WIAC Championship Among Four Meets To Be Hosted By Women's Indoor Track & Field Team
The UW-Oshkosh women's indoor track & field team gets the 2019-20 season underway by hosting the Early Bird Invitational on Saturday (Dec. 7) in Kolf Sports Center.
The Titans, who have finished among the top two teams at the NCAA Division III Championship a record 16 times, have won their season-opening Early Bird Invitational the past two years.
UW-Oshkosh is set to host four meets in Kolf Sports Center this season, including the WIAC Championship on Feb. 28-29. The Titans also welcome Lawrence and Marian universities Jan. 18 before hosting the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge on Feb. 22. The WIAC Championship returns to UW-Oshkosh for the first time since 2016.
UW-Oshkosh's schedule includes a pair of trips to both Ripon College and UW-Whitewater. The Titans will travel to Ripon for the Red Hawk Opener on Jan. 25 and the Red Hawk Invitational on Feb. 8 and to Whitewater for the Warhawk Classic Invitational on Feb. 1 and the Midwest ELITE Invitational on Feb. 15.
Completing UW-Oshkosh's regular season schedule are the Ted Nelson Classic at Minnesota State University on Feb. 8 and final NCAA qualifying meets at Carthage College on March 6 and UW-Stevens Point on March 7.
The Division III Championship will be held March 13-14 at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Last season UW-Oshkosh placed fourth at the WIAC Championship and 27th at the Division III Championship. The Titans, who have scored points at each of the past 34 NCAA indoor meets, have finished in the top four at the conference championship each year since 1985.
UW-Oshkosh third-year head coach Justin Kinseth brings back 24 previous letter winners, including 2018 WIAC triple jump champion Cara Volz, who missed most of last season due to an injury, and a pair of 2019 NCAA All-Region performers in junior Amanda Van Den Plas and sophomore Hannah Lohrenz.
Volz, a junior, became UW-Oshkosh's eighth conference triple jump champion two seasons ago before going on to finish 15th at the 2018 Division III Championship.
Van Den Plas earned All-Region accolades in both the mile run and the distance medley relay last season. She placed 18th in the country in the mile run after producing a runner-up finish in the event at the 2019 WIAC Championship. Van Den Plas also placed eighth in the 3,000-meter run at the conference meet a year ago.
Lohrenz was a member of the Titans' distance medley relay squad that garnered All-Region honors and finished fifth in the conference.
UW-Oshkosh also welcomes back senior Ashton Keene; juniors Sadie Huth, Erica Lorenz and Katie Retzlaff; and sophomores Danae Prange and Madeline Hoekstra, who each finished among the top 10 individually at last season's WIAC Championship.
Huth placed fourth at the 2019 conference meet in both the 60-meter hurdles and the long jump while Keene finished fifth in the 5,000- and ninth in the 3,000-meter runs, Prange sixth in the triple jump and Hoekstra ninth in the 20-pound weight throw. Lorenz and Retzlaff were 10th in the pentathlon and 60-meter hurdles, respectively.
UW-Oshkosh owns a Division III record nine team indoor titles and seven runner-up finishes. The Titans won national championships in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2014 while placing second in the country in 1990, 1991, 1992, 2002, 2010, 2012 and 2015.