The men’s track team accomplished its season-long goal, finishing third overall this weekend at the Big Ten Indoor Championship.

Wisconsin won its fifth-straight title with 144.5 points, Indiana finished second and Illinois took a close third. Only 9.5 points separated Indiana and Illinois. Michigan and Minnesota rounded out the top five, taking fourth and fifth places.

Illinois finished the second day of competition with four wins and five All-Big Ten athletes. Each win in an event earns All-Big Ten honors for that particular athlete.

Sophomore Zach Glavash won the 600m, breaking the school record for the second time in less than a month. He ran the event in 1:16.97, the fastest time in the country so far this year.

Junior Abe Jones had a big day, winning one individual event, the 400m, and running the first leg of the first-place mile relay. Jones ran the 400m in 47.42, and the 4x400m relay of sophomore Nathan Vadeboncoeur and juniors Andrian Walker, Abe Jones and Tra Smith won the event in 3:11.95.

Smith won the 800m in 1:49.92, beating defending national champion Nathan Brannen. Junior Steve Weatherford scored 5365 points en route to the school record and a third-place finish in the heptathlon.

“It was a great meet,” said head coach Wayne Angel. “Illinois is back in the forefront of track and field in the Big Ten, and the future is bright.”

Next week, the Illini travel to Notre Dame for the Alex Wilson Last Chance Invite in hopes of nationally qualifying for the distance-medley relay and the mile relay. Only Glavash has qualified for the NCAA National Championship meet March 11.

In only his second year at the helm, Angel has vastly improved the team. In the 2002-2003 track season, the last year before Angel took over the job, the Illini finished in eighth place at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.

Illinois has made steady improvements ever since. Last year, Illinois took fourth place and this year the Illini finished third.

But Angel does not take credit for the improvement.

“It’s both of us (Angel and the athletes),” Angel said. “It’s us working together, them (the athletes) bonding to my philosophy of hard work, doing the right things and believing in the tradition and heritage of Illinois track and field.”