YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Behind a pair of first-place finishes, the Milwaukee women's track and field team placed second at the Horizon League Indoor Championships Sunday afternoon.
The Panthers finished runner-up for the second straight year, tallying 124 points. Host school Youngstown State claimed its sixth consecutive title, scoring 211 points, while Oakland placed third behind Milwaukee with 111 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."
Natalie Block continued her strong championships, winning the 60m hurdles and placing runner-up in the 400m. Block finished atop the podium in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.52 seconds, crossing the line just one-hundredth of a second ahead of the next finisher. In the 400m, the Alfreeda Goff Indoor Athlete of the Year recorded the third fastest time in program history at 55.78 seconds to place second. Following her impressive performance at the meet, Block was named Championship Outstanding Performer for the field events.
Milwaukee's throws team put together strong marks in the shot put, including a first-place finish from
Lauren Lietzke. After finishing runner-up at the indoor meet a year ago, Lietzke posted a throw of 14.27m to pace the field.
Tabitha Wechlo (13.67m) and
Samantha Satterfield (13.27) placed fifth and sixth, respectively.
In the high jump,
Annie Guerrero and
Nadia Vo were back-to-back finishers, placing third and fourth. Guerrero recorded a jump of 1.68m with Vo close behind at 1.65m.
The Panthers had a couple more scorers in the 60m hurdles behind Block, as
Cloey Fare and Enne Burton nearly recorded identical times. Fare placed sixth at 8.86 seconds while Burton was right behind at 8.87 seconds.
The triple jump duo of
Morgan Pilate and
Olivia Busch each scored for Milwaukee. Pilate finished fifth with a jump of 11.73m while Busch was one spot behind for sixth at 11.70m.
In the distance events,
Megan Safranski earned a fourth-place finish with a time of 5:05.96.
Mikayla Fox (10:17.46) and
Emily Burns (10:18.79) matched pace for much of the 3000m run, with Fox crossing the line for eighth and Burns at ninth.
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.
