Titans Finish Fifth At WIAC Outdoor Championship
Danny Trimner and Garrison Griest helped UW-Oshkosh score 35 of its 89 points at the WIAC Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship (presented by Culver's) held Friday and Saturday (May 5-6) in Platteville.
Trimner won the 400-meter hurdles while running with Griest to finish second in the 400- and third in the 1,600-meter relays. Griest also placed third in the 400- and fourth in the 110-meter hurdles.
Trimner defeated 20 other contestants in the 400-meter hurdles with his winning time of 52.47 seconds. His victory was UW-Oshkosh's seventh in the event during the past 10 years and the first since current UW-Oshkosh assistant coach Corey Wilch won three straight titles from 2012-14.
Zak Wallenfang of UW-La Crosse finished second to Trimner in this year's race with a time 52.90 seconds while Griest placed third in 54.12 and UW-Oshkosh's Morgan Malm fourth in 54.53. Griest also finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.02 seconds.
In the relays, Griest, Malm, Trimner and Todd Beadle registered a second-place time of 41.71 seconds at 400 meters and a third-place performance of 3:18.47 at 1,600.
UW-Oshkosh's other event champion was Devan Gertschen, who won the pole vault with a height of 16-0 3/4. Gertschen defeated 22 other participants, including Josh Freyholtz of UW-Stout who finished second with a leap of 16-0 3/4 and UW-Oshkosh's Mitchell Hasey and Zachary Emmer who placed sixth and seventh with measurements of 15-1 and 14-7 1/4, respectively. Gertschen is the Titans' first pole vault champion since Zach Johnson in 2006.
UW-Oshkosh had two other second-place finishers in the meet as Ryan Powers and Joe Zack ran to times 47.92 seconds in the 400- and 3:51.86 in the 1,500-meter runs, respectively.
Contributing fifth-place finishes for the Titans were Powers in the 200-meter dash and Carson Weber in the long jump. Powers ran to a time of 22.16 seconds while Weber leaped to a distance of 22-11 1/4.
UW-Oshkosh's remaining sixth-place mentions were Hunter Effa in the long jump with a measurement of 22-9, Jack Flynn in the discus with a throw of 155-9 and Christian Lopez in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.97 seconds.
The Titans' Bryce Mancheski added an eighth-place leap of 22-7 3/4 in the long jump.
UW-La Crosse scored 214 points to win the 99th edition of the WIAC Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship. It was the Eagles' 28th straight victory and 53rd overall.
UW-Whitewater finished second to UW-La Crosse with 151.5 points while UW-Stevens Point placed third with 99.5, UW-Eau Claire fourth with 93 and UW-Oshkosh, a seven-time champion, fifth with 89.
Rounding out the team standings were sixth-place UW-Platteville with 70 points, seventh-place UW-Stout with 63 and eighth-place UW-River Falls with 35.
Parker Witt of UW-Whitewater and Jerry Williams of UW-Stevens Point were named the meet's Track and Field Performer of the Meet, respectively. UW-La Crosse's Josh Buchholtz was selected as the league's Coach of the Year.
UW-Oshkosh athletes will compete in a variety of last chance qualifying meets over the next two weeks before participating at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship on May 25-27 in Geneva, Ohio.