TERRE HAUTE Ind.- The Milwaukee women's track & field team wrapped up their three-day meet at Indiana State's Gibson Invitational Saturday. The highlight of the day for the Panthers came from Olivia VanZeeland breaking the program's high jump record.
 
VanZeeland ended up tying for first place on the day, clearing 1.80m to beat the previous best mark of 1.75m set in 2021 by Ashley Melvin and Annie Guerrero. Her height ties her for 16th in NCAA Division I so far this season, and moves her into a tie for the best jump in the Horizon League.
 
"Olivia was obviously the biggest bright spot today," said head coach Andrew Basler. "Breaking the school record, and punching her ticket to nationals, as well as getting some really good looks at 6 feet."
 
Natalie Block claimed a runner-up finish in her first 100m hurdles race of the season, crossing the finish line in 13.68.
 
"It was really great seeing Natalie back in the 100m hurdles for the first time in over ten months." Basler added.
 
In the 400m dash, Katie Burns' third-place finish led the way for Milwaukee, making her way around the track in a career-best 55.87 to place her eighth on the school's all-time outdoor leaderboard.
 
Burns was then joined in the 4x100m relay by, Angelica Refinski, Isabel Roloff, and Victoria Evtimov, where they finished in 46.69 for the fourth best time in school history.
 
Evtimov added her career-best performance in the 200m dash, running to a 24.84 finish to take seventh in the 54-runner field.
 
Leading Milwaukee in the 1500m run was Cailin Kinas, she finished seventh in the event and also moved up to ninth on the program's all-time list at 4:37.57.
 
Anelise Egge ran in her first 800m race of the outdoor season, coming in fourth with a time of 2:13.74.
 
Finishing in third place, Leah Handshoe competed in the 400m hurdles, posting a time of 1:02.43.
 
"We definitely faced some adverse conditions with the cold and rain but I thought we got a lot accomplished and performed really well," Basler continued. "Just across the board I thought Katie was great in the 400m, Victoria, Anelise, Cailin, and Leah all ran great races, it was awesome to see."
 
Rounding out action on the track was the 4x400m relay team of, Burns, Handshooe, Brooke Crosby, and Alexandria Simmons winning the event at 3:52.52.
 
In another strong performance, Anna Szepieniec reached a distance of 5.62m in the long jump, finishing in second place.
 
Hailey Soriaga added another podium finish in the pole vault, clearing 3.60m to earn third place.
 
As a team, Milwaukee finished third out of the 29 programs at the meet with 69.5 points.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Panthers will hit the road for two more meets next weekend starting with the Drake Alternative hosted by UW-Whitewater on Apr. 25 at Rex Foster Track Complex in Whitewater, Wis. Then on Saturday the Panthers will compete at the Fighting Illini Twilight taking place at Demirjiran Park in Champaign, Ill.