The Iowa men’s track and field team will head into its final meet before the Big Ten championships on Saturday in the Alex Wilson Invitational on the Notre Dame campus.

Iowa comes off of two successful meets on Feb. 12-13, the Iowa State Classic and the Tyson Invitational.

Junior All-American Aaron Mallett comes into the weekend after being named the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week for the second time in his career. At the Tyson, he finished second in the 60-meter hurdles, but for the sixth week in a row, he led the Big Ten in the event.

“To do three races in one day is always pretty tough,” said Iowa Director of Track and Field Joey Woody. “It was definitely good for him to get back and compete against the best in the country. He lost to one good guy, but I think he knows that he’s got it in him to take on anybody in the country and compete at a high level to give himself a chance to win.”

South Carolina’s Dondre Echols, second in the nation in the 60-meter hurdles, won the event. Mallett edged out top-10 hurdler Oladapo Akinmoladun of Nebraska.

Mallett’s best time of 7.71 puts him second all-time at Iowa and ties him for fifth in the country.

At the Iowa State Classic in Ames, the Hawkeyes’ middle-distance runners led the way, especially in the 800 meters, with Carter Lilly, Will Teubel, Pavlo Hutsalyuk, and Ryan Dorman.

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Lilly finished seventh, running the second-best time in program history, 1:49.09, good for 29th in the country.

“I was really pleased with Carter and how he competed,” Woody said. “He’s a guy who fights to win every single race he’s in.”

Teubel ran in a different heat and finished 22nd. Hutsalyuk followed, finishing in 1:50.88 – the best time of his freshman career. Dorman was behind him but ran well enough for his coaches to see promise.

“Will, unfortunately, was just in a race that the ‘rabbit’ didn’t take it out as fast as they had planned, but he was still able to kick it in and run a really fast last 200,” Woody said. “Pavlo, to have a huge [personal record], he’s just a guy who’s been getting better every week. Coach [Jason] Wakenight has done a tremendous job with that group. It’s fun to see them continue to improve every week.”

Teubel was around two seconds off his career best in the race.

“[The ISU Classic] shows that we are all in shape and that we can all trust each other,” the senior from Lisbon said. “I think it shows we can make the finals in all the events we do, and we’ll be able to finish strong.”

Also in Ames, Iowa’s 1,600-meter relay continued its success. Mitch Wolff, DeJuan Frye, Brendan Thompson, and Mar’yea Harris finished second (3:11.33).

Thompson also ran a career best 48.46 in the 400 meters.

In the field events, junior Avery Meyers led the way in the shot put, throwing 56-7.25 to earn eighth place.

Being the final meet before the conference championship, the Hawkeyes will focus down the stretch as the competition gets tighter.