Titans Set to Open Outdoor Season in Platteville and St. Louis
OSHKOSH, Wis.- The UW-Oshkosh men's track and field team will continue the 2023 season on Saturday, sending student-athletes to UW-Platteville and Washington University in St. Louis.
The Titans finished the indoor season with a second place WIAC finish and a fifth place finish in the NCAA Championships held in Birmingham, Ala.
The Titans finished the indoor season with a third place WIAC finish and a fifth place finish in the NCAA Championships.
13 Titans earned All-WIAC honors, Andrew Rathkamp was named to the All-Sportsmanship team and senior Jamyle Brantley was named the Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete in Menomonie. Senior Steven Potter won both the mile run and 800-meter run for First Team honors. Sophomore AK Toheeb-Lawal, seniors Eli Tranel and Jonathan Wilburn and sophomore Caleb Cornelius all earned their own First Team honors with wins in the long jump, pole vault, triple jump and high jump, respectively.
The team also earned six All-America honors in Birmingham, Ala. Wilburn again won the triple jump, finishing with a program record 15.56-meter jump. Also earning All-America honors were; Tranel in third in the pole vault, freshman Aden Sears in third in the heptathlon for a program record 5,156 points, Cornelius in third in the high jump, the 4x400-meter squad in seventh and junior RJ Bosshart in eighth in the heptathlon. The Distance Medley Relay team was one of nine teams that broke the championship record, finishing in ninth and setting the new program record at 9:52.83.
Head coach Justin Kinseth brings back 37 letterwinners for the outdoor season.
The defending seven-time WIAC outdoor champions will begin their season in Platteville and St. Louis before heading to UW-La Crosse for the Ashton May Invitational on April 7. They will return to Platteville for the UW-Platteville Invitational on April 14 and 15 and spend the following weekend in La Crosse for the Phil Esten Challenge.
The Titans will end April at the Drake University (Iowa) Relays from April 28-30 and also send student-athletes to UW-Eau Claire for the Dick & Mary Johnson Invitational on the 28th.
UW-Whitewater will host the 104th WIAC Outdoor Championships from May 5-6. Oshkosh will seek its second consecutive trophy after beating UW-La Crosse by a single point, 174-173, at the Veterans Memorial Sports Complex in La Crosse. The win ended La Crosse's 30-year run of winning the meet. The Titans last won the meet in 1990, ending another run of 12-straight titles won by the Eagles.
Event winners at last year's meet included Steven Potter (800-meter run), John Ford (400-meter hurdles), Jonathan Wilburn (triple jump), Adrian Girone (4x100-meter relay), Aaron Richardson (4x100-meter relay), Robert Ogbuli (4x100-meter relay), and Jaylen Grant (4x100-meter relay).
Cody Witthuhn was named to the All-Sportsmanship Team and the coaching staff earned Coaching Staff of the Year.
Oshkosh then travels to La Crosse for the Eagle Open on May 12 and La Crosse and Rock Island, Ill. on May 18 for the UW-La Crosse Final Qualifier and Augustana College Midwest Twilight.
From May 25-27, the team will compete in their 39th consecutive NCAA Division III Men's Championships, held at the Polisseni Track and Field Complex in Rochester, N.Y. Oshkosh won their sole outdoor national championship at the end of the 2009 season after winning the indoor championship earlier the same season. Last year, Oshkosh placed 10th at the meet in Geneva, Ohio, collecting eight All-America honors.