For the first time since 2009, a member of the Iowa men’s track and field team has been honored with a Big Ten track Athlete of the Week award.

Erik Sowinski was named the Big Ten male track Athlete of the Week on Wednesday following his performance last weekend at the Sun Angel Classic at Arizona State.

A middle-distance runner, the junior won the 800 meters premier in 1:48.32. Sowinski edged out Minnesota’s Harun Abda — one of the Big Ten’s top 800 runners — by 0:00.22.

The Waukesha, Wis., native currently has the conference’s second-fastest 800 time and the sixth-fastest in the country. Sowinski ran the 800 meters in 1:48:15 two weekends ago at the LSU Invitational.

“I was pretty excited,” Sowinski said after hearing he won the award. “It just goes to show how far we’ve come as a team. Steven [Willey] had a good weekend, Ethan [Holmes] had a good weekend, so anybody could’ve won it.”

Ray Varner was the last Iowa male athlete to earn the honor, in April 2009.

— by Ben Schuff