DE PERE, Wis. – On a blustery Thursday afternoon the Red Hawks earned ten event wins and compiled 297 teams points and one school record at the SNC Twilight Meet. The men finished in third place with 147 points, while the women finished second with 150 points, ahead of two NCAA DII programs.
The men had a trio of double-event winners in
Ben Fisher,
Dameco Walker and
Andrew Fuhrmann. Fisher turned in two lifetime best performances in the High Jump and 200m, clearing 2.00m (6-6.75) for the first time during the outdoor season. He had three close attempts at 2.03m (6-8) which would have tied the school record from 1976. He then came back to win the 200m in convincing fashion running 22.67 seconds. His clearance in the High Jump currently ranks 10th overall in NCAA DIII and third in school history.
Walker remains undefeated in the outdoor Long Jump so far as he leapt out to 21'11 (6.68m) while teaming up with Fuhrmann to run away from the field in the 4x400m relay. All day the athletes battled 25+ mph winds on the backstretch which Fuhrmann carved through to win the 400m dash in a time of 51.88 seconds.
Freshamn
Cade Gray once again raised the bar on his school record in the Pole Vault. After he set the new record last week at 15'1 (4.60m) he cleared 15'3 (4.65m) to win the event and move him up to 14th on the NCAA DIII Performance List.
The women's throws group took two event titles home as
Kalyn Otzelberger hit a season best of 39-4.5 (12.00m) in the Shot Put to win by over two-feet.
Arynn Mathieu set a lifetime best mark in the Hammer Throw of 128-9 (39.26m) to win by over four feet. That distance moved Mathieu up the top-10 all-time list to seventh.
The men's 4x100 and women's 4x400 relays also emerged victorious. The men's 4x100 relay of Walker,
Logan Vander Galien,
Jaden Watt-Martin and
Jacoby Cefalu won with a time of 44.01 seconds to set a season best despite the windy conditions. The women's 4x400 relay of
Emma Spalding,
Makaila Weddle,
Grace Engebretson and
Payton Rahn won by two seconds ahead of Michigan Tech running 4:20.39.
Two other performances on the day made their way into the history books as Spalding ran a lifetime best in the 200m dash of 25.85 seconds to place second, ranking as the sixth fastest time at Ripon. Freshman
Christian Kuwaye made his career debut in the Steeplechase running 10:26.96 which ranks tenth in school history.
The Red Hawks will be back in action at the two-day UW-La Crosse Phil Esten Challenge on April 22-23. The Multi Events, Discus and 10,000m will be contested on Friday with the rest of the meet concluding on Saturday.
