The Milwaukee track & field teams concluded their participation at the Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C., this Saturday. Among the highlights, Natalie Block made her season debut in the 400m hurdles, claiming fifth place with a time of 57.85 after a nine-month hiatus. Head coach Andrew Basler commented on her performance: “Natalie made her return after not racing for about nine months. As her race progressed, she looked more at home, her time ended up hitting the minimum standards for the USA Championships.”
In other events, Jaelyn Reeves-Lile achieved 22nd place in the men’s 200m dash with a time of 21.69, competing against 85 runners. For the women’s 200m dash, Milwaukee’s Victoria Evtimov and Katie Burns recorded times of 25.09 and 25.19, respectively. Basler expressed satisfaction with their performances, noting, “Victoria and Katie ran a really strong 400m dash. It was a huge personal-best for Victoria in that race.”
Anthony Buford represented the men’s team in the 400m dash, completing it in 49.52. Karsten Grundahl improved his personal best in the 800m run, clocking in at 1:53.10, with Basler noting, “Karsten got out a little too conservative in the 800m run but really finished strong to run a solid race.”
Evan Bartelsen achieved fifth place in the pole vault by clearing 4.65m, and according to Basler, “Evan had two great jumps at 4.80m. I know he wanted to have a better result, but he’s on the verge of something big.”
Looking ahead, the Panthers will participate in events next week, including the Gibson Invitational hosted by Indiana State and separate competitions at Wisconsin Lutheran’s Green & White Invite and UW-La Crosse’s Phil Esten Challenge.
