More Records Broken as Pioneers Win Five Events on WIAC Day 2
The UW-Platteville Track and Field teams took benefit of the home field advantage to step up and win five events on day two of the WIAC Championships. The Pioneer women alone took home titles in five events over the course of the weekend, the second highest total for any women’s team at the Championships.
PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The UW-Platteville Track and Field teams took benefit of the home field advantage to step up and win five events on day two of the WIAC Championships. The Pioneer women alone took home titles in five events over the course of the weekend, the second highest total for any women's team at the Championships.
After winning the long jump Friday, Amber Williams headed into the finals in second place but took the lead in the fifth round with a facility record breaking jump. Williams went on to improve her mark with her sixth and final jump and finished the day with a 12.14m (39-10) best. Her mark moves her into the sixth spot on the Division III season best list. Williams also moved into the sixth spot in the Division III season best list in the 100m hurdles. She took the lead early on in the finals and went on to win in a new school record 14.44 seconds.
Megan Marotz came into the Championships with the top mark in the Heptathlon. With one event left she was in second place but ran away from the field in the 800m, the final event of the heptathlon, to claim the WIAC title. Marotz finished the seven event discipline with a facility record 4493 points. She currently holds the sixth best mark in the Division III rankings.
Devan Montgomery was the final female Pioneer to win a title. Montgomery toed the line with the third best time from Friday's preliminary round of the 800m. A confident Montgomery started to pull away from the field on the second lap and put an insurmountable gap on the field to win with a time of 2:13.51. Montgomery dropped her personal best by two and half seconds over the course of the weekend and climbed into the 25th spot of the Division III rankings.
Cody Faust surprised the field winning the decathlon and broke the oldest school record with a score of 6454 points. Faust became the first Pioneer athlete to ever win the decathlon at the WIAC Championships. He achieved personal bests in six out of the ten events to improve his mark by 273 points in the two-day discipline. Faust broke the 40-year old record set by Pat Simmons in 1977 by 49 points and moves into the eight spot in this season's Division III best list.
Kyle Whaley finished second in the shot put with a 16.40m (53-9.75) toss in the second round. His mark was only bested by former national champion Theron Baumann of UW-Whitewater who finished the day with a 16.93m (55-6.5) mark. Whaley is currently ranked 11th on the Division III season best list.
The women's 4x400m of Marotz, Briana Iwans, Williams and Montgomery finished second in 3:53.12. The time was a 6-second improvement on the foursome's previous season best.
Zach Lee took third in the 1500m running a four-second personal best. Lee ran 3:52.52, running under the previous facility record. Lee came back to finish fifth in the 800m in 1:53.86. On the national honor roll he is currently ranked 16th in the 800m and 21st in the 1500m.
Brittany Ehlen finished fourth in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.44m (11-3.5).
Alec Burcham finished fourth in the 400m in 49.00 with teammate Wyatt Thompson taking seventh in 49.22. Burcham and Thompson came back with Gregory Stribling and Kyle Buechner to finish fourth in the 4x400m with a time of 3:19.41.
Rachel Beuthin finished fifth in the shot put with a toss of 13.26m (43-6). Noah Steiner tied for fifth in the high jump with a clearance of 1.97m (6-5.5).
Freshman Charlie Gifford finished sixth in the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.20. Fellow freshman hurdler Matthew Hokanson finished sixth in the 400m hurdles in a new personal best 55.14 seconds.
The Women's 4x100m of Iwans, Chenoa Stuhr, Rachel Aumueller and Aurora Roberson finished sixth with a time of 50.68.
After finishing eigth in the 10,000m on Friday, Logan Steinhoff ran a personal best of 15:14.38 to finish eighth in the 5,000m.
Abigail Merriam tied for eighth with a 1.55m (5-1) clearance in the high jump.
The men finished sixth overall with 70 points. UW-La Crosse took the team title with 214 points. On the women's side UW-Platteville finished seventh with 78.5 points. UW-La Crosse took the team title with 172.5 points.
