Feb. 11, 2015 By Josh Sinclair

The men’s and women’s track and field team combined for 12 first-place finishes.

Men

The No. 4 ranked UW-Whitewater men’s track and field team won six events and 13 other athletes placed in the top three in the two-day Pointer Invitational.

Coach Mike Johnson was impressed by his team.

“This meet was a chance for us to see first-hand what more of our conference rivals have and how they compete,” Johnson said. “It is a confidence booster for our teams to do well against conference schools are we prepare for the WIAC Championships.”

Senior Stephen Sousa won the heptathlon in which he broke the school record with a score of 4,963 points, including winning five of the seven events

Senior Mike Judd led the ’Hawks with a time of 8.34 in the 60-meter hurdles.

Freshman Robert Starnes won long jump, with a mark of 22’ 7”, the same event in which he has the nation’s best jump of 23’6”.

Senior Cody Speaker and freshman Aron Schwartz took first and third in the pole vault with vaults of 14’2” and 13’8”.

In triple jump, junior Eric Baber was third with a leap 42’3”, and freshman Matt Green was fifth with a mark of 40’7”.

The other top finishers in the jump events were Starnes, who also jumped 6’5” in the high jump, good for a fourth-place finish.

Freshman Mike Cournia, finished second in the high jump with a mark of 6’5”. Cournia also added a third-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 22’1”.

Junior Zach Stockheimer was second in the weight throw with a throw of 55’1”.

Freshman Theron Baumann placed second in the shot put with a toss of 54’1.75”.

Senior Mike Judd finished first in the 60-meter hurdles and is happy with the team’s performance.

“The conference that we have a lot more depth than we did in years past, not only in the relays, but the entire team is strong,” Judd said.

Women

At the two-day Pointer Invitational, the UW-Whitewater women’s track and field team recorded six first-place finishes and nine other women were able to place in the top three of their respective event.

“We have a lot of depth in many areas, but we know there are still many areas we can improve upon,“ Johnson said.

The team was led by Shelby Mahr who won both of her events. The senior captain won the shot put with a throw of 47’1.75” and the weight throw with a toss of 59’8.25”, winning the event by over five feet.

The other first place finisher was senior Amanda Brom who ran the 800-meter run in a time of 2:15.95.

There were three athletes who were runner-ups in their events. Sophomore Brooke Linse was second in the pentathlon with a score of 3,172, including an individual win in the high jump. Sophomore Nicole McCue took second in the long jump with a leap of 15’11.5”. Erica Sternard also was runner-up in her event, the high jump, where she leaped 5’01.75”.

Other notable performances came from junior Megan Buse in the 800-meter run, finishing third with a mark of 2:17.52.

Sophomore Meredith Heller placed third in the 400-meter dash running a time of 1:01.47.

The 4×400 team of Meredith Heller, Morgan McCuen, Leah Richter and Candice Wayne ran 4:08.06 to take first in their race and defeat UW-Stevens Point who had just defeated them the week before.

The 4×200 team was also able to capture first place with a time of 1:47.74.

“Success at a meet like this helps our team’s confidence by giving them the experience either good or bad to keep pushing forward,” sophomore Amanda Brom said.

The Warhawks will play again at 11 a.m. on Feb. 14 in Whitewater at the D.L.K Kachel Fieldhouse.