LA CROSSE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The UW-Eau Claire men's track and field team jumped two spots in the team standings finishing in third place at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships hosted by UW-La Crosse at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.
The Blugolds finished the two-day event earning a total of 120.5 points. UW-La Crosse won the event with 215.83 points followed by UW-Whitewater with 124 points. It is the fourth time the Blugolds have finished third at the WIAC Championships achieving the feat in 1985, 1990 and 2013.
Thurgood Dennis (Sr.-Allouez, WI/Green Bay Notre Dame) was impressive in his final WIAC Outdoor Championships. Dennis won his fourth-consecutive 100-meter dash conference championship with a blistering wind-aided time of 10.12 seconds. Dennis became just the third four-time 100-meter conference outdoor champion ever joining Blugold Hall of Famer Dan Kelner who won titles with UW-Superior in 1987 and 1989 along with two titles at UW-Eau Claire from 1990-91 and Danny Tutskey of UW-La Crosse who accomplished the feat from 1999-2002.
Dennis went on to win his second individual crown of the day taking the 200-meter dash title with a time of 20.61 seconds. The time broke the previous conference meet record of 20.84 seconds set by Olympian Andrew Rock of UW-La Crosse in 2003. It was the third 200-meter championship won by Dennis, who won his previous titles in 2011 and 2012. Dennis is the only WIAC runner to win both the 100 and 200-meter dashes in the same meet three times.
Jake Pientok (So.-Whitehall, WI), Cory White (Sr.-Tomah, WI), Connor Drexler (So.-Baraboo, WI) and Dennis won their second-consecutive 4 x 100-meter relay title in a time of 41.50 seconds. Both Dennis and White were members of last year's 4 x 100-meter relay championship squad doing so with the exact same winning time of 41.50 seconds.
Roger Steen (Sr.-Luck, WI) won his second consecutive outdoor shot put title with a top throw of 59-2.75 (18.05 feet) winning the event by six feet. Steen joins John Schuna as the only Blugolds to win two outdoor shot put conference championships. It was the farthest throw in the shot put at the WIAC Outdoor Championships since UW-Eau Claire throws coach Paul Conlin set the conference record of 62-7.25 (19.08 meters) in 1993 throwing for UW-Platteville.
Brandon Zarnoth (Sr.-Appleton, WI/North) won his first-ever decathlon conference championship being the first Blugold to win the event since Jace Graber in 1996. Zarnoth won the event scoring 6,986 points falling just 13 points shy of tying the conference meet record of 6,999 points set by Kevin Deering of UW-Oshkosh in 2005. Zarnoth won six out of 10 events including the 100-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, 400-meter dash, long jump, pole vault and shot put.
Teammate Greg Peterson (Sr.-Hartland, WI/Arrowhead) finished second in the decathlon earning a two-day total of 6,853 points. Peterson won the 1,500-meter run while finishing second in the 110-meter hurdles, high jump and long jump.
Cody Prince (Sr.-Appleton, WI/North) earned a second place finish in the 400-meter dash finals with a time of 48.30 seconds.
Next the Blugolds will compete in a series of last-chance meets starting with the North Central (IL) Last Chance Meet. Competition will take place on Thursday, May 7 starting at 3:00 p.m.
-KCM-