Sports
Ready to dominate the track and field
The Pointer
aschl336@uwsp.edu
Last Friday and Saturday at the Drake Relays and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Invitational, the UW-SP men’s track and field 15th ranked team finished sixth out of eight teams, and the UW-SP women’s track and field team finished seventh out of nine teams.
Coach Rick Witt says that the team has the following individuals qualified for the NCAA Championships at this pointin the season: 4 x 100 Relay (Brad Koback, Pat Leonard, Nick VerDuin, Keith Ingram) 4 x 400 Relay (Pat Leonard, Josh Schwinn, Brad Koback, Nick VerDuin) Keith Ingram/100 meter Dash, Greg Haak/800 Meter Run, Jerry Prusinksi/ Hammer Throw, Kyle Steiner/Decathlon, Kyle Steiner/400 Meter hurdles.
Pat Leonard, Josh Schwinn, Brad Koback and Nicholas VerDuin of the 4x400-meter relay team ran a NCAA qualifying time of 3:16.84 seconds in the preliminaries for its fastest time of the season.
“Obviously you are excited any time you qualify for nationals, but at the same time we know we still have a lot of work to do. Even though we did provisionally qualify, that time won’t get us into the national meet. In the next few weeks our workouts will get less intense and we will get some much needed rest, and I think our times will start to drop dramatically. We should be in great position when nationals roll around at the end of May,” said Leonard.
“The qualifying time is only a glimpse of what lies ahead. The conference meet as a whole is our focus right now. The WIAC is one of the toughest track and field conferences in the nation, and right now there are probably four teams that have a chance at winning it all. We are one of them,” said VerDuin.
Greg Haak, Adam Steinke, Derek Nechuta and Adam Lang of the 4x800-meter relay team finished fourth in a time of 7:44.38 seconds. Brad Koback, Pat Leonard, Nicholas Ver Duin, and Keith Ingram of the 4x100-meter relay team finished sixth with a time of 42.71 seconds. Jerry Prusinski won the hammer throw with a distance of 172’-10”.
“It felt pretty good to win the last couple of meets especially since I fouled out almost every other meet I competed in this year. The last couple of meets I finally got some decent throws in for conference,” said Prusinski.
Nick Berndt finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:16.80 seconds. Finishing third was Adam Duckart in the 1,500 meters, Eric Neville in the 400-meter hurdles, and Derek Stone in the high jump. The women’s track and field team also had a decent meet at the Drake Relays and at UW-Oshkosh.
Andrea Irvine, Angela Steffens, Kathleen Folbrecht , and Laura Simonis of the 4x400-meter relay team ran a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:54.16 seconds, its fastest time of the season and to finished eighth in the event.
“For this weekend we all just need to run our best on the same day. We are all capable of running fast, we just have to do it on the same day!” said Folbrecht.
“We’ve all run together the past couple of years for the 4x4 relay and it usually ends up taking us till one of the last chance meets in order to really whip out a time that shows our full potential. It’s in a way one of our weaknesses; we end up cutting it pretty close but it’s also [some]thing that pushes us,” said Simonis.
Laura Simonis, Liz Caine, Kathleen Folbrecht, and Angela Steffens of the 1,600 sprint medley team finished third with a time of 4:04.33 seconds. Finishing third was Sara Kline in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.24 seconds and Alix Jicinsky in the high jump, clearing a height of 5’-3.25”. Angela Sheridan placed fourth in the shot put, throwing a distance of 39’-1”.
The men and women’s track and field teams will take part in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Outdoor Track and Field Championships next Friday and Saturday beginning at noon in Eau Claire.
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