WIAC Indoor Championships - Day 1

Menomonie, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's track & field team leads after the first day of competition at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Indoor Championships in UW-Stout's Johnson Fieldhouse.  The Eagles have 66.5 team points while UW-Oshkosh is in second-place with 27.0 and UW-Stout third with 25.0.  UW-Eau Claire is fourth (24.0) followed by UW-Whitewater (23.0), UW-Platteville (12.5), UW-River Falls (11.0), UW-Stevens Point (5.0) and UW-Superior (1.0).

UW-L is seeking its 11th consecutive indoor conference title.  The Eagles have won a conference record 36 overall indoor championships in school history, including 20 of the last 22.

Isaac Vazquez captured the long jump (24-3 1/2) Friday night while Andy Novak won the shot put (59-10 1/4) for UW-L. It is the second straight conference titles for both Vazquez and Novak.

The Eagle's Troy Brooks was second (23-5 1/4) and Christopher Haase seventh (22-7 1/4) in the long jump Friday while Alex Zart finished seventh (52-5 1/4) in the shot put.

In other results Friday, in the pole vault, UW-L had five of the top-nine finishers.  David Pergande placed third (15-8 1/2) while Jeffrey Hill was fourth (15-2 3/4), Jeremiah Burish tied for fifth (15-2 3/4), Rob Rohe was eighth (14-8 3/4) and Gary Trukla finished ninth (14-8 3/4).

On the track, David Stilin recorded a second-place finish (14:49.61) in the 5,000-meter run while teammate Josh Kaul finished fourth (15:04.93). 

The Eagles' distance medley relay of Andrew Rohlman, Christian Wendland, Tyler Heinz and Garrett Kerska placed third (10:13.88).

Advancing to the finals in track preliminaries included Alex Koenen (6.91), Jared Sitte (6.99) and Troy Brooks (7.00) in the 60-meter dash.  Koenen also advanced to the 200-meter dash final (22.36).

UW-L's Aric Hoeschen (48.72) and Tyson Young (49.92) will run in Saturday's 400-meter dash final while Eric Smits (1:55.82) and Sean Royer (1:57.20) advanced to the 800-meter run final.

Joe DeRosier (8.40) and Adam Nichols (8.56) advanced to the 60-meter hurdles final.

Action concludes Saturday at UW-Stout.