The outdoor season began for the men and women’s track team in La Crosse last Saturday with the women coming in second out of five teams and and the men out of seven.

The men were lead by sophomore runner Thurgood Dennis, who finished first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.01 seconds. He also anchored the 4×400 relay team with junior Jacob Dennis-Oehling, senior Marty Richardson and sophomore Cody Prince with a winning time of 3:17.20.

The men also had top finishes by freshman Matt Cooper in the 800-meter run with a 1:56.48 time and sophomore Roger Steen, who tossed the shot put 15.50 meters to add to their 162.5 point team finish.

UW-Platteville won with 207 points, followed closely by host UW-La Crosse with 202 points.

The women’s team won eight events and finished with 269 points on the day, only trailing host La Crosse’s 341 total points.

Seniors Erin Schoenfelder, Ashlyn Mauer, Steph Sjostrum and Caitlin Brendum lead their team with a win in each of their events.

Schoenfelder ran the 100-meter hurdles with a 14.82 finish, Mauer ran the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a 10:50.23 time, Sjostrum took the 1,500-meter run with a 4:44.12 finish and Brendum won with a 51.22 meter toss in the hammer throw.

Sophomore Megan Mulligan also added to the Blugolds’ wins in the 100-meter dash with a 12.47 time. Sophomores Brooke Patterson, Calla Karl and Steph Rouse and freshman Jessica Rupnow with a 4:00.88 finish won the 4×400-meter relay. The relay team decimated the competition by beating the next place finishers by nearly 24 seconds.

Freshmen Stephanie Frempong-Longdon and Sam Anderson also won for the Blugolds in the triple jump and discus throw, respectively. Frempong-Longdon had a 11.46 meter jump and Anderson tossed the discus 36.44 meters for the wins.

The Blugolds next meet will be April 13 at the UW-Platteville invitational.