YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Milwaukee men's track & field team continued its push for a Horizon League Championship on day two of the Horizon League Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Youngstown State.
 
After two days of action, the Panthers are currently in second on the team leaderboard with 95 points and trail host Youngstown State, who has 134 points through the first two days. Milwaukee has a 49-point lead on third place Oakland.
 
"Today was one of the best conference championship days that I have been here since taking over as head coach at Milwaukee," said head coach Andrew Basler. "We had a lot of momentum that kept building throughout the day. Team support was a huge player in today, and when big performances happen it leaked into other events and those athletes saw their teammates go big and that just snowballed for us."
 
"The team is really setting up well to go after a team championship on Sunday," added Basler. "We have to go out there and execute, but we're excited as a team and a program at making a run at it tomorrow."
 
Austin Wallace was a force for the Panthers and followed up his five wins during the first half of the decathlon on Friday, with another four wins of the remaining five events on Saturday. The nine wins in the decathlon netted the senior a final total of 7509 points, as he surpassed the previous Horizon League record by more than 1300 points and set a new Panther program record as he beat out his own 7355-point mark from the 2022 season.
 
Wallace was not the only Panther to set a new Horizon League Championship mark as Anthony Campbell eclipsed the previous record in the long jump as he hit a mark of 7.64 meters to break the previous championship record of 7.63 meters set a season ago. He also improves upon his own program record in the process.
 
The third individual champion for the Panthers on the day was Caleb Rogalski, who took home the gold in the hammer throw and cleared his closest competitor by more than three meters as he had a throw of 56.47 meters for a new career-best and re-established his own fifth place mark in program history.
 
The Panthers accumulated numerous points throughout the day on Saturday and set themselves up for some major success on Sunday with a number of qualifiers in track events. Golden Cotton qualified in a pair of events in the 100m and 200m dashes.
 
Day 2 Summary
Wallace cruised to his record-setting mark of 7509 points after wins in the 110m hurdles (14.72) and the javelin (49.20m), a career-best height in the pole vault (4.30m) and posted the only sub-five-minute time in the 1500m with a career-best mark of 4:56.11. The only event Wallace took second in was the discus, as he had a 40.96-meter throw in the effort.
 
Milwaukee swept the podium in the decathlon as Tony Bretall ended the day second with 6051 points, he had second place finishes behind Wallace in the pole vault as he tied his career-best mark (4.20m) and was also second in the javelin at 47.46 meters. He took third in the discus, and 1500m run, and had a fourth-place finish in the 110m hurdles.
 
Jack Misky rounded out the top-three spots in the event with a final point total of 5776 for a new career-best by over 600 points. Misky took the top spot in the discus with a career-best mark of 46.90 meters. He also was third in javelin with a career-best 45.97 meters, while he also had career bests in the pole vault at 3.40 meters and the 1500m run at 5:53.58.
 
While the Panthers dominated the multi-event, Milwaukee continued its strength in field events as Campbell had his record-breaking effort come in the third round of the long jump at 7.64 meters after setting the new program mark earlier this season.
 
Wallace, who's record was broken by Campbell earlier in the year, put forth his career-best effort in the long jump at a 7.60-meter mark to improve his current second place standing in program history. Tim Maidment also improved upon his career-best mark with a 6.76, while Will Mortimer also reached a new PR with a 6.72m jump as all four of Milwaukee's entries secured crucial team points for the Panthers.
 
Rogalski won his second consecutive title in the hammer throw at the Horizon League Championships, as he registered a 56.47-meter toss. The effort was a new career-best mark, which he had set a year ago at 56.28 meters at Oakland. Rogalski also netted Milwaukee five more points in the shot put with a 15.68-meter toss for a fourth-place finish.
 
Finnegan Shields added a pair of points with a seventh-place finish at 48.86 meters in the hammer throw for a new personal-best. Meanwhile in the pole vault, Evan Bartelsen and Dylan Sieloff were tied for fourth as both cleared a height of 4.80 meters on their first attempt at the height.
 
In the 100m dash preliminaries, the Panthers had three qualify for the finals led by Cotton with a time of 10.60, while EJ Kruse recorded a 10.75 to move into 10th all-time in Panther history. Caleb Anderson picked up a 10.92 to advance to Sunday's finals.
 
Cotton also qualified for the 200m dash finals with a qualifying time of 21.43. While falling short of qualification, Anthony Kessler had a career-best 22.10, while Isaac Dauffenbach had a personal-best 22.14.
 
Caleb Henry led the field in the 400m dash, as he posted the only sub-48-second time in the event with a 47.53 to lead the field of 18 entries, while moving up one spot and into fifth in the Panther record book. Also qualifying for Sunday's final was Zac Schmidt with a 49.31.
 
The Panthers had two qualify among the entries in the 800m run as three personal-best times were registered in the event. Edgardo Valdes Gonzalez had a 1:53.81, while Nate Griepentrog also notched a qualifying time of 1:55.67. Gavin Czarnecki had a personal-best 1:56.80 but was just on the outside of qualifying mark for Sunday.
 
The qualifying runs continued for the Panthers as Aidan Sodemann will compete for the 1500m championship after a time of 4:02.85, Carter Eckhoff will also make a run for team points after a qualifying time of 4:04.01 at the first outdoor championship meet for the freshman.
 
In hurdles Dane Nelson and Chris Hudnall both qualified in the 110m hurdles as Nelson had a qualifying time of 14.55, while Hudnall hit a mark of 14.90. Nelson will also have a chance to sweep the hurdles as Milwaukee's lone entry in the 400m hurdles on Sunday.
 
In the 3000m steeplechase, Sodemann led the Panthers and added a pair of points with a seventh-place finish at 9:28.53.
 
Sunday will be the third and final day of the Horizon League Championship meet and will begin at 8:00 a.m. (CT)