coach of the University of Iowa women’s cross country and track and field teams. He has served as the Hawkeyes’ head women’s cross country coach for the past six seasons, and was the interim head women’s track and field coach in 2008. From 2003-07 he served as an assistant women’s track and field coach for the Hawkeyes.

MEN’S 4×4 LEADS BIG TEN, RANKS EIGHTH NATIONALLY
The men’s 4×4 team that placed second in this past weekend’s Drake Relays now leads the Big Ten and ranks eighth nationally at 3:05.73. The team consists of juniors Chris Barton, Steven Willey, and sophomores Erik Sowinski and Patrick Richards. Willey and Richards rank first (46.31) and third (46.74) individually in the Big Ten in the 400-meter dash.

4XMILE BREAKS SCHOOL RECORD
The 4×1,600 meter team of sophomores Betsy Flood, McKenzie Melander and junior twins Amanda Hardesty and Lauren Hardesty placed second at 19:05.63, breaking the previous Iowa record of 19:15.42 and the meet record set by Baylor in 2009. Minnesota placed first in the event with a record-setting time of 18:58.92.

ROLLING SETS DECATHLON RECORD
At this past weekend’s Drake Relays, senior Dan Rolling set an Iowa record in the decathlon with his eighth-place 6,957-point finish. Rolling led the event after day one and set three personal bests on day two. The previous decathlon record was set in 2000 by Scott Faber. Rolling also holds the Iowa record in the indoor heptathlon (5,205).

IOWA 26th NATIONALLY, THIRD IN MIDWEST
The Iowa men’s team is ranked 26th nationally and third in the Midwest Region in the latest United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Poll. This is the third week in a row they have placed third. They have been ranked in the top three all season, ranking as high as second.

SENIOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Twenty Hawkeyes will celebrate their final home meet at Musco XI. Graduating student-athletes that will be honored on Saturday include Caleigh Bacchus, Brendan Camplin, Jennie Docherty, Katie Ellis, Connor Elmitt, Fionna Fallon, Adam Hairston, Megan Lessard, Mark Mankivsky, Sophia Ponce, Frank Prill, Jay Renaud, Dan Rolling, Zachary Schimp, Zach Splan, Kelsey Stueland, Tommy Tate, Rhonda-Kaye Trusty, Ray Varner, and Alex Zona.

LOOKING BACK – 2008 MUSCO TWILIGHT X
Six current Hawkeyes won events the last time they competed at the Musco Twilight. The last Musco meet was in 2008, as extensive flood damage prevented it from being held in 2009. Senior Ray Varner and junior Chris Barton were both part of the winning 1,600-meter relay (3:12.05). The duo also won individual events, Varner in the 400-meter hurdles (52.16) and Barton in the 400-meter dash (47.54). Junior Steven Willey was also part of the winning 4×4 team. Juniors Tiffany Hendricks and Bethany Praska were on the women’s winning 1,600-meter relay (3:48.17), while junior Brandon McSkimming was on the winning 400-meter relay (41.47).