Paced by two national titles by Ryan Kleimenhagen, the UW-Platteville men's track and field placed third in the country at the NCAA III national championships at Illinois Wesleyan University.
The Pioneer women also made school history by having two all-Americans in the same national indoor meet for the first time ever.
UW-Platteville scored 33 team points for third place in the men's team standings to set new standards in each category for the program.
Four of the top seven team scores came from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. UW-La Crosse won the national championship with 53 points, while Lincoln scored 38, and UWP 33. Nebraska Wesleyan was fourth with 32, followed by North Central with 27, UW-Oshkosh with 25, and UW-Whitewater with 19.
Kleimenhagen won both the mile and the 800-meter runs as he closed his incredible Pioneer career.
He won the mile Saturday afternoon in a Division III championship meet record 4:16.49. He had familiar company at the finish line, as Pioneer freshman Tyler Sigl came right behind at 4:17.12. It marked the second straight weekend those two were first and second in the mile, duplicating their performances at the WIAC championships. While Kleimenhagen was the top seed in the event, Sigl brought in the eighth-best time and surprised the field with the 1-2 Pioneer sweep.
Just 80 minutes later, Kleimenhagen put the exclamation point on his career, winning the 800 run in 1:52.98, beating runner-up Ryan Parker of Brandeis by more than one-half second. In four seasons of cross country, indoor track and outdoor track, he racked up 13 all-American awards, four national titles and 10 school records.
Thrower Jim Uppena continued peaking with strong season-ending performances, placing fourth in the weight throw Friday. Uppena, who qualified for the championships in the last weekend of the season, threw the 35-pound weight 58-11.5 to earn all-America status.
Sophomores Marcia Taddy and Jackie Mulrooney both added all-America honors to their glowing resumes. Taddy ran to third in the 800-run in 2:14.34 and eighth in the mile in 5:00.03. Mulrooney placed sixth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 17:26.62. It is the second straight year she has earned honors in that event.
Taddy and Mulrooney became the first pair of Pioneer females to earn NCAA III all-America honors at the same indoor championships, a feat they also accomplished with the cross country program in the fall.
UW-Oshkosh won the women's national championship with 36 points, while the Pioneers finished 24th.
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