The Wisconsin women's track team earned seven NCAA Midwest Regional qualifying marks and won two relay events at the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., while the men's team won two events and qualified five over the weekend.
Senior Venus Washington ran the second all-time fastest 100-meter dash for UW in her third-place, 11.62-second regional qualifying effort. She cut nearly four 10ths of a second off her personal best.
Washington also qualified in the long jump after jumping 20-3 1'2 for fourth place.
Junior Amy Lewis threw 144 feet, 3 inches to earn fourth in the javelin and qualify for regionals. Senior Kayla Schultz also qualified in the discus after placing fifth and throwing 156 feet.
Junior Gwen Jorgensen and senior Ann Detmer each qualified in the 1,500 meters by placing fourth and sixth in 4:27.31 and 4:27.72, respectively.
Junior Chavon Robinson took eighth in the triple jump with 40-11 3'4, meeting the regional standard.
The 4x1,500-meter relay of Detmer, Alicia Pabich, Leah Coyle and Maggie Hippman took first in 19:30.80 to beat runner-up Chattanooga by 19 seconds.
UW's 4x800 relay of Detmer, Jorgensen, Carly Ducharme and Sarah Hurley also won the meet in 8:59.40, one second ahead of Indiana.
In addition to three qualifying efforts, the field athletes also earned three top-eight finishes.
Junior Amanda Hoeppner threw 173-7 in the hammer throw for fourth place, and junior Megan Seidel earned fifth in the high jump by clearing 5-7.
Jenny Soceka also placed eighth in the pole vault, clearing 12-11 1'2.
In the 3,000 meters, junior Kait Hurley and sophomore Ashley Benson ran 10:29 and 10:33 for sixth and seventh place, respectively.
The women have qualified nine athletes to regionals so far this season.
Men's Recap
Three men's distance runners went up against professional athletes, including UW alumni, in the invitational heat of the 1,500 meters Friday at the Sun Angel Track Classic hosted by Arizona State.
Freshman Evan Jager and sophomores Craig Miller and Jack Bolas took eighth through 10th place, each running 3 minutes 42 seconds, separated by less than half a second.
Jager and Bolas hit their first outdoor qualifying efforts this season, while Miller bested his Stanford qualifying performance by about a second.
Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky - two UW alumni currently running for Nike and gearing up for the U.S. Championships and the Olympics this summer - helped push the young Badgers and placed second and fourth in 3:40.12 and 3:40.68, respectively.
UW alumni also showed up at the Sea Ray Relays Saturday. Alonzo Moore jumped 53-3 1'2 to win the triple jump and Demi Omole, who runs professionally for Reebok, took fifth in the 100-meter dash in 10.14 seconds.
At the Sea Ray Relays, senior Derek Thiel tied for the individual pole vault title at 16-6 3'4, the regional qualifying standard.
Junior sprinter James Groce earned a regional qualifier in the 400-meter dash by running 46.87 seconds, while sophomore Rayme Mackinson jumped 24-1 3'4 in the long jump for ninth place, also picking up a qualifying mark.
Wisconsin won the 4x110-meter shuttle hurdle relay consisting of Peter Dykstra, Adam Pischke, Brennan Boettcher and Nate Larkin. They ran a combined 58.44 seconds to beat Charlotte by a half second.
Freshman Pat Nichols earned third place in the high jump by clearing 6-8 3'4, and sophomore Rory Linder threw 167-6 in the discus for third place. Both nearly qualified for regionals.
Freshman David Grzesiak scored 6,729 points to place sixth in the decathlon, while junior Brennan Boettcher scored 6,540 points for seventh.
The 3,200 relay team of Steve Ludwig, Luke Rucks, Zach Beth and Eric Hatchell went 7:35.13 for third.
This weekend brings the total regional qualifying marks to 11 for the men's team.
