Four Titans Earn NCAA Outdoor All-America Awards
Devan Gertschen, Jack Flynn, Erik Schwandt and Joe Vils each earned All-America awards as UW-Oshkosh placed 26th with 11.33 points at the NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship this weekend (May 24-26) in La Crosse.
Gertschen and Vils placed third and eighth, respectively, in the pole vault while Flynn finished fifth in the discus throw and Schwandt eighth in the 100-meter dash. The All-America citations were the first during the outdoor season for each of the four Titans.
Gertschen, a senior, matched the Titans' highest finish in the pole vault after clearing 16-4 3/4 on his first attempt. After passing on the subsequent height, Gertschen came up short on three vaults at 16-8 3/4, which would have matched his career-best clearance.
Vils cleared 15-9 on his initial attempt to finish in the tie for eighth place. Gertschen, who finished seventh in the pole vault at the 2018 Division III Indoor Championship, went into the national outdoor meet seeded sixth while sophomore Vils was the 15th seed. Dan Evers from Monmouth College (Ill.) took home the pole vault title with a top height of 17-8 1/2.
Flynn, seeded eighth at the championship, surpassed his previous career best with a toss of 169-7 on his penultimate attempt. Flynn, a sophomore starter on the UW-Oshkosh men's basketball team that reached the Division III title game in March, established his previous best mark of 164-10 in the discus throw at the UW-La Crosse Open on May 13. UW-Stout's Sam Elsner won the discus throw championship with a distance of 191-7.
Schwandt, a freshman, ran to a time of 10.94 seconds after qualifying for the nine-member final by a mere one one-hundredth of a second in 10.92. Schwandt entered the championship seeded eighth, while second-seeded Parker Witt of UW-Whitewater won the final race with a time of 10.74.
UW-Oshkosh was also represented at the Division III Championship by junior Ryan Powers in both the 200-meter dash and 400-meter run, junior Bailey Quinn in the hammer throw and senior Joe Zack in the 1,500-meter run.
Powers finished 13th at 400 meters and 20th at 200 meters with his respective times of 48.12 and 22.81. UW-Platteville's Rodrick McMiller won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.17. A.J. Digby from University of Mount Union (Ohio) was the 400-meter champion with a time of 46.07.
Zack placed 18th after running a time of 4:05.69 in the preliminary round. Quinn fouled on each of his three attempts in the hammer throw. Isaac Garcia-Cassan from State University of New York at Geneseo went on to defend his national title at 1,500 meters with a time of 3:50.21. Eric Holst of University of St. Thomas (Minn.) claimed the hammer throw title with a distance of 211-4.
University of Mount Union scored 36 points to secure its second national title in five years. The Purple Raiders slipped past the 35 points of runner-up North Central College (Ill.).
Completing the top five teams were third-place Rowan University (N.J.) with 27 points, fourth-place Benedictine University (Ill.) with 26, and fifth-place Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.J.) and UW-Platteville with 24 apiece.
The top 10 teams also included George Fox University (Ore.) and St. John Fisher College (N.Y.) in seventh place with 23 points, Augustana College (Ill.) in ninth with 22 and UW-Whitewater in 10th with 20.
The Titans, who have scored at least five points at each of the last 25 national outdoor meets, had at least four All-Americans in individual events for the first time since garnering seven All-America citations on the way to finishing fourth in the country in 2014. In the history of the UW-Oshkosh program, Titans have now produced eight All-America performances in the discus throw and five in both the 100-meter dash and pole vault.
UW-Oshkosh secured its lone Division III championship in 2009.
2018 NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship Website