By RICK SOLEM
ricks@mwfbroadcasting.com
The UW-La Crosse men’s and women’s track and field teams are ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, heading into today’s Division III national championships.
The events begin at 2 p.m. today and tomorrow and begin at 12:35 p.m. Saturday. They take place at UW-La Crosse’s Veterans Memorial Field.
The UW-L men are the top-ranked team by the USTFCCCA, led by senior Isaac Vazquez, and Arcadia, Wis., native looking to repeat as long jump champion and win the triple jump, where he finished runner-up last year.
The men have won six of the last 12 national championships. They were runners-up the last two years. Their last championship was in 2007. UW-L has 11 national titles, the most in Division III history. The next best team has seven.
The UW-L women are ranked No. 2 in the nation led by a 1,600-meter relay team of Jenna Halvorson, Shannon Klein, Rebecca Scheuermann and Claire Elliott that won an indoor national title this winter in 3-minutes, 48.32-seconds.
The relay set a school record of 3:50.76 set in 2000.
TRACK AND FIELD
UW-L PERFORMANCE LIST
MEN
100: 5. Alex Koenen 10.59, 14. David Sikorski 10.68, 19. Troy Brooks 10.74.
800: 4. Sean Royer 1:50.74
1,500: 7. Jacob Peterson 3:49.13, 8. Jerry Kerska 3:49.49.
5,000: 5. David Stilin 14:20.01.
110 hurdles: 19. Joe DeRosier 14.74.
400: 17. Alex Jelich 53.15, 20. Travis Gallick 53.38.
3,000 steeplechase: 8. Andrew Rohlman 9:05.72.
400 relay: 1. UW-L (Dikorski, Koenen, Jessesski, Brooks) 50.52.
1,600 relay: 4. UW-L (Yerhot, Young, Mason, Hoeschen) 3:12.46.
Pole vault: 2. Bryan Klister 5.11 (meters), 8. Rob Rohe 4.92, 17. Jeff Hill 4.82.
Long jump: 1. Isaac Vazquez 7.67, 5. Troy Brooks 7.33, 12. Brett Davis 7.25.
Triple jump: 2. Isaac Vazquez 15.31.
Discus: 6. Grant Havard 54.77.
Hammer throw: 8. John Cooper 58.65, 17. Grant Havard 56.77.
WOMEN
100: 12. Maya Vazquez 12.09, 15. Jamie Ludwigson 12.12.
200: 7. Maya Vazquez 24.61, 14. Jamie Ludwigson 24.66, 17. Meg Heafy 24.94.
400: 14. Claire Elliott 56.65, 15. Jenna Halverson 56.78.
800: 20. Rebecca Scheuermann 2:12.67.
10,000: 22. Corissa Conrad 36:32.29.
100 hurdles: 7. Jamie Ludwigson 14.34, 18. Addie Korb 14.5.
400 hurdles: 16. Marissa Mahr 1:02.24.
400 relay: 1. UW-L (Ludwigson, Heafy, Elliott, Vazquez) 46.1.
1,600 relay: 5. UW-L (Halvorson, Schuermann, Klein, Elliott) 3:48.91.
Pole vault: 11. Meghan Howell 3.72 (meters).
Long jump: 7. Maya Vazquez 5.8, 16. Bailey Alston 5.67.
Hammer throw: 19. Nicole Flackey 50.92.
Heptathlon: 10. Jena Weigel 4,608.