Titans Finish Fourth At WIAC Track & Field Championship
Lauren Wrensch won both the long jump and 400-meter run while Cheyenne Moore captured first place in the 3,000-meter run as UW-Oshkosh finished fourth among eight teams at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship (presented by Culver's) held Friday and Saturday (Feb. 22-23) in Whitewater.
Wrensch entered the conference championship with a NCAA Division III-leading measurement of 19-4 3/4 in the long jump and followed through on her top national ranking by defeating 21 other conference competitors with a leap of 19-2 1/2. UW-Stevens Point's Adrienne Lewis finished second to Wrensch with a mark of 18-4 1/2 and UW-Oshkosh's Sadie Huth fourth at 17-11 1/2.
In the 400-meter run, Wrensch was seeded second in the conference with a season-best time of 58.04 seconds. Wrensch reduced that time by more than a second at the league championship as she outran 20 other challengers with her winning time of 56.91 seconds. Wrensch, who now owns the event's fourth-fastest time in the country, was followed across the finish line by UW-La Crosse's Mara Schroeder. Schroeder had a second-place time of 58.02 seconds.
Wrensch concluded her busy weekend by finishing third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.53 seconds and running with Lindsay Denu, Alexandra Demco and Taylor Pralle for a fourth-place time of 4:00.95 in the 1,600-meter relay. Wrensch currently ranks seventh in the nation with her season-best 200-meter dash time of 25.32.
Moore, who won the 5,000-meter run at last year's championship, took first place in this year's 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:59.21. The unseeded Moore now possesses the event's 19th-fastest time in the nation after defeating 23 other conference rivals for the title. UW-Eau Claire's Lexie Tremble finished second to Moore with a time of 10:17.37 and UW-Oshkosh's Amanda Van Den Plas eighth in 10:21.58.
Moore also contributed a third-place finish of 5:06.36 in the mile run. UW-Oshkosh's Van Den Plas finished second in the race of 13 runners with a time of 5:05.04.
The Titans had four other individual results in the top eight as Huth finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.24 seconds, Ashton Keene fifth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:12.94, Danae Prange sixth in the triple jump with a measurement of 35-8 1/2 and Van Den Plas eighth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:21.58.
UW-Oshkosh's distance medley relay team of Demco, Hannah Lohrenz, Alexis Reichardt and Melissa Srnka finished fifth with a time of 12:49.38.
UW-Oshkosh, a 13-time WIAC indoor champion, finished fourth in this year's team standings with 77 points after placing third in 2018 with 89.
UW-Eau Claire amassed 172.5 points to claim its first WIAC indoor crown. Six-time defending champion UW-La Crosse finished second with 162.5 points, UW-Stevens Point third with 109 and UW-Stout fifth with 54.5.
Rounding out the team listings were sixth-place UW-Platteville with 45 points, seventh-place UW-Whitewater with 30.5 and eighth-place UW-River Falls with 10.
UW-Eau Claire joins UW-La Crosse and UW-Oshkosh as the only current conference member to win a WIAC women's indoor track & field title.
UW-Oshkosh will perform in last chance national qualifiers at Carthage College on Friday (March 1) and UW-Stevens Point on Saturday (March 2) before participating at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship on March 8-9 in Boston, Mass.