YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Milwaukee women's track & field team opened the three-day Horizon League Track & Field Championships on Friday, hosted by Youngstown State in Northeast Ohio.
 
The Panthers trail the host Penguins following the day's events and are in second place in team scores with 29 points through the opening day.
 
"We're off to a great start this weekend," commented head coach Andrew Basler. "We're setting ourselves up to have a really good finish."
 
Milwaukee had one individual champion crowned as Lauren Lietzke took home the discus title in a sixth-round effort to record the best distance in the field of 15 in the event. The Panthers had success in throws throughout the afternoon, with the Milwaukee entries in both the discus and the javelin, including Olivia Busch coming up with a big throw late in the javelin for a fifth place finish.
 
Meg Swietlik highlighted the evening of track events under the lights taking fourth place in the 10,000m run, while Kortnie Volk and Jada Schuh got their start in the heptathlon and are setting themselves up for success in day two of the seven-part event on Saturday.
 
Day 1 Recap
Lietzke won the championship in the discus with her final round throw of 45.30 meters, after opening the morning with a 44.44-meter toss to set the bar for the field through the event.
 
In addition to Lietzke's 10-point effort, Milwaukee had points from all four of their entries as Cynthia Hernandez was fourth with a 42.68-meter toss. Samantha Satterfield registered 38.52-meter throw, while Tabitha Wechlo was in eighth place with a throw of 38.41 meters.
 
Busch took fifth in the javelin as her sixth and final throw of the day went for a mark of 36.38 meters to take over sixth place on the all-time list at Milwaukee. The throw was the longest javelin throw for a Panther in 10 years, since the 2013 season when the program record was set that season.
 
Schuh also picked up two points in the in the javelin with a 33.64-meter throw, narrowly missing out on a career-best, while Volk registered a mark of 31.05 meters.
 
Away from their javelin efforts both Schuh and Volk were competing in the heptathlon, and through the first four events Volk is currently in third position with 2675 points while Schuh is in eighth place with a score of 2432 points with three events remaining on Saturday.
 
Volk was second in the 200m dash with a time of 26.02, a new career-best, while taking third in the shot put at 10.86 meters. Her 100m hurdle time was 15.63, while she also cleared 1.42 meters in the high jump. Schuh was fifth in the 100m hurdles at 15.41, while also recording a sixth-place finish in the 200m dash at 27.18. Schuh had a 9.19-meter throw in the shot put and recorded a height of 1.36 meters in the high jump.
 
In the 1500m run, it was Cailin Kinas to lead the way for Milwaukee with a time of 4:43.31 to take fifth place in the event. Brittany Helm had a 4:50.50, while Alayna Franson finished the event with a time of 4:53.64.
 
Swietlik took fourth in the 10,000m run with a time of 36:29.85, Swietlik had led throughout most of the race in a three-woman pack with a Youngstown State and an Oakland entry, but was not able to hold on in the closing laps.
 
Madison Hughes finished just outside of scoring position in the 10,000m run with a time of 38:19.52.
 
Milwaukee returns to Youngstown State for day two of the championship meet on Saturday, before wrapping up the weekend on Sunday afternoon.