Pioneer Track & Field

May 2, 2009

UW-Platteville won four events, set two school records and had 10 all-conference performers at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference track and field championships Friday and Saturday at UW-Oshkosh.

"There's always good and bad at meets, but today the good far out-numbered the bad," Pioneer Coach Jim Nickasch said. "A lot of people stepped it up, and that was really neat to see."

UW-La Crosse won its 19th straight men's and third straight women's title. The Pioneer men were fifth and the women sixth in the team standings.

The Pioneers won three of the four hurdle events. Alison Glendenning broke her own school record in the 400-meter hurdles, winning in an NCAA III provisional qualifying time of 1:03.42. Andy Melby won the 110 men's hurdle in 14.66 after getting a higher national qualifying time of 14.51 in the preliminaries. Mitch Spees then edged Melby in the 400 hurdles, with Spees winning in 54.96 and Melby getting second in 55.02. UW-Platteville became the first school since UW-La Crosse in 1999 to win both 110 hurdle events.

"We had a good day with the hurdlers," Nickasch said. "That's tough to do, and they did a good job."

Senior Jessica Scott won the 800-meter run in 2:12, and freshman Ann Tank was runner-up in 2:14.75. A UW-Platteville runner has won that event for the last five championships.

"Jess and Ann both did a great job," Nickasch said. "They were second and third in the 1,500 and then came back to go 1-2 in the 800."

The Pioneer men's 4x100 relay team broke the school record by one-hundredth of a second. Alex Switzky, Spees, Matt Bischoff and Lynn Oyawiri were second in 41.82, an NCAA provisional mark.

The top finishers in each event each first team all-conference honors, and the runners-up are second team all-WIAC.

Scott earned her third all-WIAC award of the meet and Tank her second as part of the 4x800 relay team. They joined Kristy Curry and Sara Weisman to finish runner-up in a time of 9:33.73. The Pioneers have been all-conference in the 3,200 relay for the past five seasons.

Adding third-place finishes were Nathan Petesch in the 5,000, and Jason Garvens in the 10,000.

Taking fourths were Sara Novotny in the 110 hurdles, Garvens in the 5,000, Corey Digman in the hammer throw and in the shot put, Josh Kalsow in the javelin, and the men'x 4x800 team.