CANTON, N.Y. -- The chartered airplane that brought Wisconsin-LaCrosse, Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Wisconsin-Whitewater’s men’s and women’s track and field teams to the 2015 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships at St. Lawrence University is flying home with a lot more baggage than it brought.
The three schools were among a group of the Wisconsin university system teams which chartered together for the trip and they take home five of the team trophies and a host of individual championships. Wisconsin-La Crosse won both the men’s and women’s team titles with Wisconsin-Eau Claire second in each gender with Wisconsin-Whitewater taking third in the men’s meet.
UW-La Crosse finished the women’s competition with 73 points while UW-Eau Claire was second with 43 and Washington (Mo.) was third with 39. In the men’s race, LaCrosse had 71 points, Eau Claire 46 and Whitewater 42. It is the 12th men’s title for Wisconsin-La Crosse and its first women’s championship.
A total of 29 facility records, most of which were set when St. Lawrence hosted the 2003 championship, fell in the three-day competition and two NCAA Division III championship records were set. Bria Halama of Wisconsin-La Crosse set the championship record in the triple jump with a mark of 12.87 meters, beating the record coincidentally set in the 2003 meet in Canton by .05 of a meter. Salisbury junior Luke Campbell set the other meet record with a win in 13.63 in the 110 hurdles, trimming .16 off the previous mark established in 2012.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire senior sprinter Carly Fehler had an impressive Saturday at the championship, winning two individual titles and anchoring a winning relay. She won the 100 in 11.67 seconds, the 200 in 23.88 and joined Kelsey Worachek, Jesse Reineck and Lindsey Laufenberg on the winning 4x100 relay team, which ran 45.90, just .25 of a second off the Division III Championship record. Salisbury’s Luke Campbell was a double winner for the men as he followed up his win in the 110 hurdles with a victory in 50.57 seconds in the 400 hurdles.
