Terek Repeats As Big Ten Track Athlete Of The Year
5/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
May 22, 2002
PARK RIDGE, Ill. - Michigan State's Paul Terek (Livonia, Mich.) today was named Big Ten Men's Track and Field Athlete of the Year for the second straight season. He also was named Athlete of the Championship after taking first-place honors in the pole vault and decathlon at last weekend's conference meet in Madison, Wis.
Terek's score of 7,829 points in the decathlon broke the league record he set in that event at the 2001 Big Ten Championships. He also repeated as the Big Ten pole vault champion with a successful leap of 17-10 1/4. Terek has automatically qualified for next week's NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La., in the decathlon and is one of the favorites to win that event. He is also a provisional qualifier for the national meet in the pole vault.
The MSU senior set the school record in the pole vault with a leap of 18-0 1/2 - the fifth-best mark in the NCAA this season - at the Len Paddock Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich., earlier this month. He also owns the MSU record in the decathlon, winning first-place honors at the Mount SAC Relays in April with 7,926 points, the fourth-best total in the NCAA this year.
Terek is just the second person in conference history to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons, joining Indiana's Bob Kennedy, who won three times from 1991-93, on that exclusive list. He's also the third two-time winner of the Athlete of the Year award along with Kennedy and Michigan's Kevin Sullivan, who earned the recognition in 1995 and 1998.
Other Big Ten track and field award winners in addition to Terek were Indiana's Danielle Carruthers (women's Athlete of the Year), Connie Moore of Penn State (women's Athlete of the Championship), Indiana's Aarick Wilson (men's Freshman of the Year), Tahesia Harrigan (women's Freshman of the Year), Wisconsin's Ed Nuttycombe (men's Coach of the Year) and James Henry of Michigan (women's Coach of the Year).