Williams and Whaley Win at Ashton May Invite
The UW-Platteville track and field teams competed at the Ashton May Invitational hosted by UW-La Crosse on Saturday. The Pioneers came away with two event winners as Amber Williams took the long jump and Kyle Whaley bested the field in the shot put.
The UW-Platteville track and field teams competed at the Ashton May Invitational hosted by UW-La Crosse on Saturday. The Pioneers came away with two event winners as Amber Williams took the long jump and Kyle Whaley bested the field in the shot put.
Williams opened her long jump season with a 5.86m (19-2.75) leap. She currently holds the No. 3 spot in the national rankings for the event. Williams also participated in the 100 hurdles and 200m just missing breaking both of her school records by .03 seconds. She finished 3rd in the hurdles with a time of 14.70 and 7th in the 200m in 25.43.
Whaley won the shot put for the second weekend in a row. He improved his mark from last weekend to 16.48m (54-1), currently 11th in Division III.
Senior Pentathlete All-American Megan Marotz stepped outside her normal routine of events and impressed with a personal best of 58.00 in the 400m placing third. Marotz is proving to be a key component in getting a 4x400 meter relay qualified to the NCAA Championships.
Another key component will be Devan Montgomery. Montgomery finished fourth in the 800m with a 2:19.50. She was part of last year's national qualifying 4x400 meter relay.
Freshman Charlie Gifford improved his time from last weekend from 15.45 to 15.33 in the preliminaries. Gifford lower that time to 15.03 in the finals, although the mark will not count toward the conference or national honor rolls since it was over the allowable 4.0 meters per second.
Fighting the wind fellow freshman hurdler Matt Hokanson was able to run a personal best of 56.41 in the 400m hurdles. Hokanson won his heat and placed 5th overall.
Sophomore pole vaulter Brittany Ehlen just missed her attempts at breaking the school record. Ehlen cleared 3.40m (11-1.75) finishing fourth in the event.
Junior Matt Dwyer jumped over 16-feet for the second weekend in a row. He cleared 4.91m (16-1.25) to finish fifth.
Also finishing fifth was freshman thrower Rachel Beuthin. She improved her season best mark to 13.23m (43-5).
The Pioneers will host the UW-Platteville Invitational this Thursday and Friday. Thursday evening will see elite 5,000m races where Ian LaMere will make his season debut after having taking time off for a stress fracture during the indoor season. The hammer throw will also be contested on Thursday with the remainder of the events being contested on Friday.