April 9, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
For the second straight season, Indiana and Minnesota led all Big Ten conference teams at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The Hoosiers finished the meet in sixth place with 25 points, the best for IU since 2005 and the third-most ever at the Indoor meet for a Hoosier squad. Minnesota earned 18 team tallies to tie for eighth place at the conclusion of the two-day event. Penn State racked up 14 points as the Nittany Lions tied for 14th place followed by Wisconsin in 26th place with eight team points. Illinois earned four points while Michigan State and Ohio State tallied three points apiece.
Hoosier sophomore Derek Drouin claimed his first NCAA crown, clearing 2.28m (7-5.75) to claim gold in the high jump. His mark was 1.25 inches better than his closest competitor and improved his school record by .75 inches, previously set at the Big Ten Championships. With the win, the product of Corunna, Ontario became Indiana's first NCAA high jump champion and only the second in Big Ten annals, joining Wisconsin's Pat Matzdorf (1971).
Prior to the national meet, Minneosta captured the conference crown in front of a home crowd at the 2010 Big Ten Indoor Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., after sweeping the top three spots in the heptathlon on the final day of competition. The Golden Gophers collected five additional idividual titles en route to their second straight Big Ten men's indoor championship. The victory marked the first back-to-back indoor titles for Minnesota, and the third overall in program history.
The Gophers totaled 160.50 team points, the second most in Big Ten Men's Indoor Championship history, to easily outdistance the rest of the field. Ohio State was second with 112.50 points and Wisconsin was third with 81.00 points. The point total also bettered the margin of last year's title, when Minnesota outscored second-place Michigan by 42 points.
Ohio State sophomore Thomas Murdaugh was named Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year and Indiana's Drouin earned the nod as Field Athlete of the Year. Indiana’s Andy Bayer was tabbed Freshman of the Year by the conference coaches while Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia was named Coach of the Year by his peers. The conference coaches also recognized a pair of student-athletes for their excellent performances at this year’s Big Ten Indoor Championships as Murdaugh and Minnesota senior Aaron Studt took home Track and Field Athlete of the Championships laurels, respectively.
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