Michigan's 4x100-meter relay team was the top seed heading into Sunday's final at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

And heading into the third leg of its relay, the team of junior Kyle Terpak, sophomore Troy Woolfolk and seniors Andre Barnes and Adam Harris held a slight lead.

Suddenly, the Wolverines fell to last place virtually eliminating their chances of defending the Big Ten title.

Woolfolk struggled to hand the baton to Barnes and it fell to the track. The fumbled exchange resulted in an automatic disqualification and a loss of a possible 10 points. A victory in the event would have marked the Wolverines' second straight Big Ten title in the event.

The mishap in the relay was one of many things that hurt the Wolverines' chances at earning their second consecutive Big Ten outdoor crown this weekend in Columbus. Michigan placed third (100) behind host Ohio State (103) and Minnesota (130).

"In a sense I was disappointed in the results, but I wasn't disappointed with the effort the team put forth," Michigan coach Fred LaPlante said. "Our guys were really engaged."

But not all was lost for the Wolverines.

On the last day of competition, Harris ran season-best times in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, and in the process earned Big Ten titles in both. Harris is the first Wolverine since Andrew Bruce in 1982 to earn conference championships in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, cementing his position as one of the best sprinters to ever wear the maize and blue.

"I felt great in the 100-meter dash going into the prelims," Harris said. "In the 200-meter dash, my prelim wasn't as fast as I hoped it would be. So going into the finals, I felt like I could fly in the 100, but in the 200, I had no idea I would go that fast."

Harris wasn't the only Wolverine to have a strong performance. Competing in what will probably be his last conference championships, redshirt junior Lex Williams earned runner-up honors in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs. In the 10,000-meter run, Williams battled Minnesota's Hassan Mead to the very end. In the last 100 meters, the two sprinted to the finish line, but Williams was edged by seven tenths of a second.

The Wolverines also missed an opportunity to score points in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Redshirt junior Brandon Fellows was the number one seed in the event, but misfortune struck the Wolverines again when Fellows collided with a barrier midway through the race and fell to the track. The fall cost Michigan another 10 possible points as the redshirt junior finished 14th and outside of scoring position.

"Those two events ... really were momentum-builders," LaPlante said. "They send a message to who you're competing against. It puts the heat on them a little bit."

But the performance of sophomore Carl Buchanon gave the Wolverines a ray of hope in the final day of competition. Buchanon ran with fifth-year senior Dan Harmsen and Ray Varner of Iowa in the 400-meter hurdles before pulling away from the two in the last 100 meters. Buchanon finished first (50.84) while Harmsen crossed the line close behind in second place (51.10). The victory marks Buchanon's first Big Ten title of his career.

After a strong start in his other event, the 110-meter hurdles, Buchanon led at the midpoint of the race but was unable to hold on. He crossed the finish line third (14.27), good enough to give him his first regional qualifying mark in the event.

"I'm ecstatic," Buchanon said. "I went out as an underdog. There wasn't a lot of pressure on me and I knew that if I went out and ran my race everything would come together for me."