COLLEGE STATION, Texas – On the first day of the 44 Farms Invitational, the Milwaukee men's and women's track and field teams posted strong results with several lifetime bests along with a pair of school records.
 
Natalie Block opened the day by breaking the school record in the 100m hurdles while competing in the heptathlon. Her time of 13.66 seconds shatters the previous top time set in 2018 by Melissa Kirchoff. Block finished first in the heptathlon 200m, crossing the line with a new lifetime best time of 24.36 seconds. After the first four events in the heptathlon, Block sits in fifth place at 3075 points with the long jump, javelin, and 800m events scheduled for day two.
 
Block broke a second school record later in the day, this time in the 400m hurdles. She finished third overall in the event, recording a time of 59.94 seconds surpassing the previous record from 2016 by six-hundredths of a second.
 
Kortnie Volk is 10th in the heptathlon after day one, highlighted by a lifetime best time of 16.30 seconds in the 100m hurdles.
 
After the first five events in the decathlon, Austin Wallace ranks first with 4044 points. The redshirt junior placed second in the 100m, posting a lifetime best time of 10.69 seconds. Wallace followed that up with a leap of 7.74m in the long jump and first-place finish in the shot put (13.25m) to build his lead. In the last two events on day one, Wallace placed fourth (1.87m) in the high jump and second (51.45) in the 400m.
 
"I thought each event that went today had some really good highlights," said head coach Andrew Basler. "Austin Wallace started off really strong. He's on pace to get a mark that would punch his ticket to nationals. Natalie Block started off strong with a school record in the 100m. She faltered a bit with high jump and and shot put but she came back really strong in the 200m. I think she's in a good position that with a good day two she could have a crack at the school record."
 
Tony Bretall competed alongside Wallace in the decathlon and currently sits in ninth, tallying several strong performances, including a personal best time 11.33 seconds in the 100m.
 
Lauren Lietzke finished fifth overall in the women's discus, throwing a season best 42.40m. Tabitha Wechlo (35.13) and Samantha Satterfield (34.60) finished back-to-back for 10th and 11th, respectively.
 
In the men's discus Gracien Jules finished second overall with a lifetime best throw of 53.21m. The toss puts him fourth in program history in the event. Caleb Rogalski placed ninth in the event at 48.06m.
 
In the long jump, Morgan Pilate finished ninth with a lifetime best jump of 5.49m. Obi Iwuagwu tallied a ninth-place finish on the men's side at 6.89m.
 
Kate Watson tied for fifth overall in the pole vault, improving upon her personal best for the second straight meet with a mark of 3.71m.
 
Sam Conger (54.52 seconds) and Dane Nelson (54.55) were consecutive finishers for Milwaukee in the men's 400m hurdles, placing 11th and 12th. In the 200m, Golden Cotton placed 22nd with a time of 21.84 seconds. Michael Gorman followed behind at 22.16 seconds to finish 30th.
 
Day two of the 44 Farms Invitational gets underway tomorrow with the second day of the decathlon starting at 10:15 a.m. The remaining heptathlon events will resume at 11 a.m. with field events to follow at 3 p.m. The final running events are scheduled for 6:30 p.m.