With a seventh place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships still in the back of their minds and fresh off some stellar performances in the opening of the outdoor season last weekend in Northridge, Calif. the UW Women’s Track team remains on the road to take part in the Boise State Invitational. Other than the Badgers, others teams participating in the meet will be mostly a blend of homegrown talent from both the host Broncos of Boise State and Idaho.
The Badgers hope they can build on those steady performances that allowed them to win three events last weekend, while placing grabbing second place honors in two others. Wisconsin will look to rack up consecutive wins in some events, while hoping to improve on the others that are deemed to be their strength.
Coach Peter Tegen, now in his 30th and final year at UW, will look for his relay teams to repeat what they did last weekend in which they won a total of four events at the Northridge Invitational. While relays may be the only notable team events at the track meet, the Badgers not only were impressive in the relays but also in several individual categories.
“It was a pretty good meet for us,” coach Tegen said. “We had some very nice performances and we’re looking to continue on that trail.”
The Badger high jumpers showed both their talent and depth in that event this season as senior Angie Kolanko posted a mark of 5 feet 8 inches while teammates Danielle Ohmen and Theresa Giorno placed second and fourth respectively.
Youth will be relied upon this weekend as much as it was last weekend, when sophomore standout Erica Shoeller, a Cross Plains, Wisconsin native recorded two personal-bests by winning the long jump with a mark of 18 feet, 7 inches, and finished fourth in the 200 meter dash with a time of 25.29 seconds — wiping out her old record by 0.8 seconds.
The Badgers are strong all around and hope for UW junior Courtney Bauer to keep moving up with her hammer throws. Bauer earned a top ten finish in the hammer throw, with a new UW record and personal best of 164 feet 10 inches at Northridge, good for ninth place.
The freshmen have been counted upon to produce all season and so far they have yet to miss a beat. Last weekend Shuntia Lucas finished fourth in the 100 meter dash with a 12.20 second time and fellow freshman Venus Washington came in seventh with a 12.35 second time. Overall three sprinters placed among the top ten in the event.
UW is balanced across the board and with senior captains Greta Bauer, Hilary Edmondson, and Kym Hubing continuing to coach the younger players on the perils of college track. UW should continue to improve and get more of the excellent performances they expect out of each passing meet.
