Titans To Compete At WIAC Championship
UW-Oshkosh's Libby Geisness and Cara Volz return to defend their event titles at this weekend's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship (presented by Culver's) this weekend in Platteville.
Competition begins at 11:30 a.m. Friday (Feb. 25) and 10 a.m. Saturday (Feb. 26) from UW-Platteville's Williams Fieldhouse.
The 45th version of the women's meet will be held in unison with the 53rd edition of the men's championship. Medals will be awarded to the top eight finishers in each of the individual events and to the individuals comprising the top six relay teams.
UW-La Crosse is the reigning WIAC champion after the 2021 championship was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
UW-La Crosse amassed 230 points to claim its seventh WIAC title in eight years and 27th overall at the 2020 championship while 2019 champion UW-Eau Claire finished second with 127.5 points and UW-Oshkosh third with 92. UW-Oshkosh, a 13-time WIAC champion, has finished in the top four at every league meet since 1985.
Rounding out the 2020 team listings were fourth-place UW-Stevens Point with 64 points, fifth-place UW-Whitewater with 49, sixth-place UW-Stout with 48.5, seventh-place UW-Platteville with 36 and eighth-place UW-River Falls with 15.
UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Eau Claire (1 championship) are the only current league members to win a WIAC women's indoor track & field title. Former conference members UW-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin earned two titles and one championship, respectively.
UW-La Crosse enters this weekend's conference championship ranked second in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division III Indoor Rating Index while UW-Oshkosh ranks 11th and UW-Stout 24th.
The championship also includes 10 student-athletes who have combined to win nine individual and six relay first-place medals at previous conference meets.
Volz owns a pair of conference titles after winning the triple jump at the 2018 and 2020 league championships. She is seeded 12th in this year's event with a measurement of 35-5 1/4.
Geisness is back to defend her 800-meter run title from the 2020 conference championship. She is seeded third in the event this weekend with a time of 2:14.31.
UW-La Crosse's Skye Digman is the defending champion in the shot put and 20-pound weight throw, while teammate Mara Schroeder was victorious in the 400-meter dash in 2020 and contributed to the winning 1,600-meter relay team. Schroeder was joined on the relay by Emma Lawrence, who also won the 60-meter hurdles. Schroeder helped the 1,600-meter relay squad to a first-place finish at the 2019 championship.
UW-La Crosse's Madeline Sweeney will aim for consecutive titles in the 5,000-meter run. Melanie Kunze and Maddie Hannan were members of the conference champion distance medley relay squad in 2020, and Claire Koenecke helped the distance medley relay team to victory in 2019.
UW-Stevens Point's Brooke Wellhausen emerged with the 800-meter run title at the 2019 championship.
UW-Oshkosh's Alexandria Demco is this weekend's top seed in both the 800-meter and mile runs with season-best times of 2:11.49 and 4:55.34, respectively, while Riley Kindt is seeded first in the long jump with a distance of 19-2 1/2.