Demco A Multiple Winner At WIAC Indoor Championship
Alexandria Demco won two middle distance running events and ran on a first-place relay to lead UW-Oshkosh at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship (presented by Culver's) held Friday and Saturday (Feb. 25-26) in Platteville.
UW-Oshkosh scored 97 points, including 19 in both the 800-meter run and 20-pound weight throw and 18 in the mile run, to finish third in the team competition. The 13-time WIAC champion Titans have now finished in the top four at every conference gathering since 1985. UW-Oshkosh placed third at the 2020 championship before the 2021 league meet was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
UW-La Crosse calculated 244 points to easily win its second straight conference title and 28th overall. UW-Eau Claire finished second to the Eagles with 115 points.
Completing this year's team standings were fourth-place UW-Stout with 62 points, fifth-place UW-Platteville with 52, sixth-place UW-Stevens Point with 32, seventh-place UW-Whitewater with 31 and eighth-place UW-River Falls with 29.
UW-La Crosse entered the 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 listed 11th and UW-Stout 24th.
Demco defeated 25 other challengers in the 800-meter run with her winning time of 2:16.41. UW-Eau Claire's Anna Schueth finished second in the event with a time of 2:17.28 while Titans Cyna Madigan and Libby Geisness placed fourth and fifth with runs of 2:18.73. and 2:19.14, respectively. Geisness was the defending event champion.
Demco also outran 11 other competitors in the mile run with her victorious time of 5:01.96. UW-La Crosse's Maddie Hannan finished second in the race with a time of 5:06.17 while UW-Oshkosh's Hannah Lohrenz placed fourth at 5:08.22 and Amelia Lehman sixth at 5:08.60.
In the distance medley relay, Demco helped teammates Geisness, Lohrenz and Madigan to a first-place time of 11:57.65 that ranks sixth nationally this season. UW-Eau Claire finished second to the Titans in the relay with a time of 12:23.18.
Riley Kindt produced an event title for UW-Oshkosh with her winning school-record time of 8.64 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles. Kindt's performance, the fourth best in Division III this season, broke UW-Oshkosh's previous school mark of 8.69 set by Taylor Sherry in 2016. Kindt defeated 19 other rivals at this year's championship, including UW-La Crosse's Emma Lawrence who placed second with a time of 8.65 seconds.
Kindt additionally finished fourth in both the high jump and long jump with measurements of 5-4 1/4 and 18-3 3/4.
UW-Oshkosh tallied its 19 points in the 20-pound weight throw on the finishes of Brenna Masloroff, Allie Marineau, Skyler Genz and Elise Deaver. Masloroff placed second in the event with a distance of 55-7 3/4 that ranks 16th nationally while Marineau finished fourth at 52-8 1/4, Genz fifth at 51-6 1/2 and Deaver seventh at 50-8 3/4.
The Titans also had Emma Warr finish fourth with a height of 11-8 1/2 in the pole vault and Molly Greeninger sixth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.90 seconds.=
UW-Oshkosh's 1,600-meter relay team of Geisness, Madigan, Meygan Benzing and Alaina Wagner finished sixth with a time of 4:06.54.
UW-Oshkosh will compete in last chance national qualifiers at Ripon and Wartburg (Iowa) colleges next weekend (March 4-5) before participating at the Division III Championship on March 11-12 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Photo courtesy of UW-Platteville Sports Information