By Kyle Weave

Feb. 17, 2016

Finishing second and third respectively, the UW-Whitewater men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Stevens Point for the second-straight week to compete in the WIAC Tri/Quad Invite .

The men’s team finished with a total score of 165 behind first-place UW-Oshkosh and in front of third-place UW-Stevens Point. All three teams currently are ranked in the top 10 in the country.

“Just in our conference we have four of the top five ranked teams in the nation,” sophomore distance runner Noah Stamsta said. “So we have a lot of good competition that’s for sure.”

The Warhawks had several athletes win or place in the top five in a variety of events. Sophomore Robert Starnes won the high jump and the long jump. Starnes won the high jump with a leap of 2.05m, and the long jump with a distance of 7.21m. Sophomore Parker Witt won the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.16 seconds.

The ’Hawks also had two first-place finishes in the throws. Sophomore Theron Baumann won the shot put and senior Zack Stockheimer won the weight throw. Baumann won with a throw of 16.83m, and Stockheimer won with a throw of 16.65m.

A number of athletes finished just shy of the winner’s circle on Saturday. Freshman Leonard Carson finished third in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.13 seconds. Sophomore Jonah Nelson finished third in the one-mile run with a time of 4:19:84. Stamsta finished third in the 5K run with a time of 15:30:31.

“My 5K yesterday was not quite what I was hoping for,” Stamsta said. “I pulled an abdominal muscle and was coming off a tough week of training.”

In the women’s competition, the team didn’t share the same success as the men’s team.

Junior Amanda Strupp was the only Warhawk to win an individual event. Strupp won the weight throw for the third week in a row with a toss of 17.10m.

“I sensed some frustration on the team,” senior distance runner Amy Kahl said. “But I also sensed a lot of team unity and that will get us where we need to be.”

Coming off a second-place performance last week at the Pointer Invite, the Warhawks said they are ready to shake Saturday’s fourth-place finish off and move on.

“We’ve had some really successful meets this year and this is just a little bump in the road,” Kahl said. “I don’t think that this is really a huge concern right now.”

The Warhawks had a number of athletes place in the top five in different events. Sophomore Erika Sternard placed second in the high jump with a jump of 1.58m. Senior Candice Wayne finished second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.95 seconds. Kahl finished third in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:41:20.

“I’m close to where I want to be; but I’m not quite there yet,” Kahl said. “ One of my struggles is starting off races too fast. If I can be a little more conservative, I’ll have my best races.”

For both teams, conference qualification was the main goal on Saturday. The WIAC Indoor Championships will be held on Feb. 26 and 27, and the top 24 athletes ranked in each individual event will qualify.

“It wasn’t really about competing against each other,” Stamsta said. “It’s more about getting qualifying marks for conference.”

Both teams will travel to UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge on Feb. 20 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.