YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Milwaukee men's track and field team earned three first-place finishes and four runners-up on the second day of the Horizon League Indoor Championships Sunday to place second among the eight teams competing.
The Panthers finished second for the third straight year, recording 167 points. Youngstown State won its seventh consecutive league title, scoring 225 points with Oakland finishing third with 122.5 points.
"I think it's a weird balance between two feelings," head coach
Andrew Basler said. "I'm extremely proud of the team and the energy and the support they had for each other, and we had a lot of great performances. On the other hand I'm frustrated. I challenged the team following the meet to dig deep and find some things they can change over the course of the next two months. Just little changes that can help push us over the hump of finishing second. I feel that we have the foundation in place."
After a strong day one in the heptathlon,
Austin Wallace carried the momentum into day two to finish first in the event with 4977 points. The redshirt junior won the heptathlon 60m hurdles to secure the victory and was later named Championships Outstanding Performer for the field events. Wallace also competed in the 60m hurdles, placing third at 8.09 seconds.
Tony Bretall utilized several key performances in the closing events of the heptathlon to improve his standing and claim the runner-up finish behind Wallace. Bretall closed the heptathlon with a first-place finish in the pole vault and second-place mark in the 1000m to place second with 4629 points.
Gracien Jules grabbed the top spot in the shot put, setting a new lifetime best in the process. Jules posted a throw of 17.60m while
Caleb Rogalski placed fifth in the event at 16.36m.
The 60m hurdles crew continued to showcase its speed with
Sam Conger finishing atop the podium and setting a new personal best at 7.92 seconds. Along with Wallace's third-place finish,
Dane Nelson was fifth at 8.27 seconds.
Golden Cotton tallied a pair of runner-up finishes on the afternoon while also recording two lifetime bests. He improved to second all-time with a time of 6.86 seconds in the 60m hurdles and moved into a tie for second in the 200m at 21.69 seconds.
Michael Gorman also scored valuable points for Milwaukee in the 200m, finishing third at 21.96 seconds.
Obi Iwaugwu earned a runner-up finish in the triple jump at 14.95m, which set a new personal best and moved him to third all-time in program history.
Will Mortimer finished fourth in the event at 14.02m.
The 400m duo of
Caleb Henry (49.25) and
Caleb Anderson (49.29) finished back-to-back for fourth and fifth, respectively. Henry and Anderson teamed up with
Ben Marano and
Luke Rapisarda to finish fourth in the 4x400m relay at 3:18.74.
In the one-mile run,
Hunter Krepline (4:12.73) and
Trevor Wenzel (4:12.99) maintained a steady pace to record fourth- and fifth-place finishes.
Milwaukee wraps up the indoor season and now begins preparation for outdoor which will begin Saturday, March 19 at the Meet for Milwaukee hosted by Wisconsin Lutheran.
