LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Red Hawks took advantage of above freezing temperatures and an abundance of competition over the three-day UWL Esten Challenge as they tallied 20 Top-10 All-Time Performances and 51 personal bests. Altogether it was an historic day for Ripon as five school records were set as the men finished 7th and the women 11th out of 28 competing institutions.
The longest standing school record on the books dated back to 1924 from hall-of-famer Ralph Christofferson. The Olympic Trials Qualifier set a long jump benchmark of 23-6 (7.16m) that stood for nearly 100 years, set in the same year the men's program has last won an Outdoor Midwest Conference title. On Saturday, junior
Dameco Walker surpassed the legendary Christofferson on multiple attempts, his farthest going out to 24-10 (7.57m) to win the competition. His second farthest jump was 24-5 (7.44m) and had a legal tail wind of 2.6 m/s, which now ranks him fifth overall in the nation. Walker also set a personal best in the 200m of 22.40 seconds (6th All-time) and anchored the 4x400 relay to the third fastest time in school history (3:21.65) teaming up with
Andrew Fuhrmann,
Wyatt Lowrance and
Jacob Jumbeck.
In addition to the 4x400 relay where he split a 49.11, Fuhrmann made his outdoor debut in the 200m a big one. He navigated the half lap in 21.73 seconds (2.4 m/s) to break the school record set by Matt Wood, who graduated with 9 school records, back from the 2010 season.
There was also history made in the women's sprints as
Emma Spalding eclipsed the 100m dash school record set by Briana Bartz back in 2019, running 12.30 seconds (3.9 m/s). Spalding now owns school records in the 60m dash, indoor 200m dash, 100m dash, indoor 4x200 relay, indoor 4x400 relay, Sprint Medley Relay and 4x100 relay. Spalding and Bartz were teammates on the indoor 4x200 and 4x400 school record relays. In addition to the 100m, Spalding also set a new personal best in the 200m of 25.54 seconds which ranks second in school history, along with running a leg on the 4x100 relay that now ranks second all-time. Spalding,
Jenna Erickson,
Payton Rahn and
Kara Block finished sixth with a time of 49.16 seconds.
The meet started back on Thursday evening with the running of the 10,000m which featured nearly 200 athletes. Junior
Mikayla Flyte out-distanced herself from every Red Hawk in school history as she cruised 25 laps in 37:59.70, breaking the school record by 45 seconds set by Michelle Matter in 2013. Flyte had a 5,000m personal best of 19:21 last outdoor season and on Thursday managed an incredible feat as she negative-split the race, as she ran her first five kilometers in 19:08 and the second half of the race in 18:51.
Freshman
Cade Gray continues his standout season with the Red Hawks, already owning school records in the indoor and outdoor Pole Vault, he now owns the farthest Triple Jump in school history. He had a personal best of 44'3.5 (13.50m) coming into the meet and put three jumps past that on Saturday, his farthest going out to 46'9.5 (14.26m) to finish second overall. That breaks the previous record set by Leandre Some back in 2015. Gray also finished fifth in the Pole Vault clearing 15'0.25 (4.58m).
Other top-eight finishes on the weekend for Ripon were
Ben Fisher in the High Jump (5th, 6'4.75/1.95m) and
Aryz Terlaje who set a lifetime best in the Javelin of 160'5 (48.89m) to finish sixth and moves his up to fourth all-time at Ripon.
Next up for the Red Hawks is a pair of competitions as the team will travel to St. Norbert College on Saturday April 30 and the historic Drake Relays on April 29. The Red Hawks qualified into the Drake Relays in six events and will compete in five of those between the women and men. Competition is set to begin at 9:18 am for the Drake Relays and 10:30 am for the SNC Invite.
