Titans Finish Fifth At WIAC Championship
Sophomores Lucas Weber and Cody Chadwick ran to top-12 finishes to lead UW-Oshkosh at the 58th Annual Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Men's Cross Country Championship (Presented by Culver's) held Saturday (Oct. 27) at the Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax.
Both Titans earned All-WIAC second team recognition as Weber finished eighth in the 8,000-meter race with a time of 25:15 and Chadwick 12th in 25:26. Last year in their league championship debut Chadwick finished 26th and Weber 37th.
UW-La Crosse's Thomas Schultz captured this year's individual title after finishing second at the 2017 league championship and fourth in 2016. Schultz defeated 91 other runners on Saturday with his winning time of 24:45.
Zach Lee of UW-Platteville finished second to Schultz with a time of 24:52 while UW-La Crosse's Josh Schraeder placed third in 25:01, UW-Eau Claire's Patrick Treacy fourth in 25:02 and UW-Stout's Aleksandr Ilyushev fifth in 25:07.
UW-Oshkosh also had Justin Skinkis finish 33rd with a time of 26:14, Michael Juarez 40th in 26:25 and Andrew George 42nd in 26:29. Juarez led the Titans with his 19th-plae finish at last year's championship.
UW-La Crosse scored 38 points to win its second straight team title and 34th overall. The Eagles were followed in the team standings by second-place and 2016 champion UW-Eau Claire with 69 points, third-place UW-Stout with 85, fourth-place UW-Stevens Point with 119 and fifth-place UW-Oshkosh with 127.
Completing the team listings were sixth-place UW-Platteville with 134 points, seventh-place UW-Whitewater with 138 and eighth-place UW-River Falls with 255.
UW-La Crosse entered the WIAC Championship ranked fifth in the NCAA Division III by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and UW-Stout 13th.
Other UW-Oshkosh individual results featured Andrew George finishing 42nd with a time of 26:29, Steven Potter 46th in 26:40, Fabian Salinas Arroyo 55th in 26:53, Kiernan Koepke 58th in 26:54, Jacob Rost 59th in 26:57, Andrew Muskevitsch 67th in 27:07, Noah O'Neill 77th in 28:08 and Parker Scheld 84th in 29:02.
The top seven runners from Saturday's race received All-WIAC first team recognition while runners placing eight through 14 earned All-WIAC second team accolades. Individuals finishing 15 through 20 collected honorable mention laurels.
UW-La Crosse's Schultz and UW-Platteville's Lee were named co-recipients of the WIAC Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete Award.
Following a weekend off, all eight WIAC teams will return to the Whitetail Golf Course for the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional on Nov. 10.
The NCAA Division III Championship will be hosted by UW-Oshkosh and held at the Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne on Nov. 17. The venue also hosted the national championship in 1999, 2011 and 2015.
Written by Ally Gwidt, UW-Oshkosh Sports Information
Photo by Jill Millis, UW-Eau Claire Sports Information