ROCHESTER, Mich. – On the first day of the 2022 Horizon League Outdoor Championships, the Milwaukee men's and women's track and field teams saw strong results in the multi events and tallied a runner-up finish in the women's 10K on Friday afternoon from Rochester, Mich.
 
After the first three events, the Milwaukee men rank fourth with 14 points. Youngstown State sits in first with 48 points. The women are third with 17 points, with the Penguins totaling 49 points for first.
 
Mikayla Fox highlighted day one for the Panthers, posting a strong time of 35:50.48 in the 10K to finish runner-up. Madison Hughes also scored, posting a time of 37:12.31 to finish eighth.
 
"Mikayla worked pretty much the entire 10K by herself then had an opponent sit and kick the last 400m while Mikayla did all the work," head coach Andrew Basler said. "I know it's disappointing as a distance athlete but got that second place and Hughes kept grinding to get eighth place."
 
The Panthers decathlon group has been exceptional, as Austin Wallace, Matthew Bye, Tony Bretall, and Jack Misky all rank in the top eight following the first five events.
 
Wallace sits in first with 3739 points after finishing first in the three events. The redshirt junior started by winning the 100m with a time of 11.17 seconds and added two more first-place marks in the long jump (7.25m) and 400m (51.49 seconds). Wallace tallied a pair of second-place finishes in the shot put (12.87m) and high jump (1.81m).
 
Bye is second with 3172 points, highlighted by a first-place finish in the shot put at 13.00m. Bye placed third in the long jump at 6.29m and was sixth in the 100m (11.73 seconds), high jump (1.75m), and 400m (55.84 seconds).
 
Bretall ranks fifth in the decathlon with 3053 points. The junior's day one performance was highlighted by a first-place finish in the high jump at 1.84m and third-place mark in the 400m at 55.50 seconds.
 
Misky is eighth at 2702 points and recorded a third-place finish in the shot put at 12.08m.
 
Milwaukee had four score in the discus on the men's side, led by a fourth-place finish from Caleb Rogalski (50.30m). Gracien Jules was fifth at 49.67m while Finnegan Shields (lifetime-best 44.45m) and Jack Misky (43.36) placed seventh and eighth, respectively.
 
"I thought the men's discus went solid for us," Basler said. "We had four that made finals there. Freshman Jack Misky, who is our decathlete made finals and scored eighth which was cool for him."
 
Lauren Lietzke scored in the women's discus, tallying a fifth-place finish with a throw of 43.52m.
 
Olivia Busch took home a sixth-place finish in the women's javelin at 34.63m. Jada Schuh also scored in the event, tossing 31.35m for eighth. Brett Clevidence finished seventh for the men, posting a throw of 52.43m.
 
"The women's javelin went great," said Basler. "We weren't supposed to score any but ended up getting sixth and eighth. Busch, first time throwing the javelin this year had a lifetime best on her last throw and solidified her sixth-place spot."
 
After the first four events of the heptathlon Kortnie Volk is sixth (2562) while Jada Schuh is 10th at 2292 points. Volk took second in the shot put at 11.07m and finished third in the 200m (26.35 seconds) while Schuh earned a seventh-place finish in the 200m (27.09 seconds).
 
In the 1500m preliminaries, Cailin Kinas (4:48.46) and Brittany Helm (4:51.06) both advanced to Sunday's finals on the women's side. Jack Fitzgerald advanced on the men's side with a time of 4:03.10.
 
Day two of the Horizon League Outdoor Championships continue at 8 a.m. CT tomorrow morning with the remaining events in the decathlon and heptathlon. Field events get underway at 11 a.m. with running prelims scheduled for 2 p.m.