Titans Place Second At WIAC Outdoor Championship

Titans Place Second At WIAC Outdoor Championship

UW-Oshkosh used three winning performances and six second-place efforts to finish second at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship (presented by Culver's) held Friday and Saturday (May 3-4) in Platteville.

The Titans scored 17 points in the 800-meter run and 16 in the 100-meter dash to conclude the championship with 138 overall points. UW-Oshkosh, a seven-time champion, has finished among the top three teams during seven of the last 10 league championships. The Titans placed fifth with 100 points at last year's meet in River Falls.

UW-La Crosse tallied 184 points to capture its 31st straight title and 55th overall. UW-Eau Claire immediately followed second-place UW-Oshkosh with 114 points while UW-Whitewater finished fourth with 104.5.

Completing the team standings were fifth-place UW-Platteville with 94.5 points, sixth-place UW-Stevens Point with 94, seventh-place UW-Stout with 88 and eighth-place UW-River Falls with 2.

Benjamin Jung led UW-Oshkosh by winning the 100-meter dash, finishing second in the 200-meter dash and running on a first-place 400-meter relay team.

Jung defeated 21 other competitors in the 100-meter dash with his time of 10.662 seconds (10.67). Jung's time, the 20th-fastest in the NCAA Division III this season, edged the second-place effort (10.669) of UW-Whitewater's Dwayne Ford by seven thousandths of a second.

The Titans also had Robert Ogbuli finish fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.69 seconds and Aaron McCarroll-Richardson eighth in 10.84. Ogbuli's time for the event ranks 27th nationally.

In the 200-meter dash, Jung crossed the finish line in a second-place time of 21.59 seconds. His sprint ranks 24th in the country this season. UW-Stevens Point's Calden Wojt won the event with a time of 21.30 seconds while UW-Oshkosh's Ryan Powers placed fourth in 21.64 and Ogbuli eighth in 22.02.

Jung also ran with Ogbuli, Powers and Christian Lopez for a victory in the 400-meter relay. The group defeated seven other relay squads with their nation-leading time of 41.06 seconds.

Powers added to his fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash and his victory in the 400-meter relay with a winning school-record performance of 47.22 seconds in the 400-meter run. His time ranks third nationally. UW-Eau Claire's KJ Munn finished second among the championship's 400-meter run contestants with his time of 48.22 seconds and UW-Oshkosh's Todd Beadle eighth in 49.21.

UW-Oshkosh had three place winners in the 800-meter run. Nick Freitag finished second in the event with a time of 1:53.08 while Steven Potter placed fourth in 1:54.41 and Justin Skinkis fifth in 1:54.89. Freitag's run ranks 28th in the country this season. UW-Eau Claire's Kyle Lueck took first place in the 800-meter run at this year's championship with a time of 1:51.62.

Potter added a fifth-place time of 3:56.38 in 1,500-meter run while Freitag, Skinkis, Beadle and Amitai Wheat ran on UW-Oshkosh's fifth-place 1,600-meter relay team that posted a time of 3:18.53.

The Titans' four remaining second-place efforts were all in the field events as measurements of 162-6 were recorded by Jack Flynn in the discus, 6-7 by Justin Rivers in the high jump, 53-5 by Nick Tegtmeier in the shot put and 49-1 1/2 in the triple jump by Jonathan Wilburn. Tegtmeier now ranks 14th nationally in the shot put, Flynn 16th in the discus and Rivers 29th in the high jump. Wilburn already holds the nation's third-best triple jump distance at 49-6 1/4.

UW-Platteville's Noah Steiner won the high jump with a leap of 6-9 while UW-Stevens Point's Tom Kohn won the triple jump with a skip of 49-8 1/2. UW-Eau Claire's David Kornack was the winner in the shot put with a mark of 63-0 and UW-Platteville's Alexander Walechka the victory in the discs with a cast of 163-2.

Also contributing third-place finishes for the Titans were Jamyle Brantley in the long jump with a leap of 22-7 1/4 and Bailey Quinn in the hammer throw with a measurement of 179-11.

UW-Oshkosh's other fourth-place listings belonged to Andrew George in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:21.79 and Avery Van Zee in the javelin with a measurement of 168-7.

The Titans also received a sixth-place height of 15-1 3/4 in the pole vault from Joe Vils, a seventh-place leap of 6-3 1/4 in the high jump from Darquise Winters and an eighth-place measurement of 45-10 3/4 in the triple jump from Jared Benson.

Abel Christiansen gave UW-Oshkosh a pair of eighth-place finishes with his times of 15.49 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and 57.51 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles.

UW-Eau Claire swept the meet's top individual awards as Kornack and Lueck were named the Field Performer of the Meet and Track Performer of the Meet, respectively. UW-La Crosse received the Coaching Staff of the Year award.

WIAC Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship Website