Two school records fall on day one of WIAC Championships
River Falls, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin – Platteville track and field team began the WIAC Outdoor Championship weekend on Friday, May 4. The Pioneers competed in several preliminary events, and a few final events on day 1 of the championships.
In the preliminary events, freshman Katie Schilling advanced in the 100m hurdles. Schilling ran 14.73 in her preliminary heat, seeded in fourth going into finals. Schilling also qualified to finals in the 400m hurdles when she ran 1:06.38. Sophomores Charlie Gifford and Matt Hokanson advanced in the 110m hurdles, seeded in fourth and fifth place respectively. Hokanson as well as Cole Gore qualified on to the finals of the 400m hurdles. Hokanson ran 56.77, seeding him in third place, and Gore, seeded sixth, with 57.47 seconds.
Senior Briana Iwans advanced into the 400m finals when she ran a 1:00.16 qualifying time in the preliminary heat. Paul Rapp also advanced in the 400m after running 50.10.
In the 100m dash, freshman Rodrick McMiller improved upon his own school record in the 100m dash. McMiller ran 10.56 to qualify to finals. McMiller also qualified on to the 200m finals with a preliminary time of 21.38 seconds, seeded in second place. Ryan Swanson competed for 15th place in the 100m dash running a personal best of 11.14 seconds. Chenoa Stuhr improved her personal best time in the 100m dash to 12.67 seconds finishing in 11th place.
The Pioneer's Female Athlete of the Year, Johanna Meister advanced to the 800m finals. She ran a personal best of 2:15.69 battling gusting winds to place herself seeded fourth going into finals. Meister will also compete in the 1500m and 4x400m relay on day two of competition. Zach Lee is seeded in second after the men's preliminaries of the 800m. Lee ran 1:55.01 to qualify for finals.
The decathletes, Cody Faust and Jacob Hirsbrunner, competed in the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400m dash on day one. Faust and Hirsbrunner both finished with a personal best in the 100m, with the help of a tail wind, running 11.40 and 11.59 seconds respectively. Faust led the field in the long jump with a best jump of 6.44m (21-1.5). Hirsbrunner finished first in the high jump with a mark of 1.91m (6-3.25). In the 400m, Hirsbrunner led the field crossing the line in 51.57, while Faust finished in third with 51.86. Hirsbrunner lands himself in second place and Faust in fourth going into day two of competition. On day two, the decathletes will compete in the 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1500m.
As for the final events competed in today, Brittany Ehlen finished tied for second place in the pole vault. The junior broke her own school record by one centimeter completing a vault for 3.61m (11-10).
In the men's javelin, Jacob Rice and Josh Miller came in 10th and 11th place throwing 47.91m (157-2) and 47.67m (156-5) respectively.
Sophomore Devin Johnson competed for seventh place in the 3,000m steeplechase, running a smart and tactical race in 9:43.33. Johnson established a new personal best during the race. Teammate Zach Klokow finished just outside of scoring, in ninth place running 9:47.93, also a personal best.
The last event of the evening was the 10,000m run. Junior Katie Wardinski finished in third place with a time of 39:06.61. Teammates Kimberly Gutierrez, Camille Felton, Mariah Brown, and Hannah Ihlenfeldt competed in the 10,000m as well. For the Pioneer men, Logan Steinhoff capitalized on a third place finish in the 10,000m running 32:14.15. Teammates Kyle Herbrand and freshman Grant Munson landed the last two scoring positions, seventh and eighth place respectively. Teammates Matthew Smith, Devin Johnson, and Isaac Schuetz also competed in the 10,000m run.
The Pioneers will compete in the final events of the 2018 regular outdoor season on day two of the WIAC Outdoor Championship weekend, beginning at 10 a.m. with the decathlon. The Pioneer men currently are in sixth place and the Pioneer women in seventh place of team scores.
