Four Blugolds Earn WIAC Athlete of the Week Honors

Posted: Sep 22, 2015

MADISON, Wis. (Blugolds.com) - The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire volleyball defensive specialist Talia Jaskulske (So. Maplewood, MInn./North St. Paul), men's cross country runner Christian Leitner (Sr.-Red Wing, Minn.), women's cross country runner Lucy Ramquist (Sr.-River Falls, Wis.) and women's golfer Allison Chomniak (Fr.-Pewaukkee Wis./ Hartland Arrowhead) have each been named Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Athletes of the Week, it was announced today by Assistant Commissioner of Media Relations Matt Stanek.

Jaskulske led the way on defense for the Blugolds who had a strong week, finishing 4-1 and racking up wins against No. 25-ranked Dominican University (Ill.) and No. 14-ranked Elmhurst College (Ill.). The sophomore had double-digit digs in every match this week, totaling 83 digs for 4.88 digs per set. Twice she had at least 20 digs, including 21 against a ranked Elmhurst team. Jaskulske had four service aces and was perfect receiving against Carroll University (Wis.) on 38 attempts.

Leitners’ performance for the men’s cross-country team helped the Blugolds to a second-place finish out 20 teams at the St. Olaf College (Minn.) Invitational on Sept. 19. He finished second out of 308 runners with an 8K time of 25:23 - just three seconds behind first place Jake Campbell of St. Olaf. Campbell was ninth at last year’s NCAA Division III Championship. Leitner ran a smart race moving up throughout as can be seen by his intermediate places, which were: seventh at the one-mile mark, 16th at the two-mile mark, ninth at the three-mile mark and fifth at the four-mile mark.

Lucy Ramquist guided the women’s cross-country team to a fourth-place finish out of 20 teams at the St. Olaf College (Minn.) Invitational. She finished third out of 294 runners with a 6K time of 22:13 - just 10 seconds behind first place Ruth Steinke of Carleton College (Minn.), who was fourth at last year’s NCAA Division III Championship. Ramquist’s time was 1 minute and 15 seconds faster than she ran one year ago at the same invite.

Chomniak shot rounds of 79-82=161 at the Division III Classic held Sept. 19-20 in Lake City, Minn., to tie for 12th place individually. She was the low individual finisher at the tournament from the WIAC. The freshman has been low Blugold finisher each of the first three tournaments this season.