PLATTEVILLE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) - The UW-Eau Claire men's track and field team showed its early-season strength at the UW-Platteville Triangular today in Williams Fieldhouse.
Though no team scores were kept, individual Blugolds recorded seven leading times and 14 top-three finishes along with competitors from host UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point.
On the track, Eau Claire had an especially strong showing in the 200-meter dash, with five Blugolds finishing among the top 10 competitors. A pair of freshmen, Henry Darling (Fr.-Austin, Minn.) and Seth Friedrich (Fr.-Pine Island, Minn.) claimed the top two spots with respective times of 23.02 and 23.08 seconds while Patrick Mackin (Jr.-Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy) crossed the line just hundredths of a second back at 23.12.
The Blugolds also put down the quickest two times in the 3,000-meter run; Tom Breitbach (Jr.-Muskego, Wis.) laid down an 8:36.94 and Aaron Easker (So.-Eland, Wis./Wittenberg-Birnamwood ) followed with a time of 8:39.22. Eau Claire also led the field in the 55 meter hurdles with Patrick Keyes' (Sr.-Ham Lake, Minn./Blaine) time of 7.85 seconds, the 1-mile run with Jake Zander's (Sr.-Chippewa Falls, Wis./McDonell) 4:25.32 effort, and in the 4x400 meter relay with Team A's time of 3:24.43.
In the field, Eau Claire swept the top two positions in two events. In the triple jump, Logan Koerten (Sr.-Plover, Wis./SPASH) recorded a leading attempt of 13.87 meters (45-6.25) while Jon Gillespie (So.-Altoona, Wis.) made a 13.54 meter jump (44-5.25). Tony Sigrist (Jr.-Byron, Minn.) and Tyler Genovese (Jr.-Stevens Point, Wis./SPASH) led the field with weight throw efforts of 17.01 meters (55-9.75) and 16.55 meters (54-3.75).
Next Saturday, the Blugolds will travel to Menomonie for the Warren Bowles Open. The meet is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.
