Not a bad night for UW-La Crosse’s Sam Blaskowski.
In his final home meet wearing a UW-L uniform, the senior broke two NCAA Division III records Wednesday.
“He ran the 4×100, ran the fastest time in Division III history — broke the school records,” UW-L men’s coach Josh Buchholtz said. “They ran a 39.53. So they’re No. 1 in the nation. And then he turned around, 30 minutes later, and ran 10.05, broke the national record — his own national record — in the 100-meter dash.”
Ryder Smith, Evan Maurud and Lyndon Hemmrich-Hartman were Blaskowski’s teammates in winning the 400 relay.
Blaskowski’s 10.05 in the 100 broke his previous record of 10.08, which he set in his hometown of Oshkosh 10 days ago.
Blaskowski, though, he was already looking ahead, which seems about right.
“My last race ever at UW-L, as a UW-L member,” he said. “Who knows, maybe when I’m pro, I might wanna come back and break Kenny Bednarek’s facility record in the 200.”
Bednarek set the Veterans Memorial Field record at the high school state meet for Rice Lake in 2018. Two years later, he was an Olympic silver medalist in the 200.
Buchholtz noted the historic performance.
“It’s solidifying that an individual competitor from UW-L is going to hold our facility records for those two events — and the 200 — for a long time,” he said. “I’m not saying records aren’t going to get beat but when you put those two times up, those are big. Those are ones that hadn’t been touched in years and Sam came in and, over this past four years, really set the bar real high for anybody that’s going to be looking to come in here and put their name on the 100, the 200, the 4×100. But records are meant to be broken, we’re just hoping that’s it stays with an Eagle L on the uniform.”
Blaskowski now has a week to gear up for the NCAA championships in Ohio.