The UW-Platteville track and field teams combined for their best showings ever at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference outdoor track and field championships Friday and Saturday at UW-Oshkosh.
Both teams placed fourth in the nine-team fields and won seven events. Never before had both teams fared so well at the same outdoor championships.
The women's finish was their highest ever, as were their 81 points. The men's 94.5 points were the most since scoring 111 in 2003 in a similar fourth-place finish.
Marcia Taddy earned the Outstanding Track Performer of the Meet Award after winning two individual races and being part of a victorious relay squad. The sophomore from Two Rivers won the 800-meter run in 2:15.66 and the 1,500-meter run in 4:29.77. She also teamed with Emma Dreis, Steph Martin and Lindsey Vick to capture the 3,200-meter relay in 9:28.27.
Martin, Vick and Taddy were on last year's victorious 3,200 relay squad,the first time UWP had ever won that event. They successfully defended their crown by winning by more than one second.
Both Jackie Mulrooney and Carrie Morschauser won titles and broke long-standing school records in the process.
Mulrooney won the 5,000 meters in 17:07.27, taking down all-American Keri Wells' 1999 mark of 17:08.13. Mulrooney and UW-La Crosse's Julia Rudd engaged in a great battle once again, with Mulrooney winning by six-tenths of a second. The third-place finisher was 38 seconds behind. Last year, Mulrooney nipped Rudd by .18 of a second.
Morschauser won the high jump with a record-breaking 5-7 effort. Lori McReynolds had set the school mark of 5-6 back in 1985, and Morschauser tied it both this year and last before breaking it Saturday. She won the competition by a full four inches.
One the men's side, Tim Jankowski breezed to the title in the javelin throw. He let loose with a 185-5 heave, almost 13 feet better than his closest competitor. Jankowski is the first Pioneer to win that event since Scott Oomens in 1987.
Tyler Sigl gave the Pioneers four straight winners in the 1,500 as he successfully defended his title. He crossed the finish line in 3:56.58. Ryan Kleimenhagen won the 1,500 in 2003 and 2004, and the sophomore Sigl has won it in each of his first two years.
Sigl also earned second team all-conference honors in the 5,000, being edged by UW-Oshkosh's Nick Boehlke at the wire. Boehlke won in in 14:39.87, while Sigl was runner-up in 14:39.92.
Also earning all-WIAC second team honors were Cam Klein and Nathan Wells. Klein, who was also third in that 1,500 race, was second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase Friday in a time of 9:14. Wells was second in the decathlon with 6,226 points, helped in part by his win in the 400-meter run portion of the 10 events.
Adding third-place finishes were Nick Fulton in the 10,000, Ben Zizis in the 100 hurdles, Mary Johnson in both the 100 and 200, and Beth Ambrosious in the pole vault.
UW-La Crosse won the men's title for the 16th straight year, while UW-Oshkosh captured its second women's crown in three years.
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