ROCHESTER, Mich. – Following the second day of the Horizon League Outdoor Championships, the Milwaukee women's track and field team sits in second place from the Elaine Leigh Track & Field Complex in Rochester, Mich.
After tallying a pair of individual titles, the Panthers sit at 60 points for second after seven events. Youngstown State is first with 103 points while host school Oakland is third at 31 points.
"A lot more good happened today than bad," head coach
Andrew Basler said. "I think we are setting ourselves up to bring home some trophies. We're still a bit back from Youngstown on both genders but we'll see where the chips fall. We did a great job with the events that we did today, and we've got to finish the job tomorrow."
Tabitha Wechlo posted a personal best in the shot put, throwing 14.67m to finish atop the podium.
Lauren Lietzke finished seventh with a throw of 14.18m while
Samantha Satterfield also scored, placing sixth at 13.14m.
"
Tabitha Wechlo has improved every time she has gotten in that shot put ring," said Basler. "She said something to the coaching staff yesterday about how she felt like something big was going to happen and she came away a conference champion today."
Nadia Vo was the league champion in the long jump, posting a personal record leap of 5.86m.
Maddy Troy leapt 5.63m to place sixth in the event.
"Things were going pretty good for us in the long jump and as
Nadia Vo lined up for her final jump, she executed," Basler said. "For the second time in her career, she claimed a conference championship on her final jump. That was awesome and got the team excited."
A pair of first-place results in the final heptathlon events propelled
Kortnie Volk to third with 4409 points. The sophomore won the long jump (5.42m) and 800m (2:24.98) to jump up three spots and earn bronze.
Jada Schuh took seventh in the heptathlon, scoring 3985 points. The senior placed third in the javelin (26.63m) and fourth in the 800m (2:33.18) to score for Milwaukee.
Kate Watson tallied a third-place finish in the pole vault with a mark of 3.75m.
A pair of Milwaukee runners scored in the steeplechase to close day two, led by a fourth-place finish from
Eileen Tocco (11:28.99).
Alayna Franson crossed eighth at 11:47.50 for eighth.
The Panthers will send four runners to the 100m hurdles finals tomorrow afternoon as
Morgan Pilate (14.42 seconds),
Cloey Fare (14.44),
Brooke Crosby (14.58), and Enne Burton (14.68) all placed in the top eight in the preliminaries.
Brooke Crosby will advance to the 400m hurdles finals after finishing fifth in the prelims with a time of 1:04.63.
Maddy Troy (12.08 seconds) and
Dominique Thomas (11.93 seconds) both posted strong times in the 100m prelims to move to Sunday's finals.
The final day of the Horizon League Championships begins tomorrow at 9 a.m. CT with the final field events. Running finals will get underway two hours later at 11 a.m.
"I'm excited for tomorrow," Basler said. "I think we continue to take big steps forward as a program and the culture and momentum of this team continues to improve and shift."
