Five Blue Devils garner USTFCCCA All-Region honors

2021 USTFCCCA All-Region

MENOMONIE (March 19, 2021) - Five members of the UW-Stout men's track and field team earned All-Region honors for the 2021 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field season were announced on Friday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Alec Benzinger, Jacob Bugella, Kevin Ruechel, Spencer Schultz and Noah Zastrow were honored by the coaches' association. Zastrow and Ruechel are repeat all-region selections, while Benzinger, Bugella and Schultz earn indoor track all-region honors for the first time.

To earn All-Region honors, an athlete must be one of the top-5 individuals in their respective region on the final TFRRS Descending Order List. In addition, each member of a region's top-3 relay team was also selected for distinction.

Benzinger was selected all-region in both the shot put and the weight throw. Nationally, Benzinger is seventh in the shot put with a mark of 54-feet, 1-inch in a dual with UW-La Crosse, Feb. 20, and eighth nationally in the weight throw of 58-10.25 at the WIAC Last Chance Meet, March 6.  In the WIAC, Benzinger is ranked second in both the shot put and the weight throw.

Bugella is the top-ranked weight thrower in the country and finished first in all five meets he competed in. Bugella cracked 60-feet for the first time when he tossed the weight 62-feet, 5-inches at the WIAC Last Chance Meet. The mark is third on the school's Top 10 list. 

Ruechel also finished the season No. 1, breaking his own school record in the shot put when his unleashed a throw that went 60-feet, 1-inch, at the WIAC Last Chance Meet, the first time a Stout shot putter has exceeded 60 feet. This is the third time Ruechel has been named indoor all-region by the organization. 

Schultz earned all-region honors in both the 3000-meter run and the 5000-meter run. Schultz is ranked 13th nationally in the 3000-meter, and third in the WIAC, with a time of 8-minutes, 33.40-seconds at the WIAC Last Chance Meet, a mark that is eighth on the Stout all-time list. Schultz, a cross country all-region runner, is ranked 15th nationally in the 5000-meter, third in the WIAC, with a time of 14:59.38 at the WIAC Multi at UW-Stevens Point, Feb. 24. 

Zastrow has completely dominated the NCAA Division III indoor pole vault event over the last two years. Earning his third indoor all-region nod, Zastrow is ranked first nationally in the event, just as he was in 2020. Zastrow's best height of 17-feet, 8.50-inches in a dual with UW-La Crosse, Feb. 20, is just shy of a foot better than the second place mark of 16-8.75 and broke the school record he had set the week before. The mark is fourth all-time for Division III. A two-time 2021 national athlete of the week, Zastrow's mark topped all NCAA Division II performers and was within the Top 20 of all NCAA Division I performances. 

A total of 1152 honors were bestowed on 92 different institutions with 579 honors on the men's side and an additional 573 for women's teams.

The outdoor track and field season is scheduled to get underway when Stout travels to UW-La Crosse, Saturday, March 27.