By Kyle Weaver

Feb. 23, 2016

The UW-Whitewater men’s and women’s track and field teams came away with a pair of second-place finishes in the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge on Feb. 20.

The women’s team ended the competition with a score of 129.5. UW-Oshkosh won the meet with 151 points.

“Overall it was a great meet leading into the conference weekend,” senior thrower Liberty Wieseman said. “There were a lot of PRs [personal records] especially in the field events.”

Senior Tyler Henderson set team season-highs in the triple jump and 60-meter hurdles. Henderson won the triple jump with a distance of 11.06 m and placed third in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.49 seconds.

Junior Genny Rose Stringer won the shot put and set a team season-high with a throw of 13.17m. Sophomore Erika Stenard tied for first in the high jump with a jump of 1.64m.

The ’Hawks had a number of athletes place near the top of the leaderboard. Junior Amanda Strupp had a second-place finish in the weight toss with a throw of 16.73m. Freshman Haylee Martin placed second in the triple jump with a distance of 10.44m. Junior Meredith Heller finished third in the 400-meter dash and posted the team’s fastest time of the season at 58.71 seconds. Junior Emma Glogovsky took third in the pole vault and posted the team’s highest mark of the season with a height of 3.43m.

Weiseman is one of four captains on the team and sat out Saturday’s meet due to injury.

“I had a bad ankle sprain from practice, so I took this week off,” Weiseman said. “It’s starting to feel better, and I’ll be throwing at conference next week.”

On the men’s side, the team ended the day with a total score of 137. UW-O won the meet with a score of 170.

The ’Hawks entered Saturday’s meet ranked second in the nation after moving up three spots from fifth this week. The team hasn’t finished lower than second place in a meet this season.

“I know we have a lot of potential on this team, and we can do some really special things,” junior Grant Loess said. “That number two ranking is good, but I think we have a lot more in us.”

Sophomore Parker Witt won the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.88 seconds. Witt is currently ranked tied for fourth in the nation in the 60-meter dash. Sophomore Chandler Leonard won the high jump with a height of 1.95m.

Several athletes were runners-up in their respective events. Senior Bryce Rudebeck finished the 400-meter dash with a team season-best time of 49.49 seconds. Senior Zack Stockheimer completed the weight throw with a career-best toss of 17.78m. Junior Scott Wolter finished the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:51:97. Sophomore Jonah Nelson finished the 800-meter dash with a team season-best time of 1:56:92. Senior CJ Klingbeil completed the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.47 seconds.

Junior Zak Loess placed third in the long jump with a distance of 6.51m. Freshman Dylan Ferger took third in the triple jump with a distance of 12.28m. Senior Kent Miehe finished third in the one-mile run with a time of 4:33:50.

“We had a really good day as a team, I know we had a bunch of PR’s across the board,” Loess said. “This is one overall one of our best meets as a team this year.”

UW-W will be well represented at next week’s WIAC Indoor Championships in Oshkosh. The competition begins at 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 26. and continues at 9 a.m. on Feb. 27.