Pioneers Post Strong Performances at Augustana College Meet of Champions

On Friday and Saturday at the Augustana College Meet of Champions, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men’s track and field team posted many strong performances.

On the men’s side, in the 10,000-meter run, UW-Platteville’s Nate Petesch and Jason Garvens posted NCAA provisional marks and were third (30:48.15) and fourth (30:51.29), respectively. The 30:48.15 by Petesch is the 10th-fastest in the nation, whereas Garvens’ performance is the 11th-fastest performance. Plus, teammate Anthony Swimm was eighth in 31:27.15.

Aaron Loferski continued a strong outdoor season, winning the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.83. Despite a 4.0 meters per second wind reading, the performance ranks as the 10th fastest in the nation. Fellow hurdler T.J. Valley was third in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 56.95.

Pioneers’ Aaron Hrubes and Matthew Ziegler were second (21.94) and fourth (22.19) in the 200-meter dash. Plus, Patrick Kessenich and Ben Farrell were sixth (22.88) and eighth (22.93), respectively. Jared Bradfish and Chas Spangenberg were second and fourth in the pole vault with clearances of 15-3. The top four places were decided based on jumps.

Also for UW-Platteville, Scott Clark was fourth in the 1,500-meter run in a season-best time of 4:08.49 and Preston Baker was fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 43-9.25. Ian Yenter took seventh in the decathlon with 5,146 points, his top point performances came in his victory in the 400-meter dash and his runner-up performance in the 1,500-meter run.

The Pioneers had three eighth-place finishes including Brandon Harms in the 800-meter run (2:03.51), Bill Clift in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:53.26) and Ace McCarty in the high jump (6-2.75).