Titans Finish Fifth in Indoor Championships, Break Three Program Records
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- The UW-Oshkosh men's track and field team took fifth at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships in the two-day meet, earning six All-America nods.
The Titans sent athletes from eight events to the meet and competed in the finals for seven of those events. The program records in the distance medley relay, triple jump and heptathlon were all broken at the meet.
Friday Track Events
Freshman Aden Sears and junior RJ Bosshart finished second and third in the heptathlon 60-meter dash with times of 6.97 and 7.06 seconds.
In the 60-meter dash preliminaries, sophomore Keegan Cullison took 11th with a 6.88 second finish and sophomore Londyn Little finished in 19th place, running the event in 6.90 seconds.
Senior Steven Potter finished the 800-meter preliminaries in ninth place with a season best time of 1:51.81 and Little set a season best of his own in the 200-meter preliminaries with a time of 21.79 seconds.
The 4x400-meter relay squad qualified for the finals with a fourth place, 3:14.66 time in the preliminaries, beating their previous season best by more than two seconds.
The distance medley relay squad was one of nine teams that set the championship record at the meet, also setting the program record. Oshkosh's squad finished with a program-record 9:52.83, taking ninth place.
Friday Field Events
Sears took fifth in the heptathlon long jump with a mark of 6.60 meters, tying a season best. Bosshart took seventh, jumping 6.38 meters. Sears grabbed seventh in the heptathlon shot put with a personal season best 11.72-meter throw. Bosshart finished in 16th, throwing 10.68 meters. In the heptathlon high jump, Sears placed first with a personal season best height of 1.95 meters. Bosshart took 12th with 1.80 meters.
Sophomore AK Toheeb-Lawal finished the long jump with a best jump of 7.02 meters.
Senior Eli Tranel earned All-America Third Team honors with a 4.95-meter vault. Sophomore Zach Zirgibel took 10th, vaulting 4.70 meters.
Saturday Track Events
Sears finished seventh in the heptathlon 60-meter hurdles, running the event in 8.52 seconds. Bosshart finished in 8.60 seconds for 18th place. The heptathlon wrapped up with the 1,000-meter run where Bosshart took fourth with a 2:49.89 finish. Sears took 13th place with a finish of 2:56.78. Both were season best times for Bosshart and Sears. In the pole vault, Bosshart took third with a personal season best vault of 4.40 meters. Sears also set a personal season best at 4.10 meters, taking eighth. Sears earned All-America Third Team, scoring a combined 5,156 points and Bosshart scored 4,802 points, good for All-America Eighth Team. Sears' final score broke the 22-year-old program record by 54 points.
In the 4x400-meter relay finals, Oshkosh took seventh with a 3:14.68 finish, earning All-America Seventh Team.
Saturday Field Events
Senior Jonathan Wilburn earned All-America First Team honors in the triple jump with a program record 15.56-meter mark, beating the record he set at the national indoor meet last season (15.49). The national leader in the event for most of the season, Wilburn also set the Division III season best on Saturday.
Sophomore Caleb Cornelius finished with a 2.03-meter mark in the high jump, good for All-America Third Team. Freshman Charlie Nolan took 11th, jumping 1.98 meters.
Looking Forward
The Titans return for the outdoor season on Saturday April 1 to compete in the UW-Platteville Pioneer Opener and the WashU (Mo.) Invitational.