Pioneers' Track and Field Begin 2011 Outdoor Season

At the Washington University Mini Invite in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's track and field team competed in their first outdoor meet of the season.

On the men's side, UW-Platteville's Matthew Ziegler was victorious in the 400-meter dash in a time of 49.97; sophomore teammate Ben Farrell was third in 50.62. The Pioneers took the six of the top seven places, including the top four, in the 5,000-meter run. Junior Nate Petesch won the race in 14:55.06. The performance by Petesch is .06 shy of the NCAA provisional mark of 14:55 and behind Petesch was senior Jason Garvens in 14:57.28, junior Anthony Swimm in 15:19.77 and junior Scott Clark in 15:31.71. The mile relay team of Farrell, T.J. Valley, Ian Yenter and Damon Trainor won by five seconds in 3:27.67.

The Pioneers swept second through fourth in the 100-meter dash led by sophomore Aaron Hrubes, who finished in 11.42. He was followed by junior Lynn Oyawiri (11.43) and Casey Goffinet (11.50). Sophomore Aaron Loferski was second in the 110-meter hurdles (15.89) and in the 400-meter hurdles (58.74). Freshman Patrick Kessenich was third in the 200-meter dash in a time of 23.51 and in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.19.

Pioneers' sophomore Jake Wiederholt was second in the discus with a throw of 134-6 and also in the field events, UW-Platteville got three third-place finishes in the field events including freshman Bruce King in the high jump with a clearance of 5-10 3/4, Alex Gooding in the discus with a throw of 124-4 and Jon Petrie in the shot put with a toss of 41-2 1/2.

The Pioneers will compete next at the Wartburg Select on Saturday, April 2nd.