Then-junior pole vaulter Tim Ehrhardt poles vaults during the Big Ten men's and women's indoor track and field championship on Feb. 24, 2017, at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
—While runners donning green and white finished their respective races at the Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships, some found the aftereffects of the dreaded lactic acid in their sore muscles. It ultimately leads to an uncomfortable recovery, but it’s a reality many are accustomed to.
The meet marked the end of the indoor season while simultaneously symbolizing the beginning of a new challenge — the outdoor portion for the men’s and women’s MSU track and field teams.
Following the two-day meet, the men’s and women’s teams finished No. 11. The women’s side contributed 24 points while the men chipped in 21 of their own.
The start to 2017 was rocky, however, head coach Walt Drenth said there were takeaways from the meet his coaching staff plans to apply throughout the year and beyond.
“Every time in an athletic event there is going to be some things that go well and some things that don’t go very well, and we had a little bit of both these past couple days,” Drenth said. “We need more depth, and that is something that we will work on as coaches, but I thought we continued to turn the corner today.”
Despite the disappointing finish, several Spartans shined in their respective events — none more than redshirt-junior Tim Ehrhardt.
The Addison, Ill. native went on to become the Big Ten champion in the pole vault, clearing 5.49 meters. In the process, Ehrhardt went on to break the SPIRE Institute meet record, one he had already set.
“(Ehrhardt) was an unbelievable competitor today,” Drenth said. “It was a great testament to his will, his competitiveness and his talent.”
On the women’s side of the pole vault, redshirt-senior Hannah Sailar prevailed through injury en route to a third-place finish, clearing a season-best 4.15 meters.
Among the other podium finishers, the men’s distance medley relay — comprised of redshirt-senior Sherod Hardt, senior David Washington, redshirt-sophomore Justine Kiprotich and redshirt-sophomore Daniel Sims — raced to a third-place finish.
After day one of the events wrapped up, the men’s side stood No. 5 in the meet with 16 points and the women were No. 7 with their 20 points.
“I felt like we were in the fight the entire day,” Drenth said following the first day of the meet. “What we want to see is a scrap. Sometimes all you can do is get here and be a better version than what you’ve been all year and I felt like we were that on a lot of occasions.”
As the second and final day of the meet rolled around, though, the highlights were few and far between for the Spartans.
Their best finisher was sophomore Will Agodu, who recorded a personal-best 7.91 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
His efforts culminated in a fourth-place finish despite being the last-seeded hurdler in the finals.
On the women’s side, while they only scored four points on the day, Drenth said he still saw key contributions certain athletes, specifically honing in on redshirt-senior Alexis Wiersma.
Wiersma scored two points in a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 meter run, in which she recorded a time of 16:07.44.
“Wiersma was just awesome today,” Drenth said. “Under many circumstances she’d be a two-time winner in the Big Ten championship. This time she was fifth and seventh because the races were so good.”
To wrap up the meet, the men’s 4x400 meter relay for the Spartans, the group of junior Alec Wiater, freshman Noah Burton, junior Antonio Clarke and Washington finished No. 10, but recorded a season-best time of 3:11.95.
“I thought the mental toughness of our 4x400 coming back and running well,” Drenth said. “I thought they competed well. They ran a season-best by quite a bit.”
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Although the end results were underwhelming, Drenth said there were still takeaways from the meet, especially with how the team worked within itself.
“I thought they did a better job being a team than they had in awhile,” Drenth said. “I thought that was important. I felt like they did a good job being mentally tough over the course of the weekend. That’s a challenge, especially people that did multiple things. It’s easy when it’s not going very well to just shrug your shoulder.”
With the outdoor season upon MSU and looking forward to the rest of the year, Drenth added he expects to see the effort carry over into practice for expanding results.
“I felt like we committed to being our best nearly the entire weekend,” Drenth said. “If we can display that in practice and be passionate throughout the course of the whole outdoor season I think we can see quite a bit of improvement.”
