DE PERE, Wis. – The Concordia University Wisconsin men's track and field team opened the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Outdoor Championships with a strong showing, tallying 20 points on day one to sit tied for fourth place with Wisconsin Lutheran College.
MSOE leads the field with 88 points.
The Falcons saw most of their points come from the throws, accounting for 15 of the team's 20 total points. Three additional points came from the jumps, while two were earned in a distance event.
Javelin proved to be a standout event for CUW, with three athletes combining for all 15 points. Senior Holter Gette (Batavia, Ill.) earned a silver medal with a throw of 55.36 meters, while freshman Justin Clark (Goodyear, Ariz.) claimed bronze at 53.14 meters. Sophomore Zach Wendland (Green Bay, Wis.) added a point with his eighth-place throw of 42.99 meters, narrowly edging out St. Norbert's Hunter Thiel.
In the 3000-meter steeplechase, freshman Jonah Slavik (Muskego, Wis.) scored two points, finishing seventh at 10:05.14 after a strong push in the final laps.
Freshman Lucas Mathes (Brillion, Wis.) added three points for the Falcons in the triple jump, earning sixth place with a leap of 13.29 meters.
On the track, junior Brandon Donahue (Hubertus, Wis.) qualified for the 110-meter hurdles finals, finishing third in his heat and fifth overall with a time of 15.70 seconds.
CUW also saw multiple athletes advance through preliminary rounds. In the 800-meter run, sophomore Isaiah Lubner (Campbellsport, Wis.) posted the third-best time at 1:56.92, while senior Zach Leahy (East Dundee, Ill.) placed seventh at 1:56.42. In the 400-meter hurdles, Wendland qualified first overall with a time of 57.28, and sophomore Josh Sipes (Charleston, Ill.) advanced in sixth at 58.33.
Senior Jacob Couillard (Kingsford, Mich.) sits in eighth place in the decathlon after five events, totaling 2,423 points. Notably, he took second among decathletes in both the shot put with a throw of 10.60 meters and the high jump, clearing a height of 1.64 meters.
The Falcons will return to action on Saturday, looking to climb the team standings on day two of the NACC Championships at St. Norbert.
