Titans Fall Short In Bid For Second Straight WIAC Outdoor Title

Christy Cazzola (Jr. • Kaukauna) and Breanna Strupp (Jr. • Slinger) both won two events as defending champion UW-Oshkosh finished second at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship held Friday and Saturday (May 4-5) in Whitewater.

UW-La Crosse tallied 185 points to capture the team title for the fifth time in six years. The Eagles, who finished third a year ago, had the winner in four events.

With the help of seven first-place finishes and three second-place efforts, UW-Oshkosh ranked second in the nine-team meet with 176 points. The Titans have finished among the top two squads at the meet 25 times in the past 27 years.

UW-Eau Claire placed third in the team standings with 129.5 points, while UW-River Falls finished fourth with 92, UW-Whitewater fifth with 86.5, UW-Stout sixth with 65, UW-Stevens Point seventh with 58, UW-Platteville eighth with 55 and UW-Superior ninth with 11.

Cazzola successfully defended her titles in the 800- and 1,500-meter runs with times of 2:08.48 and 4:33.65, respectively. She also joined Katelyn Brooks (Fr. • Winneconne), Mariah McMullen (So. • Byron, Ill.) and Lauren Reigel (So. • Greenville) to finish third in the 3,200-meter relay and Stephanie Knutson (Fr. • Appleton), McKenzie Kelly (Jr. • New Richmond) and Rachel Westover (Fr. • South Milwaukee) to place fourth in the 1,600-meter relay. The 3,200-meter group posted a time of 9:24.36, while the 1,600-meter quartet marked a time of 3:56.77.

Strupp won competitions in the discus and shot put while finishing fifth in the hammer throw. She successfully defended her title in the discus with a distance of 160-0. Strupp marked measurements of 45-11 3/4 in the shot put and 167-1 in the hammer throw.

Alexia Child (Sr. • Lake Geneva) took first place in the hammer throw with a WIAC-record distance of 192-8. She also finished second in the shot put with a toss of 44-0 3/4.

UW-Oshkosh's Danielle Carrigan (Sr. • Waukesha) repeated as champion in the pole vault with a winning height of 12-1 1/4. She won the event in 2010.

The Titans' Brittni Wirtz (Fr. • Sobieski) sprinted to victory in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.08 seconds. She also ran on UW-Oshkosh's 400-meter relay team of Samantha Blue (Fr. • Kimberly), Lisha Hanson (Sr. • Clintonville) and Cassandra Hemmen (Fr. • Appleton) that set a school record with their second-place time of 47.24 seconds.

UW-Oshkosh will be represented by athletes at both the Dr. Keeler Invitational in Naperville, Ill., and the Eagle Open in La Crosse on Friday (May 11).