School records fall at Wartburg meet

The UW-Platteville track and field team traveled to Waverly, Iowa to compete in the Wartburg Indoor Select Meet Friday and Saturday. The Pioneer men competed amongst six other teams including University of St. Thomas, Wartburg College, Central College, Simpson College, University of Dubuque, and UW-River Falls. The Pioneer women competed against those teams as well as UW-La Crosse, Winona State University, and Cornell College. 

Team scores were recorded, and both Pioneer men and women finished fourth among the competing teams. 

The heptathlon and pentathlon events kicked off the meet on Friday. The Pioneers had five athletes competing in their first multi-event of the season. Jacob Hirsbrunner finished in first place in the heptathlon, scoring 4691 points throughout the two-day event. Cody Faust came in sixth place with 4,279 points, moving up in the field after setting nearly a two foot personal best in the pole vault. Hirsbrunner's win set a new school record previously held by Eric Bakkum set in 2007 with 4,667 points. Hirsbrunner currently sits second in WIAC rankings and eighth in NCAA DIII national heptathlon rankings. Faust ranks fifth among WIAC heptathletes. 

The women in the pentathlon included seniors Megan Marotz and Krysta Parson, junior Lindsay Dujardin, and freshman Haley Nelson. Marotz took first place, winning the pentathlon event with 3,188 points. She came within 160 points of breaking the UW-Platteville school record. Teammate Krysta Parson took sixth with a new personal best of 2,780 points. Marotz now ranks second in the WIAC and seventh nationally. Parson ranks seventh in the WIAC. 

With the bar already set high, day two brought two more first place finishes for the Pioneer men and three for the Pioneer women. Sophomore Zach Lee pulled away from his heat to take first in 800m with 1:57.48. Freshman Charlie Gifford won the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.44, placing him sixth in the conference rankings. 

For the Pioneer women, two of the three first place finishes came from senior Amber Williams. In the 60m hurdles, Williams won running a time of 9.20 seconds breaking Caitlin Thompson's school record of 9.27 set in 2015. Williams also won the triple jump with a season best of 40-5, now ranked first nationally. Following later in the day, Williams set a new personal best in the indoor 200m dash when she took second with a time of 26.14, only 0.13 seconds away from breaking a school record. Another first place finish came for the Pioneer women in the pole vault when sophomore Brittany Ehlen jumped 11-4.5, setting a new personal collegiate best. 

The Pioneer men continued to impress with several second finishes through out the day Saturday. Sophomore Kyle Buechner grabbed second in the 600m run with a time of 1:24.73. Freshman Sam Bornitzke snatched another second place finish in the pole vault, jumping 14-1.75. Teammates Josh Miller and Greg Vogt took sixth (14-1.75) and seventh place (13-1.75) respectively in the pole vault. Senior Kyle Whaley took second place in the shot put with a throw of 51-11. 

More top performances from the Pioneer men produced third place finishes. Tonie Johnson took third in the 400m dash with a new personal best of 50.95 seconds. Junior Logan Steinhoff pulled away with third in the mile running a personal best time of 4:24.14. Freshman Noah Steiner finished third in the high jump after clearing 6-5.5. 

As for the Pioneer women, senior Chelsey Heiden grabbed second place in the 5,000m with a time of 17:41.90 placing her third in the conference rankings, top 20 nationally. Senior Abigail Merriam took third in the high jump with 5-05. Devan Montgomery and Kayla Schneider took home third and fourth place respectively in the 1000m with times of 3:08.56 (Montgomery) and 3:11.51 (Schneider). Freshman Rachel Beuthin also grabbed a fourth place finish in the shot put with a throw of 41-5.25. 

Next Saturday, the Pioneers look forward to hosting the UW-Platteville Invitational. Field events are scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and running events at 11:30 a.m. 

By Patricia Laufenberg, UW-Platteville Athletics