UW Oshkosh track and field competed at the UW-Whitewater Midwest Elite invitational, with the men’s team placing first and the women’s fifth.

UW-Whitewater hosted the meet, with eight teams total competing on Feb. 11. The men’s team beat out all others, scoring 120 points. The women placed fifth out of eight teams with a score of 32 points.

Keegan Cullison led the team in the men’s 60-meter sprints earning a time of 6.89.  However, that time was just shy of first place, losing by .02 seconds. With such a close loss, Cullison said he plans to continue to commit to the team and the process.

“If I am working hard in practice and also doing all the little things right outside of practice like diet, sleep and recovery, then I’ll be able to put myself in the best position to perform at a higher level within the next few weeks,” he said.

Both the men’s and women’s team have had great success this year, with the men’s team taking first in all of their scored meets so far. In addition, this was the women’s first time not receiving first. 

Cullison said that the strength of the team relationship is a big factor in the men’s win.

“We are in the most competitive conference in D-III track and everyone on the team knows that,” he said. “We know that every team in the conference including UW-La Crosse has a good team, but we know that we have a great team and we aren’t scared to compete. We just come to practice everyday with the mindset of getting better and we use adversity to further motivate us to reach our team goals.”

An event showing that cohesion was the men’s 400-meter sprint, where Oshkosh took the top three spots. The leader was Devin Williams with a time of 49.94 seconds, followed by Londyn Little and Ryan Potter with respective times of 50.02 and 50.24.

Steven Potter took first in the mile, setting a season best time for the Titans, by finishing in 4:07.88. Potter said that the performance opens up new options and opportunities for him on the team.

“The mile race at UW-Whitewater opened some doors for me for what I’m able to do at Birmingham in March,” he said. “I took second indoors last year in the 800, so I could definitely try and go after that event again, but now I have the option of declaring for the mile and racing that in Nationals. I’m also shooting to get a school record in both the 800 and the mile. I’m currently second in school history for both of those events.”

Cheering him on throughout the duration of his mile was his team, which he said gave the meet an uplifting spirit after he had been out of recent competition.

“This was my first meet back with the team in a few weeks,” he said. “The atmosphere that our team brought to the meet was electric. Titans were all over the meet cheering on their teammates.”

The Titans will host the UW Oshkosh Titan Challenge on Feb. 18 for their last home meet of this year. Cullison said that the team is ready to build off their most recent win.

“I think building off this recent meet into next week is going to be huge for us since we’re at home,” he said. “We know our team can still improve a ton. Being at home we know we’re going to bring a lot of energy to Kolf and put down more electric performances.”