Women's Track & Field February 24, 2018

Kirchoff's Big Day Headlines Strong Start For Panthers

Senior won league long jump title, broke school 60mH record

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Melissa Kirchoff won a league title in one event and broke a school record in another to headline a solid first day of action for the Milwaukee women's track and field team at the 2018 Horizon League Indoor Championships Saturday hosted at the WATTS.

Through the first day of action which is just six scored events, the Panthers sit in third place with 36 total points. Oakland leads the way with 59 points, followed closely by host Youngstown State at 57. Wright State is currently fourth at 27, with UIC (16), Detroit Mercy (14), Northern Kentucky (11), IUPUI (8) and Cleveland State (6) rounding out the scoring.

"This was great first day for us," Milwaukee head coach Pete Corfeld said. "A lot of different people stepped up big time. That's what our program has always been about; coming through in the clutch. We need that again tomorrow, but it should be an exciting finish."

Milwaukee brought home its first league title in the first scored event of the day, loading up the podium in the process. Melissa Kirchoff started her final indoor meet by winning her second straight indoor long jump crown with a leap of 5.86m (19-2 ¾) on her final approach. Right behind was last year's outdoor champ and classmate Alisha Harper at 5.71m (18-9) for second, followed closely by newcomer Kyra Arendt with a PR jump of 5.67m (18-7 ¼) for fourth. In all, Milwaukee racked up 23 points in the first event of the day for an incredible start to the championship meet.

Cassidy Detert was the next Panther on the podium, taking fourth in weight throw with a solid toss of 15.56m (51-0 ¾).

In the busy start to the day, senior Bryzena Santos earned a podium spot after posting PRs in her first three events to finish with a scoring 2,971 points for sixth overall. Senior Tess Nelson (2,676 points) and freshman Haley Pyan (2,524 points) both did well and finished 10^th and 11^th.

Freshman Jayde Wollenberg cleared a new PR height of 3.30m (10-10) to add to Milwaukee's point total with an eighth-place finish in her first league meet.

Milwaukee's DMR squad of Nicole Hohn, Alyssa Goesch, Leah Johnson and Megan Safranski finished fifth overall Saturday for more Panther points.

In the 5k, freshman Meg Swietlik turned in a big PR by 14 seconds to cross the line in 18:21.42 to lead the way for UWM.

Kirchoff continued her big day in prelims by taking down her own school record in the 60m hurdles with a blazing time of 8.62 seconds to cruise to a win in her heat. She wasn't the only highlight though, as sophomore Jasmine Bickerstaff turned in an impressive PR of her own in 9.00 seconds to move her into ninth place in school history. Leah Lenling also clocked a new personal best in 9.40 to earn the final qualifying spot for tomorrow's finals and give UWM three runners in that event – the only school with more than one in tomorrow's final.

Championship Sunday gets underway at 8am Central with the final three events in the heptathlon. High jump is slated to start at 8:15am, with running events scheduled for a Noon start, which will begin the live broadcast on ESPN3.

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