NORMAL, Ill.- The Milwaukee men's track & field team finished up competition at both the Raleigh Relays and Redbird Challenge Saturday. Anthony Buford's long jump win at the Redbird Challenge highlighted the day for the Panthers.
 
REDBIRD CHALLENGE
 
The indoor season's Horizon League Freshman Field Athlete of the Year, Buford's jump of 7.41m in his outdoor colligate debut immediately rockets him up to third all-time in program history.
 
"Despite some wet and cooler conditions, we got a lot of strong performances," said head coach Andrew Basler. "Anthony had his best college performance so far in his first outdoor meet to get the win."
 
Snatching another victory in the triple jump was Bishop Bufford, reaching a distance of 13.73m to top the field. Bryant McLaughlin put up a fourth-place performance with his mark of 13.53m.
 
As a team, Milwaukee finished second out of the 12 programs competing with 88 points. The squad racked up two individual wins and nine top-five performances.
 
Also opening his first outdoor season, Josh Cygan finished runner-up in the discus with a toss of 50.34m. Following Cygan in third place, Jack Misky sent an attempt 49.27m to give himself a new career-best.
 
"Josh had a great discus opener to be able to surpass 50m in his first colligate competition." Basler added.
 
Continuing with the throws, Aiden Janke added the best mark of his career after launching a shot put 15.34m to earn fourth in the event.
 
Evan Bartelsen chipped in his own fourth-place finish, taking the spot after clearing a mark of 4.62m.
 
Leading the charge in the 5000m run, Nathan Powley ran a time 15:59.37 to claim third place. Trey Meier followed right behind Powley in fourth place at 16:01.59.
 
Moving to the 800m run, Nate Griepentrog paced the team, notching a time of 1:57.34 to finish fourth.
 
RALIEGH RELAYS
 
Leading the way on the track for the Panthers was Jaelyn Reeves-Lile who moved up to third on the school's all-time outdoor leaderboard, with a 200m dash time of 21.12. Overall, Reeves-Lile finished 13^th in the talented 106-runner field.
 
"Day two was another strong day for the group in Raleigh," Basler continued. "Jaelyn had a very strong showing in the 200m dash."
 
Anthony Campbell opened his outdoor campaign in the long jump, claiming the second spot in the event with a leap of 7.41m.
 
Closing out action in Raleigh was Lucas Picco and Karsten Grundahl in the 800m run. Picco led the way with a time of 1:52.96, followed up by Grundahl crossing the finish line in 1:54.41.
 
"It wasn't the smoothest day on the runway but Anthony was still able to put together a solid opener," Basler finished saying. "Karsten and Lucas both were able to gain great experiences and run well today."
 
UP NEXT
 
Milwaukee will be back next weekend, when they travel to compete in the Ashton May Invite Hosted by La Crosse on Apr. 5 at 12:00 p.m.