Both the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams competed in their season openers on April 9 at the Ashton May Invite in the Roger Harring Stadium in La Crosse, Wis. 

The Blugolds are coming into this new outdoor season after only four weeks since their indoor season. They competed at the NCAA Championships on Saturday, March 28 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

According to the Blugolds athletic page, in the NCAA Championships the men’s indoor team won Co-National Champions. The women’s team ranked second in their indoor NCAA Championship.

Chip Schneider, the head coach of both the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams, said that he doesn’t have any specific goals for the teams and he just wants to see progress.

“There’s a lot of times your first meet you’re just thinking, ‘knock off the rust after being out for a while,’ and I felt like we kind of picked up right where we left off in indoor season,” Schneider said.

This first competition at the Ashton May Invite showed Blugolds all across the results for both men’s and women’s outdoor track and field.

In the 100-meter dash qualifier, Charlie Wolter ranked second place. In the 400-meter dash Colin McClowry ranked first place. 

The 1500-meter run had Sam Verker ranking third place. The 400-meter hurdles had Mason Malm in first, Brady Deegan in third, Tyler Phetteplace in fifth and Taylor Phillips in sixth place.

The 4×400-meter relay had Eau Claire ranking first with Kevin Eisenzimmer, Colin McClowry, Sam Schreiber and Jordan Lijewski. The javelin throw event has Marcus Weaver in first place.

After calculating all of the events, the UW-Eau Claire men’s outdoor track and field team ranked fifth overall with 77 points.

Colin McClowry, a first-year runner on the men’s outdoor track and field team, said that this first meet was fun as there isn’t a lot of pressure and everyone is just able to have fun with teammates.

“Everyone comes to practice everyday and works really hard and it just kinda gives us an edge,” McClowry said.

When looking at the women’s team, the 100-meter dash had Kady Kochendorfer in third, Megan Best in fourth and Erin Johnson in fifth place. The 100-meter dash qualifier had Amander Iverson in first place and Madeline Wainwright in fourth.

The final 100 race had Kady Kochendorfer in third overall and Megan Best in fourth. In the 200-meter dash Kady Kochendorfer ranked fourth overall.

In the 1500-meter run Anna Schueth ranked fourth and Carolyn Shult ranked fifth. The 400-meter hurdles saw Emilee Booker also taking fifth.

The shot put competition had Catie Fobbe ranking fourth. In the discus throw Gabby Hicks ranked first and Kayla Behnke in second. The hammer throw had Catie Fobbe taking second overall.

After calculating all of these events, the UW-Eau Claire women’s outdoor track and field team ranked third overall with 84 points in total.

Both of the women’s and men’s outdoor track and field teams’ next competitions are at the Platteville Invite. The competitions are at 6:00 p.m. on April 14 and 10:30 a.m. on April 15, both at the UW-Platteville Track and Field Complex.

“It’s been a really easy team to be around and I think every year is different,” Schneider said. “This team has been pretty easy on me.”

Fisher can be reached at [email protected].