Whitewater, Wis. – The Red Hawks were in action on Friday and Saturday at UW-Whitewater and turned in a plethora of season bests, personal best and all-time performances, including another school record from Dameco Walker. 
 
Last weekend at the Red Hawk Opener, Walker eclipsed his own school record in the Long Jump by three inches as he jumped out to 7.07m/23'2.25, only to out-do himself again but this time by a large margin.  He recorded four jumps in total over 7.21m/23'7.75, with his farthest going out to 7.32m/24'0.25.  That performance extends his current lead in the Midwest Conference by a foot and five inches and moves him up to third in NCAA DIII (14th overall between NCAA DIII and DII).  In addition to winning the Long Jump on Friday, he also placed fourth in the 200m dash setting a new Junior Class record time of 22.67 seconds, which ranks him second in the MWC behind teammate Andrew Fuhrmann.
 
The Red Hawks also lit up the track in the 5000m as four Ripon athletes placed inside the top-five in that event between the Women and Men.  Leading the way was junior Mikayla Flyte as she raced out to a new lifetime best by 40 seconds to take the event title on Saturday with a time of 18:59.39.  Teammates Natalie Pakosz and Ali Denamur also raced to lifetime best times as they finished third and fourth with times of 19:36.96 and 19:55.09, respectively.  Flyte's time moves her up the top-10 all-time list to fifth, while Pakosz moves to tenth.  Junior Sam Forstner led a pack of Red Hawks in the Men's race as he finished fifth overall with a new personal best time of 16:04.25, which ranks him eighth all-time in school history.
 
Senior Makaila Weddle also raced well on Saturday as she finished second in the Mile run out of 39 competitors with a new personal best time of 5:28.15, moving her up to seventh fastest in school history.  She also teamed up with Emma Spalding, Payton Rahn and Kara Block in the 4x400 Relay, as they raced to the eighth fastest relay time in school history, ranking second so far in the MWC.
 
There were six other performances on the weekend that now rank top-10 all-time at Ripon:
2. Oscar Telschow – Heptathlon
5. Arynn Mathieu – Weight Throw
6. Caroline Flesch – Pentathlon
9. Grace Engebretson – 3000m
10. Oscar Telschow – Pole Vault
10. Niko Martinez-Ortiz – 5000m
 
The Red Hawks will enjoy two weeks of home competition as they are set to host the Red Hawk Invite on Feb 5 and the Dick Hendricks Invitational on Feb 12, honoring the late Ripon College coach.  Both meets are scheduled to begin at 11 am and will feature some of the best competition in the area.  Live stream and live result links can be found at riponredhawks.com.