Milwaukee Has Recipe For Fifth-Straight Horizon League Sweep
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Jan. 9, 2008) - For the eighth-straight season, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's track and field team will head to Kenosha, Wis., to kick off its indoor season. The Panthers will head to the Division I Invitational Saturday for the start of the 2008 season. The meet is hosted by Carthage College. Last season, Milwaukee placed second at the meet after racking up seven individual wins. Seven different UWM athletes won events, including a pair of relays, and Quinn Mongoven posted the third-best high jump in school history in just his first meet.
2008 PreviewHead coach Pete Corfeld has had the winning recipe for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's track and field team for some time now. With a strong mix of talented upperclassmen and underclassmen alike, he has guided the Panthers to 18 of the last 21 Horizon League Championships. Currently, Milwaukee has a streak of eight-straight titles, having swept both the indoor and outdoor meets in each of the last four years. The key to the recipe is that when the veterans graduate, the underclassmen step up. This season will be no different, as UWM will have to replace a talented class of seniors--namely perennial league champions Nick Gretz, Trentin Edwards, Jeremy Majors and Nick Wichert. The quartet combined for 22 individual league titles and seven school records in their careers, including 10 championships and six records last season alone. But, the Panthers are prepared, as they return six individual champs that were just freshmen and sophomores in 2007.
Sprints With the loss of Edwards and Majors, the sprint group was hit hard by graduation. Edwards was a fixture atop the league in the 60m indoors, 100m outdoors and the 200m for both. He won three of four of those events last season. Majors, on the other hand, was a perfect 3-for-3 in the 400m and 800m last season, sweeping the events indoors and winning the 800m outdoors. Looking to fill the void will be a pair of sophomores in Tyler Bucholz and Isaiah Adams. Bucholz won the outdoor 400m last season and Adams placed second. The pair of rookies also combined with Majors for the top three positions in the indoor 400m competition. Neither Bucholz nor Adams had much experience in the shorter sprint events, leaving Lynn Koepke as UWM's only returner from those events. He is coming off his best league showing at last year's outdoor meet, where he took fourth in the 100m and fifth in the 200m. Joining the sprint group is a talented core of four freshmen that will attempt to carry over prep success to their first collegiate campaigns. Cory Yttre won the state title in the 400m last season and took third in the 200m. In addition to four school records, he also ran the eighth-fastest 400m time in state history. Meanwhile, Jared Foerch took second to Yttre in the 400m at the state meet and helped the 4x400m to a second-straight state championship. He also posted the ninth-fastest 400m time in state history and holds school records in the 200m, 400m and with the 4x400m relay. Freshmen Andrew Manuel comes to UWM out of Canton, Mich., where he qualified for regionals five times and state once. He competed at the regional meet in both the 200m and 400m events as a junior, posting top four finishes in both. Wade Schenck will also join the group for the longer events. Schenck was a four-time all-conference selection and competed at the Wisconsin State meet four times. He will likely slide into the 800m. Outside of Majors, the Panthers were without a second 800m runner last season, with a number of the distance runners taking a crack at the event. Distance Nick Hawley returns for his senior season and will help to guide a young group of distance runners that includes just two other upperclassmen. Meanwhile, the group features seven freshmen and sophomores. Hawley has been the team's top cross country runner at nearly every meet he has run in the last two seasons before an injury sidelined him during the league meet. He will look to rebound from that injury for a strong senior campaign. Sophomore Ryan Mleziva emerged as a strong second runner in cross country and took third in the 10,000m at the league's outdoor meet. Junior Eric Pitt continues to improve through a pair of cross country and track seasons. He has also been the team's lone competitor in the 3000m steeplechase, posting the seventh-best time in school history last season. Sophomore Mike Sorenson has also emerged as a distance talent, taking third in the 10,000m at the league meet last season. Porter, along with sophomores Matt Dreifke and Nick Fox return with a season of track competition under their belts. Sophomore Jason Axt and freshmen Ben Borton and Jeff Winkelman each showed steady improvement during their first cross country season in a Panther uniform. Hurdles/Multi-Events Milwaukee can boast one of the best hurdle tandems in the Horizon League in senior Justin Bohler and junior Adam Schleis. Schleis has won all three league hurdle championships he has competed in, while Bohler is a perennial top-three finisher. The duo makes up a strong base for the Panther hurdlers, which also include sophomore Josh Zill and junior Patrick Casey. Bohler and Casey have each competed once in the 400m hurdles, with Bohler claiming a league title in 2006. Casey posted the best time in the league in the event last year, but took fifth at the league meet. Zill, meanwhile, redshirted the 2007 season after a strong freshman season in 2005. Manuel will also compete in the 400m hurdles. Bohler has also claimed top-two finishes at the league meet in the heptathlon, winning a title in 2006. Jumps Schleis and senior Darren Cole are reigning league titlists in jumping events, while sophomore Quinn Mongoven burst onto the scene last season. The long and triple jumps are events that UWM routinely scores a number of athletes. The long jump is Schleis' specialty, as he has won an indoor and outdoor title and claimed all-league second-team honors one time each as well. Last season, he was joined on the awards podium indoors by Casey (fifth) and outdoors by both Mongoven (fifth) and Cole (sixth). Zill also has scored in the event, but has seen more success in the triple jump. In three seasons, Cole has won four league triple jump championships and taking second at the 2006 outdoor meet to graduated teammate Sean Cludy. Those five all-league finishes represent each time he has competed. Zill provides depth behind him, taking third at both meets as a sophomore. Schleis does not have much competition experience in the triple jump, but did garner all-league second team honors behind Cole at last season's outdoor meet. As a freshman in 2007, Mongoven swept the league high jump crowns on his way to Field Newcomer of the Year at both meets. He made an immediate impact, clearing 6-9 ¾ in his first indoor meet of the season for the third-best height in school history. Bohler and Cole have each competed in the event at the league meets, with Cole winning a league title indoors as a sophomore. Pole Vault The Panthers have long been the dominant team in the league when it comes to the pole vault, having won 18 champions since 1996. The task of keeping the tradition alive falls to junior Sean Jaehnig and Podd. Jaehnig led the league in the event both indoors and outdoors last season. Podd, on the other hand, found success last season with second-place finishes at both meets. Both have shown consistency in preparing for the season and the coaches are optimistic that the pair will be competing against each other for a league title this season. Throws The throws will undergo a facelift this season, with both Nick Gretz and Nick Wichert lost to graduation. Gretz capped his career with one of the most successful seasons in school history, advancing to the NCAA Championships. Wichert also established himself with some of the top performances in school history and a handful of league titles. The lone returner in throwing events is senior Larry Ehrhorn, who had a breakout season as a junior. He won six events during the indoor season and broke the school weight throw mark at the league meet on his way to a runner-up finish. Indoors, he thrived in both the weight and shot put while learning from Gretz and Wichert. This season, Ehrhorn will have a pair of freshmen looking to learn from him in Matthew Jensen and Nate Dodson. Jensen won a Wisconsin State Championship in the discus as a senior after a third-place finish as a junior. He also set a school record in the event and has the 23rd-best throw in school history. Dodson was an Illinois 2A state qualifier in the shot put, while also qualifying for the AAU Junior Olympics in the shot put and discus. |
