2018 WIAC Track and Field Championship
RIVER FALLS (May 4, 2018) -
Walker Olson,
Mike Friedman and
Sam Elsner brought home conference titles on the first day of the 2018 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Track and Field Championship Friday at Ramer Field. After the first day, the Blue Devils were in second place as a team.
Olson captured the javelin title, hitting a personal-best mark of 178-feet, 6-inches, on his final throw of the breezy, warm afternoon. Olson had finished runner-up in the javelin during the 2015 season. Olson's mark was four feet over his previous best. Olson was also competing in the two-day decathlon event.
With the 10,000-meter start time pushed back to around sunset, Friedman took his first conference title, pacing the field in a time of 32-minutes, 9.52-seconds, winning the event by just over two seconds over UW-La Crosse's Matt Bourland (32:12.03).
Dan Ressler finished fifth (32:37.64).
Elsner was the top seed in the hammer throw, and the senior lived up to the billing...and then some. Elsner three times surpassed 60-meters and twice went over 200-feet. Elsner broke 200-feet in the hammer for the first time in his career on the final throw of the preliminaries, marking a toss of 200-10 (61.22m). That throw in itself would have captured the title, but Elsner one-upped himself on his final toss of the meet, going 201-6.
Anton Proksch returned to podium with an eighth place finish (171-0).
Duncan Magerl placed 17th with a career-best toss of 154-6).
Freshman
Noah Zastrow earned second team all-conference honors in the pole vault with a career-best height of 16-4.75.
Josh Freyholtz and
Robert Mesenburg tied for sixth place with a height of 15-7.
Christian Lucchesi placed ninth (15-7).
Freyholtz was third in the long jump, leaping a season-best mark of 23-4. Freyholtz was 15th in the javelin 146-0) and Joe Van Grinsven was 12th (153-1).
Mike Fifield worked his way to the platform with a fourth place finish in the 3000-meter steeplechase in a time of 9:37.69.
Freshman
Brent Heilman advanced to the finals of the 100-meter dash with a ninth place finish (11.04) earning the final qualifying spot. Heilman missed out on qualifying for the 200m, placing 13th (22.34).
Andrew Gilles moved on to the finals in the 800-meter, placing eighth (1:56.47).
Sam Wouters was 18th (2:03.49) in the hurdle and water-hazard event.
Freshman
Mason Barth will compete in the finals of the 400-hurdles after a fourth place finish in the preliminaries (56.88).
Jude Pelowski placed 16th (61.97) and
Seth Plenge was 19th (63.20).
Parker Rongstad came up one place short of qualifying in the 110-hurdles, finishing 10th (15.26), missing by two one-hundredths of a second.
Ross Thompson placed 12th in the 400m (51.09),
Cody Lohrenz 15th (51.36) and
Lucas Carroll 18th (51.44).
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