Men and Women Place Fourth at WIAC Championships

Four Pioneers earned All-Conference honors as both teams ended the day with fourth place finishes at the WIAC Championships. The men's 8,000m and women's 6,000m championship races were hosted by UW-Whitewater where 92 men and 88 women competed.

The day began with the men's championship race which resulted in Zach Lee and Walker Rynes earning First Team All-Conference honors. Lee crossed the finish in fourth place with a personal best time of 25:10 and Rynes followed in fifth place in a time of 25:11. Nolan Wallenkamp ran a 49-second personal best to be the Pioneers' third man. Wallenkamp crossed the finish in 34^th place with a time of 26:25.

Ben Rhode finished 41^st in 26:32 and Kyle Herbrand was 43^rd in 26:38. Rounding out the scoring top-7 were Cole Shurbert-Hetzel (45^th, 26:42) and Logan Steinhoff (52^nd, 26:59). Also competing were Isaac Schuetz (53^rd, 27:00), Ben Nemec (56^th, 27:05), Mitchell Frager (57^th, 27:07), Mitchell Muffler (68^th, 27:26) and Alex Clark (72^nd, 27:31).

The men finished with 113 points behind UW-Eau Claire's 81 points. Finishing second was UW-Stout with 64 points and UW-La Crosse won the title with 35 points.

The women followed with one of the best performances in school history. Their fourth place finish was the third time in program history the Pioneers have cracked the top-4. The Pioneers hadn't seen a top-4 finish since their 2^nd place finish in 2007.

The women ended with 130 points to UW-River Falls' 91. UW-La Crosse was second with 59 points and UW-Eau Claire took the team title with 33 points.

Leading the charge was Johanna Meister earning second team All-Conference. Her time of 22:48 earned her a 12^th place finish. Following close behind and also earning second team All-Conference was Katie Wardinski. She crossed the finish in 13^th place with a time of 22:54. Running a personal best, Janelle Ferguson crossed in 23:30, good enough for 30^th place. Camille Felton followed in 47^th with a time of 24:18. Caitlyn Ifft was the Pioneers' fifth runner in 54^th place and a time of 24:41. Rounding out the top-7 was Kaitlyn Galgon finishing 59^th in 24:47 and Mariah Brown placing 62^nd in 24:53.

Also competing were Kimberly Gutierrez (64^th, 24:57), Brenna Kautz (78^th, 26:09), Hannah Ihlenfeldt (79^th, 26:10), Anna Drazkowski (81^st, 26:27), and Kristin Sheyko (86^th, 26:40).

Walker Rynes and Johanna Meister were named to the All-Sportsmanship Team while Hannah Ihlenfeldt and Cole Shurbert-Hetzel were nominated to receive the WIAC Scholar-Athlete Award.

The Pioneers compete next in two weeks at the NCAA Midwest Regional meet.