42 Top-Eight Performances Help Titans Cruise To Red Hawk Invitational Title

Accumulating the bulk of its points in six events, nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh easily won the 12-team Ripon College Red Hawk Men's Track & Field Invitational Saturday (Feb. 5) in Ripon.

UW-Oshkosh, the top-ranked NCAA Division III program in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's Indoor Rating Index, scored 201 points to claim the team title while Division I member UW-Milwaukee finished second with 120.

Other teams finishing in the top four were third-place and Division III member Milwaukee School of Engineering with 65 points and fourth-place and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics member Viterbo University with 48.

UW-Oshkosh owned four of the top six finishers in the 400-meter run, five of the top seven finishers in the 800-meter run, six of the top eight finishers in the 200-meter dash, five of the top eight finishers in the mile run, four of the top seven finishers in the 60-meter dash and four of the top eight finishers in the long jump.

Titan Ryan Potter defeated 19 other contestants in the 400-meter run with his winning time of 49.38 seconds that ranks eighth nationally this season. UW-Oshkosh's Aaron McCarroll-Richardson finished second in the event with a time of 50.75 seconds, Weston Lerdal fifth in 52.63 and Robert Ogbuli sixth in 52.98.

In the 800-meter run, UW-Oshkosh's Steven Potter beat 34 other participants with his victorious time of 1:54.66. The Titans also had Reid Marquardt place fourth with a time of 1:58.60, Dwight Hosni fifth in 1:59.72, Andrew George sixth in 1:59.75 and Noah Bruehl seventh in 2:02.46.

UW-Oshkosh's Rashaad Henderson won the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.36 seconds that ranks 26th in the country. The Titans also had Jaylen Grant finish second among the event's 31 runners with a time of 22.44 seconds, Adrian Girone fourth in 22.69, Aden Sears fifth in 22.79, Jonathan Wilburn sixth in 22.97 and Amitai Wheat eighth in 23.12. 

Andrew Rathkamp won the mile run for the Titans with a time of 4:25.70. UW-Oshkosh had four other place winners among the event's 21 entrants as Mitchell Bradford finished second with a time of 4:28.06, Jason Ford third in 4:28.35, Andrew Strasser seventh in 4:35.19 and Ryan Dolnik eight in 4:35.27.

The 60-meter dash featured Titans Richard Bosshart finishing second with a time of 7.00 seconds, Jaylin Boatman third in 7.01, Denzel Thomas fifth in 7.05 and Adrian Girone seventh in 7.19. UW-Oshkosh's Grant owns this season's top Division III time in the event with a performance of 6.78 seconds from the Ripon College Winter Open held Dec. 3.

In the long jump, UW-Oshkosh's Jamyle Brantley finished third with a distance of 22-11 3/4 that ranks 23rd nationally. The Titans also had McCarroll-Richardson place fourth with a leap of 22-8 1/2, Payton White seventh at 22-3 and Sears eighth at 21-6 1/4.

Other event winners for UW-Oshkosh were Wilburn and Eli Tranel.

Wilburn defeated 13 other challengers in the triple jump with his skip of 47-3 1/2, including Titans Leslie Fisher who finished second at 46-7 1/2 and Elijah Pena who placed fifth at 44-0 3/4. Wilburn owns this season's top Division III distance in the triple jump with his mark of 49-2 1/2 from the UW-Oshkosh Early Bird Invitational held Dec. 11.

Tranel outdid 16 other entrants in the pole vault with a height of 16-4 3/4 that ranks second in the country. UW-Oshkosh's Zachary Zirgibel finished seventh in the event with a measurement of 13-11 1/2.

UW-Oshkosh's Caleb Cornelius etched the nation's 14th-best performance in the high jump with his second-place leap of 6-7 1/2. Titan Julien Harden finished second in the event with a mark of 6-3 1/2.

UW-Oshkosh also had Pena finish fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.45 seconds, Eli Traeder sixth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:10.68 and both Jacob Dennison and Tay'Jion Johnson eighth with tosses of 49-9 3/4 in the shot put and 44-5 1/2 in the 35-pound weight throw, respectively.

The Titans had three 1,600-meter relay squads place in the top eight as well. Boatman, Bosshart, Thomas and Evan Wendland finished third in the race with a time of 3:31.44 while Marquardt, Bruehl, Hosni and Steven Potter placed sixth in 3:37.30 and Ford, George, Rathkamp and Jelani Lawson seventh in 3:41.40.

UW-Oshkosh concluded the meet with 42 top-eight finishes.

The Titans were also represented Saturday by Cody Chadwick at the Colorado School of Mines Winter Classic in Golden, Colo. Chadwick finished 10th among 10 contestants in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:30.79. The non-scoring meet featured the majority of its competitors from Division II programs.

UW-Oshkosh, which has won all four of the invitationals it has competed in this season, will participate at the UW-Whitewater Midwest ELITE Invitational on Saturday (Feb. 12).