Local News
UW-L Track Wins it All at National Meet
CANTON, N.Y. – Total domination doesn’t quite sum up what the UW-La Crosse men’s track and field team has done to all of Division III.
Saturday, the Eagles won the national title. Again. For the 13th season – an NCAA record. But it wasn’t just the men this time. The women had their say as well, winning their third NCAA outdoor title – the third time a school has captured both men’s and women’s championships in the same year.
Brining home individual titles for the Eagles were
Independence, Wis., native Bria Halama and Marissa Mahr for the women. For the men, it was Grant Harvard and the 400-meter-relay team of Ross Denman, West Salem’s Alex Koenen, Zach Rothering and Joe Koenecke.
Halama won the triple jump (42 feet, 2.75 inches). Mahr took the 400-meter hurdles (59.95 seconds). Both set school records. Havard won his second-consecutive discus title (186-8).
The UW-L men scored 71.0 points to capture the crown while UW-Eau Claire finished second (46). This is the Eagles first title since winning back-to-back seasons in 2006-07. This is the women’s first title since 1984. UW-EC also placed second on the women’s side.
Other top finishes for the men: Koenen and Denman came home with silvers. Koenen, in the 100 (10.27) and Denman in the 400 (47.18). Dominique Neloms also scored in two events. In the high jump, he finished sixth (6-8.75). He was also fourth (23-11.5) in the long jump.
UW-L’s 1,600 relay of Sam Smith, Joe Smith, Nick Tehan and Denman took second (3:10.86). Sean Royer took second in the 800 (1:52.89) for the second time in three seasons.
Also scoring for UW-L, Alex Jelich took fifth in the 400 hurdles (52.16), Garrett Kerska was fifth in the 1,500 (3:51.51), and Daniel Otto placed eighth in the 110 hurdles (14.17).
Other top finishers for the women: Halama, Meg Heafy and Claire Gordee did a little of everything. She and Mahr led the 1,600 relay to a fourth-place finish (3:51.24) along with Gordee and Kaitlyn Francour. Halama also took third in the 400 (54.83), breaking her own school record.
All Gordee did was place seventh in the 100 hurdles (14.26) and help the 400 relay take second (46.32) with teammates Jaime Ludwigson, Maggie Slatter and Heafy.
Heafy also scored points for UW-L with a fourth-place finish in the 100 (11.87) and 200 (24.25) meter dashes. Ludwigson and Erin McCauley placed third and fourth, respectively in the 100 hurdles, finishing a tenth of a second apart (13.77 and 13.87).
McCauley finished fifth in the heptathlon Friday. Laura Mead finished fifth in the 5,000 (17:12.99). Also scoring for the Eagles, in the triple jump, was Bailey Alston in sixth.
