Ryan Talbot Crowned Decathlon Champion on Day 2 of B1G Championships

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Ryan Talbot winning the men's decathlon title highlighted four Spartans making the podium Saturday, as the Michigan State track and field team completed the second day of the 2022 Big Ten Outdoor Championships at the University of Minnesota Track & Field Stadium.

For Talbot, he broke the program record for decathlon score en route to becoming the Big Ten champion, as he was joined on the podium by fellow decathlete and bronze medalist Heath Baldwin. Capping off MSU's night, Kate Stewart-Barnett and Andrew Nolan found their way onto the steeplechase podiums in their debuts at the Big Ten Championships.

Picking up where they left off on Friday, Baldwin and Talbot opened the second day of the men's decathlon with the 110m hurdles, where Baldwin took fourth at 14.68 and Talbot finished in sixth, using a personal-record 14.83 time. Talbot then took the decathlon lead with a first-place discus throw of 47.98m that also established another PR, while Baldwin tallied a new PR as well with a 41.04m throw that placed him fourth.

The pole vault saw Talbot extend his lead, tying his personal best with a 5.20m vault that garnered first in the event, while Baldwin took fifth with a 4.60m vault. Baldwin helped his own cause in the javelin, posting a season-best 59.64m throw to finish second, and Talbot placed fourth using a 53.32m throw to maintain his lead. In the final event of the decathlon, the 1500m, Talbot used a late kick to tally a 4:43.97 personal record and place fifth, with Baldwin right behind him at 4:44.42 for sixth. Talbot's 8,064 points surpassed the previous MSU record of 8,044 by Tim Ehrhardt in 2018, while Baldwin's 7,650 points set a new personal best.

Avery Budz also finished up her heptathlon competition, opening the second day with a 12th-place mark of 4.80m in the long jump before taking ninth in the javelin with a 25.27m throw. She wrapped up her first heptathlon by placing ninth in the 800m with a 2:35.50 time, earning her 11th overall in the final standings.

In the women's long jump, Olivia Lopez finished her day with a top mark of 5.45m, while Day'Anna Marr made her Big Ten Championships debut in the women's high jump with a personal record of 1.70m. Rounding out Saturday's field events for the Spartans was Quiara Wheeler, who registered a throw of 48.02m on her third attempt in the women's discus.

Starting the track events was the women's 400m dash preliminaries, where Nala Barlow was the top Spartan finisher at 16th with a 56.23 time, while Haley Rathwell posted a PR of 56.99. The men's 400m dash saw 2021 high school national champion Terrence Muex turn it on in the home stretch of the second prelim heat, as the rookie won his heat to automatically qualify for Sunday's finals with a 46.59 personal best.

In the 100m dash prelims, Amani Nuels was the top Spartan on the women's side at 11.98 and Antonio Postell II posted a 10.60 time on the men's side as the lone MSU entrant. For the women's 100m hurdles, Jaiden Paris ended up just missing the finals, finishing 10th in the prelims at 13.65, and Kaia Scheffler posted a 13.69 to finish in 13th.

The women's 800m preliminary heats had Judith Rector barely miss out on making the finals, as the Spartan's 2:10.51 personal record put her 12th-best in the prelims and finish outside the top-9 advancing times. A slow overall pace in the second heat of the men's 800m prelims hindered John Petruno, who took the lead on the final turn but was caught near the finish line by Michigan's Miles Brown to finish 0.07 seconds out of an automatic qualifying spot at 1:52.35.

Ending the night for the Spartans were the steeplechase runners, as Stewart-Barnett used a 10.15.69 time in the women's 3000m steeplechase to take fourth place on the podium after maintaining position amongst the lead group the entire distance. In the men's 3000m steeplechase, Joshua Smith ran a 9:23.55 personal-record time in the first section to finish 14th overall, while Nolan pushed himself onto the podium with a surging final lap, claiming seventh place with a 9:04.37 personal best.

"It was a great day for the most part," said Director of Track and Field Lisa Breznau. "It's a track meet, there were some ups and downs, things we didn't expect but also some things that we came through on that we didn't necessarily foresee."

"I'll just start with Terrence getting through in the 400m," added Breznau. "We knew that was going to come, but as a true freshman you just never know, and he won his heat and was tremendous. So that was excellent. Obviously, with Ryan and Heath, just an incredible day for them in the decathlon. I couldn't be more proud of their momentum, their poise all throughout this competition, the way they support one another, and Ryan to win, be a Big Ten champion and get the school record at the same time. That's just that's an incredible day for both of those guys. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch their progression onto the national meet. Then, at the end here, I'm really proud with the way that Kate and Andrew ran those steeples. With both being freshmen, it's a hard thing to do to score in this conference, period, but to do it as freshmen and to run gritty races the way they did was just exceptional by both of them."

After two days of competition, the Spartans sit third on the men's side with 28 team points, while the MSU women are sixth with 25 team points.

Michigan State wraps up the Big Ten Outdoor Championships on Sunday, May 15. Action gets started at 12 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. CT with the men's javelin and men's pole vault competitions.

Ryan Talbot Crowned Decathlon Champion on Day 2 of B1G Championships

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Players Mentioned

Heath Baldwin

Nala Barlow

Avery Budz

Olivia Lopez

Day'Anna Marr

Tee Muex

Andrew Nolan

Amani Nuels

Jaiden Paris

John Petruno

Antonio Postell II

Haley Rathwell

Judith Rector

Kaia Scheffler

Joshua Smith

Kate Stewart-Barnett

Ryan Talbot

Quiara Wheeler