Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in La Crosse over the weekend finishing second in their respective meets.

Women’s Track and Field
At the UW-La Crosse Phil Esten Challenge, UW-Eau Claire women’s track and field head coach Tracy Yengo said the team exceeded expectations by placing second out of six teams.

“We have been rolling along in regular track meets and thought we might place third because of the strong competition,” she said. “Getting second place was outstanding because we beat out last year’s outdoor track champions, and overall, we had an excellent meet.”

The Blugolds finished the meet with
170.10 points.

Freshman Liz Kooistra broke the school record in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.71 that ranked her at fourth in the nation, and junior Liz Faller ran a lifetime best 14.56 in the hurdles. Both Kooistra and Faller took first place in their events.

“I was very surprised,” Faller said. “I’ve been working on getting faster all around and trying not to let the hurdles get in
the way.”

The team’s second place finish, Faller said, can be attributed to the team’s ability to stick by one another.

Yengo said the biggest surprise of the day was junior Paula Crossfield’s performance in the discus. Crossfield’s throw of 43.30 meters was a personal record that placed her second nationally in the discus.

“To be ranked that high in the nation is amazing considering her previous personal best was 41.20 meters,” Yengo said.

Junior Stephanie Barnes continued to improve as well, taking the pole vault event with a 3.77- meter jump. Barnes is also ranked second in the nation. Other first-place finishers included sophomore Molly Warner in the 5000-meter run (17:50.89) and senior Brooke Schmidt in the shot put (11.78).

Overall, Yengo said the Blugolds are gaining more and more confidence each week.

“We had a theme in January that basically said ‘rise to the challenge,’ ” she said. “We definitely have each other to carry success to each meet. This season has been fun and exciting.”

In order to keep this success, Yengo said the team needs to be consistently healthy. She said that can be a challenge because the track season is very long.

“Time just takes its toll with stress at this point,” Yengo said. “Bodies start to break down, and we just have to know when to back off and be smart about taking care of ourselves.”

Men’s Track and Field
Sophomore Ted Lillie said he ran the 10K for the first time on Saturday at La Crosse’s Phil Esten Challenge. He ran alongside his teammate, sophomore Jules Miller, for the majority of the race, going back and forth.

In the end of the long race, they took the top two spots while teammate senior Nate Miller finished third.

“It’s a long race, so it was nice having teammates there with me,” Lillie said, who finished with a time of 32:25.80. “In that kind of race its important to work together; doing it alone is a lot harder. Jules Miller and I were taking turns leading and we were both really happy with how we ran.”

The Blugolds were able to finish second overall at the meet behind conference powerhouse UW-La Crosse, which Lillie said was probably the best team in the nation.

The Eagles bested Eau Claire’s 179 total with a winning 236.50 points. Wartburg College (Iowa) managed third at 146.50. UW-Stout came in at fourth with 103 points followed by St. Norbert College, which took fifth and in the final spot with
six points.

Lillie said junior Al Oleson, who won the hammer throw competition with a throw of 52.36 meters, was among those who had a great day.

(Al) had a NCCA provo qualifying mark,” Lillie said. “He’s looking good this year and we’re trying to get him to nationals.”

Juniors Nick Aliota and Joey Veriga both placed second in their respective events, the 200-meter dash and 800-meter run.

In the field events, three Blugolds earned second-place finishes. Senior Brent Tice had a 14.57-meter shot put effort, while junior Eric Eigenfeld went 13.14 meters in the triple jump and sophomore Andrew Kling leapt 1.80 meters in the high jump.

The Drake Relays in Iowa are next weekend for both the men’s and women’s teams.

Lillie said the Drake Relays are one of the biggest track meets in which select athletes compete after being invited. He also said while a few members of the Eau Claire Track team will be there, most will be at the Simpson meet.

“(The Drake Relays) accept the top 16 times in the country,” he said. “They’ve sold out their 20,000-seat stadium for the last five years. (The meet) highlights for American track and field.”