The women’s track and field team had an exciting weekend as they made history by winning their first indoor championship. This win came from a lot of combined effort from the team as a whole, as multiple athletes placed in the top eight across their events.

“We were leading after first day, but not by too much…then we were down, actually, by eight points leading to the last two events, and we had four women in the 3k who ran incredible and they all podiumed and that gave us the win and it was just an awesome experience with the team,” Erica Oawster, a fourth-year athlete, said.

Morgan Marek, a fourth-year athlete, came in first in the mile run with a time of 5:01.41. In the 5000 meter run, Sam Slattery, a third-year athlete, also came in first with a time of 17:47.65 and Lexie Tremble, a fourth-year athlete, came in third with a time of 17:56.56.

In the field events, Oawster got first in shot put with a throw of 14.53 meters. Brianne Johnsrud, a fourth-year athlete, also placed first in weight throw with a final distance of 17.06 meters. In women’s pole vault, Allison Weiker, a first-year athlete, tied for second with a UW-La Crosse athlete with a height of 3.56 meters, and Tommie Brenner, a fourth-year athlete, placed fourth.

As for the men’s team, they placed fifth overall with David Kornack, a fourth-year athlete, breaking his own best mark in the shot put with a throw of 19.18 meters. Braden Cousineau, a third-year athlete, tied for seventh place in the pole vault with a height of 4.52 meters. In the long jump, Adam Lembke, a second-year athlete, placed sixth with a jump of 7.02 meters.

The men’s distance medley team came in first with a time of 10:22.05. The team included Alex Winn, a third-year athlete; Kyle Groven, a third-year athlete; Will Ullrich, a second-year athlete, and Connor Dolan, a second-year athlete. Patrick Treacy, a fourth-year athlete, finished third in the 3000 meter run with a time of 8:26.46. In the one-mile run, Treacy finished second with a time of 4:10.27 and Kyler Lueck, a third-year athlete, finished third with a time of 4:19.09.

In preparation for the upcoming UW-Stevens Point’s Last Chance meet and later, the national tournament, the team is trying to stay calm and keep doing what they’ve been doing all season.

“Most of that is trying not to focus on the event itself,” Winn said. “I don’t like to focus and stress myself out before the race, I like to relax and coach really tries to put us through not as harsh of training, just having the race be the hardest thing.”

Oawster said the individual events are what will continue to push the team forward.

“We always want to continue to each work at what we’re doing individually because that’s what’s going to help the team, being able to step up in our events because that will really push our team,” Oawster said.

The team is now preparing for the Last Chance meet at Stevens Point, which will take place on March 2.

Kuchta can be reached at [email protected].