Titans Have Three Champions, Finish Third At WIAC Championship
Junior Cara Volz won the triple jump for the second time in three seasons as UW-Oshkosh had three event champions at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship (presented by Culver's) held Friday and Saturday (Feb. 28-29) in Kolf Sports Center.
Volz, who missed the 2019 championship due to an injury, defeated 15 other competitors with her winning and season-best triple jump measurement of 38-0 3/4. She won the event with a leap of 38-4 3/4 at the 2018 championship after placing third with a mark of 37-2 1/2 in 2017. This year's distance by Volz ranks 19th among all NCAA Division III performers.
UW-Oshkosh received winning efforts on the track from freshman Libby Geisness and senior Ashton Keene.
Geisness outran 24 other participants in the 800-meter run with her winning time of 2:16.03. Geisness, UW-Oshkosh's first WIAC 800-meter run champion since Kylee Verhasselt in 2015, ranks 16th nationally with her season-best time of 2:15.76 from the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge on Feb. 22.
Keene won the 3,000-meter run to become the third different Titan to win the event at the WIAC Championship in four years. Keene defeated 20 other runners in this year's race with her time of 10:18.71. Keene's victory followed the 3,000-meter run titles Titans Erica Munyan in 2017 and Cheyenne Moore last year.
UW-Oshkosh, a 13-time WIAC champion, finished third in this year's team standings with 92 points after placing fourth in 2019 with 77. The Titans scored in 14 of this year's 17 events.
UW-La Crosse amassed 230 points to claim it seventh WIAC team title in eight years and 27th overall. Defending champion UW-Eau Claire finished second with 127.5 points, UW-Oshkosh third and UW-Stevens Point fourth with 64. UW-La Crosse entered the meet ranked fourth in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division III Rating Index.
Rounding out the team listings were fifth-place UW-Whitewater with 49 points, 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 are the only current league members to win a WIAC women's indoor track & field title.
UW-Oshkosh finished second in three events, including the 5,000-meter run where Keene ran to a season-best time of 17:44.47. She now ranks 34th in the country after her run.
Titan Emma Warr contributed a second-place finish of 12-0 3/4 in the pole vault. Her height, which established a season best, ranks 19th in the nation.
Also finishing second was UW-Oshkosh's distance medley relay group of Alexandra Demco, Taylor Pralle, Lauren Rabe and Amanda Van Den Plas. The contingent combined for a time of 12:22.01, the 23rd fastest in the country.
Mikayla Jackson and Hannah Lohrenz also placed in two events for the Titans.
Jackson finished fifth in the 60-meter dash with a season-best time of 7.85 seconds and seventh in the 200-meter dash at 26.19. Her time in the 60-meter dash ranks 38th nationally.
Lohrenz placed third in the mile run with a time of 5:06.93 and seventh in the 800-meter run at 2:18.69. She ranks 32nd nationally with her time of 2:17.03 in the 800-meter run from the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge and 40th with her time of 5:06.42 in the mile run from the UW-Stevens Point Big Dawg Invitational on Feb. 8.
UW-Oshkosh had two scorers in the 20-pound weight throw as Morgan Florek finished fifth with a measurement of 54-4 3/4 and Mikaela Zolecki sixth at 53-9 3/4. Florek ranks 15th in the country with her distance of 57-2 1/4 from the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge and Zolecki 34th with her season-best mark from the WIAC Championship.
The Titans also had Sydney Thompson finish fifth in the shot put with a measurement of 43-5, Kyra Huber seventh in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.93 seconds, Erica Lorenz seventh in the pentathlon with 2,942 points, Danae Prange seventh in the triple jump with a distance of 36-7 3/4 and Sadie Huth eighth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.81 seconds.
Thompson ranks 24th nationally with her season-best mark of 43-9 from the UW-Oshkosh Early Bird Invitational on Dec. 7 and Lorenz 49th with her season-high score from the WIAC Championship,
UW-Oshkosh's 1,600-meter relay of Demco, Pralle, Morgan Endries and Melissa Srnka supplied a third-place time of 4:03.10.
UW-Oshkosh will perform in last chance national qualifiers at Carthage College on Friday (March 6) and UW-Stevens Point on Saturday (March 7) before participating at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship on March 13-14 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
2020 WIAC Men's & Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship Program