Freeland Wins Title, Baldwin Scores Big and Spartan Men Record Best Finish in 15 Years at B1G Championships

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan State Track and Field rounded out the third and final day of the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with several podium finishes and a 1500m title from Lauren Freeland as the men finished eighth in conference and the women 10^th.
 
Day One Recap | Day Two Recap | Final Results
 
For the Michigan State men, the 61 points accumulated across the weekend is the most for the program in 15 years, scoring 62 in 2009. The women tallied 25 points across the three-day meet. On the final day of the championships there was a stretch of nine of 10 consecutive events in which a Spartan podiumed.
 
10 of those points came by way of graduate student Lauren Freeland’s 1500m title in which she stormed past two competitors in the final 100m, crossing the line in a blitzing 4:14.55, just .3 seconds of her personal best. The 2023 NCAA Championship qualifier becomes the second woman to win the 1500m Big Ten championship after All-American Leah O’Connor did so in 2014.
 
 

Lauren Freeland what a finish for gold!!! 🤩 #GoGreen pic.twitter.com/6LtIQPAWGj

— MSU Track & Field/XC (@MSU_TFXC) May 12, 2024

 
The other Spartan to win an individual conference title on the weekend was graduate student Ryan Talbot in the decathlon on Friday and Saturday. The Novi, Mich. claimed his second career B1G decathlon gold behind a season-best score of 7,535. Talbot’s score comprised of wins by two feet and two seconds in the shot put and 400m dash respectively on day one as well as a second-place finish by .001 seconds in the 100m dash. On day two, he padded his lead with top-three finishes in the javelin and 110m hurdles, also winning the discus on a crucial 42.38-meter final throw.
 
Graduate Student Heath Baldwin was the highest scorer of the weekend for the Spartans, however. The 2023 MSU George Alderton Male Athlete of the Year forewent competition in the decathlon in preparation for the U.S. Summer Olympic trials and instead podiumed in all four events he competed in individually across the three days.
 
Baldwin’s fourth-place finish in the javelin on Friday, sixth in the long jump Saturday, sixth in the high jump Sunday and third in the 110m hurdles finals Sunday saw the Kalamazoo, Mich. native score 17 points in total, more than the 12^th-place Maryland (12 points). It’s the most points an MSU individual has scored…