Track and field squads sweep meets

John Paul Czerwinski, Assistant Sports Editor

Feb. 1, 2017

The Warhawk men and women’s track and field teams both took first place in each of its home opening meets of the season.

Both teams have now officially won their first home meet, due to the fact no prior meets ever kept score.

The women topped second place UW-Stevens Point with a score of 135 to 112 in the Warhawk Classic Invitational on Jan. 28. After beating the other nine teams in the invite, the  women are expected to be nationally ranked.

The No. 4 men won the Squiq Converse Invitational on Jan. 27, which featured nine teams, also beat second place UW-Stevens Point with a score of 117.50 to Stevens Point’s 99.

Assistant coach Dawson Miller was impressed and excited about the two teams convincing victories this weekend.

“It’s really good to see both teams taking home victories this early in the season,” Miller said. “Although it doesn’t help toward a conference championship or anything, it’s really good to see our teams come out on top, especially when there were other teams from our conference competing.”

“I think wins like this really inject confidence into both teams. It makes them believe even more that they deserve to be one of the teams talked about winning conference at the end of the season.”

Sophomore Celeste Madda won the 200 meter dash with her best indoor time recorded, 25.32. Madda’s time puts her into the top five in Division III of recorded 200-meter dash times. Madda also finished second place in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.83. Madda currently holds the second fastest time in Division III for the 60m.

Freshman Sydney Rossow won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.03. The time puts her into the top five in all of Division III. Rossow also finished third in the triple jump with a mark of 36-00.25.

Senior Levi Perry and junior Theron Baumann led the Hawks’ and cemented their status as two of the top throwers in the nation. Perry won the weight throw with a mark of 59-11, while Baumann won the shot put with a mark of 55-10.50.

Perry currently holds the longest mark recorded in Division III weight throw this season, as Baumann also currently holds the longest mark recorded in the shot put.

Senior distance runner Scotty Wolter loves the production he is getting from the field events.

“It’s always a huge plus to have consistent first and second place finishes in field events,” Wolter said. “Being a track athlete, aside from a field athlete it takes a little bit of pressure off of the runners knowing we are going to have multiple top finishes in the field events.”

“It almost allows us to run a little bit more calm, less stress. In high school there were many times I could remember when teams were dominant in field events and it essentially won them the meets. They dominated field events and just did good enough in the rest of the events.”