The women’s track team left its competition trailing, taking eight first-place finishes on Saturday en route to a first-place team finish at the UWEC Track Invitational at Simpson Field.
“This wasn’t our most competitive meet of the season,” coach Tracy Yengo said. “It was a perfect meet going into conference, though.”
On the men’s side, two firsts were earned to leave the team with a third-place finish. UW-La Crosse and UW-Stevens Point, which are both nationally ranked, finished in front of the Blugolds.
“These teams prove the strength of our conference,” coach Scott Steuernagel said. “La Crosse is one of the premier Division III teams in the country. Our goal was to be competitive with them. We were happy to finish where we did.”
The men were missing some of their best runners due to the team’s participation in the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. Four relay teams, including the 4×100-meter relay, the 4×200-meter relay, the distance medley relay and the 3,200-meter relay represented Eau Claire at the Iowa meet.
At the women’s portion of the UWEC Invite, the women scored 213 points, nearly 100 points more than the second-place finisher Carroll College, which finished with 128 points.
“We had a team goal to win this meet,” Yengo said. “We had a lot of (personal records), which should give us a lot more confidence going into conference.”
First-place finishes were posted by the 4×100-meter relay team, which finished with a time of 50.67 seconds. St. Benedict College (Minn.), the second-place finisher in that event, finished with a time of 51.27.
Sophomore Betsy Coy finished first for the Blugolds in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 hours, 28 minutes, 42 seconds. She finished just .02 seconds ahead of her second-place competition.
In the distance events, freshman Melissa Wright placed first in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:53.38.
Sophomore Karin Diestelmeier took first in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:19.64.
The Blugolds saw equal success with the field events. Junior Kathy Thompson took top honors in the javelin and high jump. Thompson threw the javelin for 102 feet 4 inches. In the high jump, Thompson’s jump of 5 feet 4 inches took first place.
Freshman Kay Mikolajczak took first place in the triple jump with a leap of 35 feet .05 inches. Freshman Brooke Wozniak’s throw of 39 feet 10 inches in the shot put was enough to take first place by 3 1/2 inches over her closest competitor.
“Kay Mikolajczak and Brooke Wozniak have been real impact players,” Yengo said. “They’ve been going out there and earning a lot of points for the team.”
This was the Blugold’s final meet before the WIAC conference meet.
“Going into conference our team goal is a solid fourth place, no ties,” Yengo said. “We’re a really young team, but I’ve been really impressed with their maturity and attitudes. Those things will work in our favor at conference.”
On the men’s side of the UWEC Track Invite, the two first-place efforts came on the field.
Freshman Nick Dudycha’s jump of 6 feet 2 inches was high enough to take first place. Junior Jeff Bergstrom took first in the triple jump with a leap of 44 feet 9 inches.
Second-place finishes came from sophomore Matt Vanderkooy in the 100-meter dash and the 4×100 relay.
“Matt Vanderkooy continues to run strong for our team,” Steuernagel said. “He had a very strong showing in the 100.”
In other men’s track action during the weekend, three relays made the finals of the Drake Relays.
The 4×100-meter relay of sophomore David Hanson, freshmen Chris Crutchley and Chad Crutchley and junior Scott Whirry finished fifth in their heat. Their time of 42.14 seconds, which was .04 seconds slower than their seed time, was not enough to qualify for the finals.
“This is a remarkable feat that we’re competing at this level,” Steuernagel said. “Only three of the guys had been to Drake before. Our main goal was to gain experience for next year.”
In the 4×200 relay, the four improved their seed time by one second to 1:27.32, finishing fourth in the heat. In the finals, the relay team did not finish.
Junior Rich Maleniak, sophomore Sean Gavigan, freshmen Matt Glover and Jeff Burkart ran the 4×800 relay for the Blugolds. They improved their seed time by nearly 10 seconds, finishing tenth overall with 7:42.80.
The distance medley relay team of Gavigan, senior Mike Mascitti, junior Kevin Larson and Maleniak finished in 11th place with 10:12.07.
The men’s and women’s track teams will travel to Whitewater for the WIAC conference meet.