Men’s Track and Field Shines at UWO Early Bird Invitational
OSHKOSH, Wis. – The Falcon men's Track and Field team sent some representatives to Oshkosh to compete in the early bird invitational.
The Falcons took second place overall with a team score of 67 points. The Titans of Wisconsin-Oshkosh claimed first with 339.
Three Falcons competed in the 60-meter dash. Freshman Matthew Torres (Von Ormy, Texas) led the Falcons with a time of 7.65 and a 12th-place finish. Sophomore Riley McCreary (Pleasant Prairie, Wis.) finished in 14th with a time of 7.85. The final Falcon to cross the line in the prelims was sophomore Colin Rerecich (Henderson, Nev.) with a time of 7.92 and a 15th-place finish.
In the 200-meter dash, six Falcons took to the track. Coming in team first was junior Paul Witto (Charleston, S.C.) with a time of 24.70 and a 19th-place finish. Freshman Tevin Matthew (Milwaukee, Wis.) finished with a time of 24.78 and a 20th-place finish. Coming in 22nd was junior Samuel Heling with a time of 25.41. Rerecich finished in 25.52 seconds and took home 23rd. Torres and McCreary finished right behind him with times of 25.73 and 25.79 respectively.
In the 400-meter dash, freshman Dalton Hribar (Oconomowoc, Wis.) was the only Falcon to compete. He claimed eighth with a time of 56.03. Hribar claimed one team point.
The next event was the men's one-mile race. Junior Easton Becker (Ankeny, Iowa) and senior Derrick Folkman (Bonduel, Wis.) hit the track. Becker claimed sixth-place with a time of 4:53.00 and Folkman took seventh with a time of 5:30.48. Becker secured three points for the Falcon team score and Folkman snagged two.
In the prelims of the 60-meter hurdles, sophomore Jacob Kelm (Cedarburg, Wis.) and junior Michael Brookshire (Jenny Lind, Calif.) qualified for the finals. Kelm finished in 9.17 taking second in the prelims and Brookshire ran in 13.16 taking sixth. In the finals, Kelm snagged another second-place finish with a time of 8.95, just three-tenths of a second out of first place. He claimed eight team points. Brookshire finished in sixth with a time of 12.57 to snag three team points.
In the men's high jump, freshman Jacob Couillard (Kingsford, Mich.) and Michael Brookshire snagged team points for the Falcons. Couillard took home four team points with a fifth-place, 1.71 meters while Brookshire grabbed two team points with a seventh-place 1.36.
The men's high jump featured lone Falcon, freshman Nate Waech (West Bend, Wis.). Waech jumped a high of 3.60 meters and claimed fourth worth five team points.
In the triple-jump, Tevin Matthew jumped a total of 12.08 feet to claim fourth and five team points.
A lot of Falcon team points were earned by the Falcon throwers. 34 of the 67 Falcon points were earned in the weight throw and shot put. Claiming yet another record, and breaking one that he owns, senior Gideon Cain (Cedarburg, Wis.) took first place with a throw of 16.07 meters in the shot put, demolishing his old record by almost a whole meter. In the weight throw, Cain claimed another first-place finish with a 16.36-meter throw in the weight throw. Both events earned him 10 points totaling 20 team points from Cain.
Freshman Mitchell Moeller (Cedarburg, Wis.) took fourth-place in the shot put with a throw of 11.39 meters worth five points. Freshman Rashad Shaw (Gary, Ind.) competed in the shot and took fifth place with a throw of 11.34 meters taking four team points. Junior Theodore Ryder posted a distance of 10.60 meters in the shot and 10.12 meters in the weight throw taking sixth-place and seventh-place respectively totaling five team points.
The men's team looks forward from here to their competition at the Carthage Opener in January.
