Though many of their athletes took the week off as part of their training schedule, the UW-Eau Claire men’s and women’s track and field teams had a strong showing at Saturday’s Warren Bowlus Open in Menomonie. Distance coach Dan Schwamberger said the local non-conference meet, which didn’t keep team scores, went quickly and was a nice “off-week” event for the teams.

“(It was) just a good meet for the middle of the season,” Schwamberger said. “It was exactly what we needed.”

Right now, the focus of the track teams is to get as many athletes as possible to qualify for the conference meet, he added.

Sophomore Kirk Schmidt agreed, saying that having both an indoor and an outdoor track season gets long, so sometimes the teams need a meet to take it easy and only compete in a few events.

Schwamberger said he was happy with the performances of all his distance runners -especially senior Molly Warner, who won the 3K race with her best time of the year, 10:26.58. Warner broke away from a University of Minnesota racer in the last lap, Schwamberger said.

“It was neat to get to see her win,” he said.

Junior Tony Carr also had a close finish, taking a hairline second-place finish in the men’s 800-meter race, Schwamberger said. Carr also earned his personal best time at 1:56.61.

Schmidt, an athlete on the sprinter side, also said he ran a personal best time. He placed second in the 200-meter race in 23.20 seconds, Schmidt said. Schmidt also took second in the triple jump.

Other stand-out performances include senior Amy Morse, who broke a school record for her weight throw of 15.77 meters, Schwamberger said. This qualified Morse for the NCAA Div. III Indoor Championships.

Male sprinters junior Frankie Adams and freshman Zach Lee also took home first and second place honors in the 55-meter dash for the Blugolds.

Sophomore Amy Bachinski finished first in the 55-meter dash.

The team took first, second and third in the 55-meter dash, Bachinski said.

Next week, the teams will head to Stevens Point for the Eastbay Invitational – a more competitive and exciting meet, Schwamberger said.

“I think everyone’s looking forward to it,” he said.

Bachinski agreed.

“We are going to have a quick paced workout,” she said. “Everyone is really excited to go to Point because it’s a really fast track.”

– Cassandra Golburg contributed to this report.