UW Oshkosh women’s track and field finished second in the NCAA Div. III Indoor Track & Field Championship last weekend in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with a team score of 49.

Oshkosh came into the meet as two-time defending champions but lost out to Wisconsin Intercolligate Athletic Conference rivals La Crosse who scored 55 team points.
Coach Ben Dorsey said despite not winning the meet, second place is still a success.

“I’m happy with how the girls competed,” Dorsey said. “We had a lot of great things happen. We scored 10 more points than we were supposed to on paper, which I was happy with.”

Dorsey said the difference between Oshkosh and La Crosse was depth.

“[La Crosse] stepped up,” Dorsey said. “They scored the points they were supposed to score. They covered a lot of different events and did a nice job performing when they needed to.”

Senior Melanie Brickner said she thought the team did better than expected.

“I thought we all did awesome,” Brickner said. “Everybody showed up and performed the way they were supposed to, and we scored a lot of points we weren’t expected to.”

The Titans had nine top-10 finishes in the competition with Bricker placing first in the 20-pound weight throw In the 200-meter dash Emily Reichenberger finished 10th with a time of 25.62 seconds.

Last year’s 800-meter run defending champion Kylee Verhasselt finished second in this year’s championship with a time of 2 minutes 10.42 seconds.

Taylor Sherry ran a personal record in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.90 seconds and finished seventh. Sherry also finished fifth in the pentathlon with 3,462 points.

Dorsey said watching Sherry compete was huge for him.

“For me, personally, Taylor was a highlight of the meet,” Dorsey said. “Just to see where she’s come from freshman year to now has been absolutely unbelievable.”
Sherry said she was really happy with how her events went.

“I was able to beat my seeds,” Sherry said. “And that was kind of my goal for the weekend because this was the first time for me being at nationals. I didn’t get personal records in either events, but I still did enough to get points for the team, and that’s the goal for nationals.”

Also competing in the 60-meter hurdles for Oshkosh was Megan Geldernick who finished 13th with a time of 9 seconds.

Oshkosh had two top-10 finishes in the shot put with Jecel Klotz finishing third and Melanie Brickner finishing sixth. Klotz threw 46-9 and Brickner threw 45-10.
Klotz came into the event as the defending champion. Brickner won the 20-pound weight throw with a throw of 64-1 ¾. Klotz also finished in the top three with a third place throw of 58-2.

Dorsey said going first and third in the weight throw was huge for the team.

“Mel Brickner had an awesome meet,” Dorsey said. “She stepped up, and that’s what you want. On a big stage like the national meet you want your big-time performers to step up and she did. The national meet didn’t faze her, which was awesome.”

Brickner said she thought it was awesome to win her event.

“All the hard work for the year is paid off,” Brickner said. “So I’m definitely looking forward to the outdoor now to continue to be successful.”

Oshkosh finished top-five in both relay events that it competed in. Oshkosh took third in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:50.19. Competing in that event for Oshkosh was Caitlyn McCormick, Stephanie Jahn, Becklyn Hunter and Verhasselt.

Dorsey said the 4×400-meter relay, which was the last event of the meet, was really exciting.

“They stepped up huge,” Dorsey said. “And shattered our school record by two seconds. Going into that final heat they put the pressure on La Crosse to win it. It was awesome to see the women end the meet that way.”

The Titans finished fifth in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:51.83. Competing for Oshkosh in that event was Sonny Jenkins, Jahn, Isabella Tremonti and Verhasselt.

Oshkosh begins its outdoor season at the UW-Whitewater Invitational on April 3.