Wisconsin wins again

With only the 4x400m relay left Sunday, sophomore Contrell Ash was tired. He spent most of the weekend winning.\nFinishing first in the 100, 200 and 4x100-meter relay, Ash and his IU teammates helped the Hoosiers move to a sixth place finish at the Big Ten Championships this weekend at Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex.\nIn their best showing since 1998, the Hoosiers finished with a point total 81.67 -- their highest since 1993. Wisconsin defended their Big Ten title once again with a point total of 135 points.\nAsh, who was red-shirted last year -- had the best qualifying time in the 100m -- not only went on to post a winning time of 10.44 -- a career best time -- but also burst past Ohio State All-American Andrew Pierce and Minnesota's Tom Gerding to win the 200m with another career best time of 20.71.\n"All this week I've just been working on my times and my starts, trying to be quicker and quicker out of the blocks," Ash said. "I thought I had a good start out of the blocks, but according to everybody else, I didn't. I just tried to creep up on the competition and I won. My plan in the 200m was just to stay with Pierce until the straightaway, and then give it all I got after that."\nThe win gave Ash his first NCAA provisional mark.\n"Certainly, I think he had a great meet," coach Marshall Goss "He improved on both his 100-meter and 200-meter times and he had a good leg in the 4x400m relay (in which IU placed 8th). I think he's a prime candidate for freshman of the year."\nAsh wasn't the only Hoosier to earn an NCAA provisional mark this weekend.\nJunior Ryan Huber also finished with a provisional mark in the 800m -- behind Illinois' Jason Van Swol. Fellow junior All-American Dino Efthimiou earned his second provisional mark and also finished second in the pole vault behind Michigan State's Paul Terek.\nSenior decathlete Brian Bowman also earned a provisional mark and hopes to qualify for the NCAA championships.\n"I came into Big Ten's knowing I had all the ability in the world to win...I gave it my best effort," Bowman said.\nBowman led the competition going into Saturday's final events for the decathlon with a total of 3,227 points. He went on to place second with a total of 7,266 in the decathlon behind Michigan State's Paul Terek. His mark of 7,266 was a new career best for him and an NCAA provisional mark. Bowman's finish is the third best in IU history.\n"I'm happy with (today's performance)," Bowman said. "It could have been better, but with the conditions Friday, it could have been a lot worse. To keep pace I had to come back and get a personal record in the javelin and those are things I can\'t complain about. Coach Goss and I are going to keep training and hope for nationals because I am right on the bubble for qualifying in the decathlon. I need to get back and keep training."\nEugene will host the NCAA championships May 30 through June 2.\nGoss was pleased with the team's efforts and performance this weekend.\n"All and all we worked hard, and we're only going to get better and continue improving," Goss said.\n"I think we only had 11 points by seniors, which says a lot our freshman and sophomores. I'm excited about where we're going"