Titans Begin Indoor Track & Field Season At Home
UW-Oshkosh gets the 2018-19 men's indoor track & field season underway on Saturday (Dec. 1) when it hosts the Early Bird Invitational in Kolf Sports Center.
The season opener is the first of three home meets for the Titans, who will also hold the Titan Twilight Invitational on Jan. 18 and the Titan Challenge on Feb. 16. UW-Oshkosh is the reigning champion at both the Early Bird Invitational and the Titan Challenge.
Others teams expected to join UW-Oshkosh in competition at Saturday's Early Bird Invitational are Cardinal Stritch University, Carroll University, Carthage College, Concordia University Wisconsin and Wisconsin Lutheran College.
UW-Oshkosh's indoor schedule also includes the Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.) Holiday Invitational on Dec. 7, Carthage College's Tadd Metzger Invitational on Jan. 25-26, the Ripon College Invitational on Feb. 2, UW-Whitewater's Midwest ELITE Invitational on Feb. 9 and University of Michigan's Silverston Invitational on Feb. 15.
The Titans then compete at the WIAC Championship on Feb. 22-23 in Whitewater before concluding the regular season with final national qualifying meets at Carthage College on March 1 and UW-Stevens Point on March 2.
The 2019 NCAA Division III Indoor Championship will be held March 8-9 in Boston, Mass.
UW-Oshkosh is attempting to improve upon its sixth-place showing at last season's WIAC Championship. The Titans went on to finish 28th at the Division III Championship with nine points, marking the program's 20th straight national indoor meet with at least five points scored.
UW-La Crosse tallied 157.5 points to win its 17th consecutive and 43rd overall WIAC title a year ago. The Eagles were followed in the team standings by second-place UW-Whitewater with 105 points, third-place UW-Stevens Point with 90, fourth-place UW-Eau Claire with 88, fifth-place UW-Platteville with 76, sixth-place UW-Oshkosh with 73.5, seventh-place UW-Stout with 66.5 and eighth-place UW-River Falls with 6.5.
Second-year UW-Oshkosh head coach Justin Kinseth brings back 21 letter winners from last year's squad. Headlining the returnees are All-Americans Erik Schwandt and Ryan Powers, and national qualifier Joe Vils.
Schwandt won the WIAC 60-meter dash title as a freshman last season before placing fifth in the event at the Division III Championship. Schwandt established a school record with his time of 6.82 seconds during the 60-meter dash preliminaries at the national meet.
Powers, a senior, collected his second indoor All-America award in the 400-meter run with his sixth-place finish at last year's Division III Championship. He also placed sixth in the 400-meter run at the 2016 national meet and third in the 200-meter dash at last season's WIAC Championship.
Vils, a junior, placed 13th in the pole vault at the Division III Championship a year ago.
Also returning for the Titans are seniors Nick Freitag, Christian Lopez and Justin Skinkis; and sophomores Michael Juarez and Noah O'Neill, who each contributed top-five finishes at last season's WIAC Championship.
Skinkis was the conference runner-up in the 800-meter run while Lopez placed fifth in the league in both the 60- and 200-meter dashes. Skinkis earned All-America honors in 2015 as a member of the Titans' seventh-place distance medley relay team.
UW-Oshkosh's 1,600-meter relay squad, which included Freitag, Lopez and Skinkis, finished second at the WIAC Championship a year ago. The Titans' distance medley relay team featuring Juarez, O'Neill and Skinkis produced a fifth-place listing in the conference last season.
The Titans shared the Division III indoor championship in 2009 and finished second at the national meet in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2013. UW-Oshkosh is one of three programs to win a WIAC title, securing championships in 1971, 1973, 1989, 1999 and 2001.