Titans Dominate Season-Opening Test
The UW-Oshkosh men's track & field team owned the first-place finisher in 12 events and the second-place finisher in 10 categories to easily win its own Early Bird Invitational on Saturday (Dec. 1) in Kolf Sports Center.
UW-Oshkosh scored 332 points to defeat five other teams in its season-opening meet, including Carroll University which finished a distant second with 87. Carthage College placed third with 55 points while Concordia University Wisconsin listed fourth with 35, Edgewood College fifth with 29 and Wisconsin Lutheran College sixth with six.
The Titans reached their overall scoring value with the assistance of 33 points in the 5,000-meter run, 32 in both the long and triple jumps, 31 in the 60-meter dash and 29 in the 800-meter run.
UW-Oshkosh's Lucas Weber won the 5,00-meter run with a time of 15:05.24 while teammates Cody Chadwick finished second in 15:17.59, Kiernan Koepke third in 15:47.62, Fabian Salinas Arroyo fourth in 16:03.23 and Jack Rindahl fifth in 16:30.24.
In the long jump, Titan John Auer won the event with a leap of 23-7 1/4 while colleagues Jamyle Brantley placed second at 23-5 1/4, Benjamin Jung third at 23-4, Devin Moody fourth at 21-9 and Jared Benson sixth at 21-3 1/4.
The triple jump featured UW-Oshkosh's Jonathan Wilburn finishing first with a skip of 47-7 3/4, Brantley second at 44-2 3/4, Adam Tallman third at 44-2, Jared Ollhoff fourth at 44-1 1/4 and Benson sixth at 43-8 1/2.
Five Titans placed in the 60-meter dash as Christian Lopez won the sprint with a time of 6.99 seconds. UW-Oshkosh also had Erik Schwandt finish second with a time of 7.05 seconds, Ryan Powers third in 7.07, Denzel Thomas fifth in 7.13 and Trevon Petty sixth in 7.18.
In the 800-meter run, UW-Oshkosh's Justin Skinkis finished first with a time of 1:51.90, Steven Potter second in 1:53.63, Nick Engels third in 1:57.71 and Andrew Strasser fourth in 2:04.31.
One UW-Oshkosh record was established during the meet as Powers won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.83 seconds. Powers ran to a time of 22.01 seconds last December to set the previous UW-Oshkosh mark.
Other UW-Oshkosh event winners were Andrew George with a time of 8:53.11 in the 3,000-meter run, Justin Rivers with a leap of 6-9 in the high jump, Joe Vils with a height of 15-5 in the pole vault, Jackson Sheckler with a distance of 50-7 1/4 in the shot put and Bailey Quinn with a measurement of 54-9 1/2 in the 35-pound weight throw.
The Titans also won the 1,600-meter relay as Potter, Skinkis, Nick Freitag and Amitai Wheat ran to a time of 3:20.58.
UW-Oshkosh possessed three other place winners in both the 200-meter dash and 3,000-meter run.
The 200-meter dash had Lopez finish third with a time of 22.67 seconds, Thomas fourth in 22.89 and Ayokunmi Olatunde seventh in 23.40 while the 3,000-meter run had Noah O'Neill finish second with a time of 9:00.43, Noah Bruehl sixth in 9:18.54 and Parker Scheld eighth in 9:30.13.
Additional second-place finishers for UW-Oshkosh were Moody in the high jump with a leap of 6-4 3/4, Wheat in the 400-meter run with a time of 50.61 seconds, Zachary Emmer in the pole vault with a height of 14-11, Jacob Rost in the mile run with a time of 4:27.25 and Nick Tegtmeier in the shot put with a throw of 49-6 1/4.
UW-Oshkosh's Avery Van Zee was involved in two third-place finishes after recording a time of 9.01 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles and running for a time of 3:31.85 with Lopez, Olatunde and Thomas in the 1,600-meter relay. Van Zee also finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 51.17 seconds.
Other UW-Oshkosh fourth-place listings belonged to Auer in the high jump with a leap of 5-8 3/4, Olatunde in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.09 seconds and Michael Juarez in the mile run with a time of 4:33.78.
The Titans also had Andrew Rathkamp finish fifth in the mile run with a time of 4:34.55 and Jack Malloy sixth with a distance of 45-0 1/4 in the shot put.
UW-Oshkosh's Sheckler and Cade Ellenbecker added seventh-place finishes after recording measurements of 43-6 1/2 in the 35-pound weight throw and 12-11 1/2 in the pole vault.
UW-Oshkosh concludes its December schedule by competing at Friday's (Dec. 7) Olivet Nazarene University Holiday Invitational in Bourbonnais, Ill.