2023 NCAA Division III Championships Website

Pittsford, N.Y. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's track & field team is tied for fourth-place after the first day of competition Thursday night at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Outdoor Championships at Polisseni Track and Field Complex.  The championships are being hosted by St. John Fisher University (N.Y.) and Visit Rochester. 

UWL has 10.0 team points while Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 14.0. UW-Platteville and Rowan University (N.J.) are tied for second with 12.0 points. Carroll University (Wis.), George Fox University (Ore.) and John Carroll University (Ohio) are tied with UWL for fourth. UW-Eau Claire is in eighth-place with 8.0 points. UW-Whitewater, Rochester University (N.Y.), Pacific University (Ore.) and MSOE (Wis.) are tied for ninth with 6.0 points. A total of 27 teams scored points. 

The Eagles' Ethan Gregg and Sam Blaskowski earned NCAA III All-America honors on Thursday. Gregg placed second in the 10,000-meter run (28:55.46) while Blaskowski was seventh in the long jump (23-10). It is his fifth career NCAA III Outdoor All-America honor, including second in the long jump after he placed third in 2022. 

Gregg earned his third career NCAA III All-America award in the 10,000-meter run on Thursday after finishing sixth in 2022 and eighth in 2021. He holds the school record in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 28:40.35 set this season at the Stanford University (Calif.) Invitational. 

In preliminary action on the track, UWL's 4x100-meter relay of Ryder Smith, Blaskowski, Spencer Reichart and Luke Schroeder set an NCAA Division III record with a time of 39.86. The relays breaks the national record of 39.95 set by New Jersey City University in 2006 and the championship record of 40.01 set by Wesley College (Va.) in 2016. UWL also broke the Polisseni Track and Field Complex record of 42.05 set by Buffalo State University (N.Y.) in 2016. 

Smith, Blaskowski, Reichart and Schroeder broke their own school record of 40.07 set this season at the Drake Relays. The 4x100-meter relay final is set for 11:55 a.m. on Saturday, May 27.

The Eagles' 4x400-meter relay also qualified for the Saturday finals with a time of 3:09.38 on Friday. The time was tied for the second-fastest in the preliminaries. The final is scheduled for May 27 at 3:50 p.m. 

Blaskowski also advanced in the 200-meter dash with a time of 20.95 in Thursday's preliminaries. He recorded the second-fastest time in the preliminaries. Blaskowski will run in the finals May 27 at 2:40 p.m. 
 

UWL's Adam Loenser recorded the top-time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase preliminaries with a school record of time of 8:50.68. He broke the record of 8:52.55 by Brett Altergott set in 1998. The 3,000-meter steeplechase final is set for May 27 at 11:30 a.m.

The Eagles' Jayden Zywicki (9:04.94) and Elias Ritzke (9:40.83) failed to advance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. 

Michael Madoch failed to advance to the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:49.33 while Schroeder did not qualifying for the 400-meter hurdles finals after a time of 53.45 in the preliminaries. 
 
 Action continues at 9 a.m. Friday, May 26.