The Milwaukee Panthers men’s track and field team competed at the Ashton May Invite hosted by UW-La Crosse at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex on Apr. 3, with several athletes achieving personal bests despite challenging weather conditions.
The event highlighted the team’s resilience as they faced heavy rain and cooler temperatures. Head coach Andrew Basler said, “In less-than-ideal weather conditions, I thought the group that came to La Crosse competed well. They did not let heavy rain and cooler temperatures deter them from giving their best effort.”
Zach Moss won the 5000-meter run with a career-best time of 15:30.8, while Aidan Sosnowski finished second in the same event with a time of 15:38.82. Sam Blascyk and Will Perez also achieved personal records in the race, finishing with times of 16:22.68 and 16:23.93 respectively.
Basler said, “We had a couple freshmen have solid days in the sprint races. Matt Scardina had his second quality weekend in the 100-meter and 200-meter. Brendan Vlasak opened his outdoor season strongly in the 110-meter hurdles. He broke 15 seconds in both the prelims and the finals.” Vlasak ran a time of 14.94 seconds in prelims for the hurdles before placing second overall with a final time of 14.91 seconds; Trevor Boyer finished seventh after clocking a preliminary round time of 15.32 seconds.
Matt Scardina placed among the top five in the 200-meter dash (22.54) and qualified for finals in the 100-meter dash (11.11). In field events, Tim Maidment secured sixth place in long jump (6.57 meters), while Tyler Dahlie took third place in triple jump (13.56 meters).
The Milwaukee Panthers men’s track and field team participates throughout indoor and outdoor seasons according to its official website. The program is affiliated with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and competes as part of NCAA Division I Horizon League. The team supports student-athletes balancing academics alongside athletics according to its official website.
Looking ahead, Basler concluded, “Next week will be traveling a small group to Duke University, with the remainder of the team staying home and competing at the Marquette Invitational.” The dual-meet weekend will see athletes compete both at Duke Invitational in Durham, North Carolina, as well as locally at Marquette Invitational held in Milwaukee.
