Milwaukee City Wire

Anthony Campbell and Golden Cotton concluded their outdoor track season at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Cotton participated in the 100m dash with a program record time of 10.29 seconds, securing the 45th seed. In today's event, he finished with a time of 10.58 seconds, placing him 42nd in the region.

"I thought Golden ran a very solid race to close out his career as a Panther," head coach Andrew Basler said. "He rewrote the sprints records during his time with us, but more importantly he grew into a leader for our men's sprints group."

Cotton needed to achieve a time under 10.36 seconds to advance to the second round on Friday. He concludes his career holding Milwaukee's records in the indoor 60m dash, outdoor 100m dash, and outdoor 200m dash.

Campbell entered the long jump competition as the 22nd seed due to his program record leap of 7.77 meters earlier this season. Today, he reached a distance of 7.14 meters, finishing 40th overall in the region.

"In the long jump, I'm going to take full responsibility for Anthony's results," Basler commented. "I took a risk with his training the last three weeks, and it did not pan out. He was mentally prepared to jump well, but as his coach I didn't have him prepared physically as I should. He still has another outdoor season with us, so we will learn from this experience and I will have him better prepared next year."

To qualify for further competition rounds, Campbell needed to clear at least 7.70 meters.

"I think it's obvious we didn't have the results we wanted today as a program," Basler said. "As coaches, we want that next step or breakthrough to happen so bad for our athletes. So when performances fall short, especially at a championship meet, we bear those same feelings our athletes feel."

Due to weather conditions, several events scheduled for tomorrow have been moved to earlier times. Milwaukee's Natalie Block is set to compete at 3:00 PM and 5:20 PM in the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles respectively while her teammate Tabitha Wechlo will participate in shot put at 5:30 PM.