April 8, 2015 By Alex Calles

During the first outdoor meet of the season, the UW-Whitewater men’s and women’s track and field teams started the season off by winning the meet. The men and women sprinted, tossed or jumped past eight other teams at Rex Foster Track.

In the 400-meter dash, senior Lexie Sondgeroth edged out senior captain Amanda Brom for first place. With her first place finish Sondgeroth (58.69) added 10 points and Brom (59.79) added eight points to Whitewater’s total.

“My goal was to have fun,” Brom said. “I haven’t ran the open 400 in two years, and I wanted to see what I could do.”

Also placing in the 400-meter dash was junior Megan Buse. She finished in fourth place with a time of 1:00.46 and added five points.

Sophomore Genny Stringer threw her way into first place with a throw in the finals of 45.06 meters.

Freshman Erika Sternard finished in first place of the high jump with a jump total of 5-04.25. Her performance added 10 points to Whitewater’s total. Jumping her way into fourth place was sophomore Haley Precia with a jump total 5-00.25 added five points.

Whitewater accounted for four places in the 100-meter hurdles. Sophomore Nicole McCue finished in third place with a time of 15.69 while adding six points to the teams score. Freshman Kathryn DeJung came in fourth place with a time of 16.87, adding five points. Junior Tyler Henderson, in fifth place, had a time of 17.09 that added four points and sophmore Zoe Kupfer with a time of 17.31, finished in sixth place, added three points.

Henderson also competed in the triple jump where she placed in first with a final jump of 11.17 meters. Her finals win added 10 points.

In the shot put, senior captain Shelby Mahr finished in second place with a final toss of 13.22 meters. Her combination of tosses was good for eight points.

“I want to help the team as much as I can,” Brom said.

The men’s track and field team came in first place out of nine teams during the first outdoor meet of the year.

Sophomore Grant Loess finished in first place with a time of 11 seconds. Also placing in sixth during the dash was sophomore Zach Debuhr with a time 11.29.

Senior captain Mike Judd hurdled his way into first place during the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.98.

“Everyone is getting used to running outside again because it’s completely different than what we’ve been doing for the previous eight weeks,” senior captain Jared Denu said when asked about the goals for himself and the team.

Three runners finished in the top seven during the 200-meter dash. Freshman Parker Witt crossed the finish line with 22.40 which was good enough for second. Debuhr came in sixth and sophomore Connor Larson finished in seventh.

Denu finished in first place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:59.00. Freshman Jonah Nelson finished with a time of 2:00.17 that was good enough for third place.

“Making it to nationals,” Denu said when he was asked about his personal goals for the season. “It will be difficult because of running in the Midwest, but I believe I can, and it is completely realistic.”.

During the 5000-meter run, sophomore Quinn Farley finished in first place and senior Matt Rudquist finished in second place. Both beating out two UW-Oshkosh runners who placed in third and fourth place.

Senior Cody Speaker launched his way into first place in the pole vault with a measurement of 4.60 meters in the finals.

The next meet is the UW-Platteville Invitational on April 11. The time has not yet been determined so check throughout the week at uwwsports.com.