Titans Honored With 19 All-America Track & Field Awards
A nation-leading 19 members of the UW-Oshkosh men's indoor track & field team have received NCAA Division III All-America honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The Titans' 19 honorees were tied with Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) for most in the country.
Normal policies dictate that USTFCCCA All-America honors are awarded to the top eight finishers in each individual and relay event at the Division III Indoor Championship. However, due to the world-wide coronavirus pandemic and the cancellation of the national meet, all 675 student-athletes declared and initially accepted into the 2020 championship were named All-Americans.
The top 20 declared student-athletes in each individual event and the top 12 teams in the relay events were set to compete at the Division III Men's & Women's Championship on March 13-14 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Receiving All-America accolades for UW-Oshkosh were Jamyle Brantley and Roman Hill in the long jump; Zachary Emmer, Eli Tranel and Joe Vils in the pole vault; Andrew George in the mile run; Jaylen Grant and Robert Ogbuli in the 60-meter dash; Benjamin Jung in the 200-meter dash; Steven Potter in the 800-meter run; Justin Rivers in the high jump; Jackson Sheckler and Nick Tegtmeier in the shot put; Lochlan Siegmeier in the heptathlon; and Jonathan Wilburn in the triple jump.
Titans Todd Beadle, Ethan Burch, Adrian Girone and Amitai Wheat also earned All-America recognition in the 1,600-meter relay.
UW-Oshkosh's list of participants for the national championship was to have been led by Wilburn. He earned the meet's top triple jump seed following his school-record measurement of 50-3 1/4 at the Ripon College Red Hawk Opener held Jan. 25. Wilburn, a sophomore, marked a distance of 49-1 3/4 at the WIAC Championship held Feb. 28-29 in Kolf Sports Center to win the event for the second straight year.
Grant, a freshman, was seeded fourth in the 60-meter dash for the national meet with his season-best and school-record time of 6.81 seconds from the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge held Feb. 22. He finished second in the event at the WIAC Championship.
Potter, a sophomore, was seeded fifth in the 800-meter run for the national championship with his second-place and season-best time of 1:52.70 from the WIAC Championship.
UW-Oshkosh's 1,600-meter relay team of Beadle, Burch, Girone and Wheat was seeded second for the national meet with their season-best time of 3:16.83 from the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge. Beadle is a senior while Wheat is a sophomore and both Burch and Girone freshmen.
Other Titans garnering top-10 seeds for the national meet were Vils in the pole vault, Brantley in the long jump, Sheckler in the shot put and Rivers in the high jump.
Vils, a senior, was seeded seventh in the pole vault. He finished second with a season-best height of 16-1 1/4 at the WIAC Championship.
Brantley, a sophomore, was seeded eighth in the long jump following his victorious and season-best leap of 23-9 1/2 at the WIAC Championship.
Sheckler was scheduled to be the eighth seed in the shot put. The sophomore earned that listing with a season-best throw of 56-5 1/4 in a dual meet against Lawrence University on Jan. 18. Sheckler finished second in the event at the WIAC Championship.
Rivers was seeded eighth in the high jump. The junior achieved a season-best height of 6-9 1/2 at the UW-Stevens Point Big Dawg Invitational held Feb. 8.
UW-Oshkosh, the national co-champion in 2009, placed second at the Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2013. The Titans also earned top-four trophies in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 before finishing ninth in 2019.