RIPON, Wis. – For the first time in two years and the first time at home, the Red Hawks kicked off their indoor season in December as the Red Hawks hosted the Winter Open + Multi Friday through Saturday at the Willmore Center.
The start to the 2021-22 campaign was a success as eight top-10 performances all-time, 28 personal bests and four NCAA top-30 marks were recorded. In a highly competitive meet that featured 123 top-50 performances in the NCAA, 15 Red Hawk performances also finished in the top-8 in their respective events.
The men's 4x400m relay of
Dameco Walker,
Jacob Jumbeck,
Ben Fisher and
Miles Kremsreiter recorded the best finish of the day for Ripon as they won the event with a time of 3:38.27. On the men's side,
Dameco Walker placed second overall in the 300m dash with a time of 37.27, while Oscar Telchow also finished second competing in his first ever Heptathlon with a score of 3,463. Fisher also placed well in the High Jump, finishing third as he cleared 6'7 (2.01m), which currently ranks him fifth in NCAA-DIII.
The women had 8 top-8 performances, led by
Kara Block and a trio of Pentathletes. Block jumped to a new indoor personal best in the Long Jump of 16'3.25 (4.96m) to finish fifth overall. That jump was also the seventh best in school history.
Bridget Finn,
Caroline Flesch and
Kynaeda Gray competed in their first Pentathlon of the season placing third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
In addition to Fisher's High Jump mark, a pair of men's jumpers also put marks inside the top-30 in the NCAA early into the season. In the Long Jump freshman Cade Gray leaped out to a near personal best distance of 21'11.75 (6.70m) to finish sixth, while Walker recorded a jump of 21'11 (6.68m) to finish seventh. Those distances rank 22nd and 23rd in NCAA-DIII so far. Sophomore thrower
Kalyn Otzelberger got on the board with a solid throw in the Shot Put of 38'3.5 (11.67m), which ranks 27th in the country.
The Red Hawks will get one more opportunity in 2021 before winter break, as they travel to UW-Oshkosh next Saturday for the UWO Early Bird Invite.
