Milwaukee City Wire

The Milwaukee women's track and field team concluded their three-day event at Indiana State's Gibson Invitational, with standout performances driving their success. The team's highlight was Olivia VanZeeland, who broke the school high jump record by clearing 1.80 meters. This height surpassed the previous record of 1.75 meters, set in 2021 by Ashley Melvin and Annie Guerrero, and tied her for 16th in NCAA Division I rankings, placing her at the top in the Horizon League standings.

"Olivia was obviously the biggest bright spot today," noted head coach Andrew Basler. "Breaking the school record, and punching her ticket to nationals, as well as getting some really good looks at 6 feet."

In other events, Natalie Block returned to the 100m hurdles and secured a second-place finish with a time of 13.68. "It was really great seeing Natalie back in the 100m hurdles for the first time in over ten months," Basler remarked.

Katie Burns achieved a personal best in the 400m dash with a time of 55.87, landing her third place and placing her eighth on the school's all-time list. Later, Burns joined Kalea Weyenberg, Isabel Roloff, and Victoria Evtimov in the 4x100m relay, finishing with the third-best time in school history at 46.69.

In the 200m dash, Evtimov recorded a personal best of 24.84, placing seventh among 54 competitors. Cailin Kinas led Milwaukee's effort in the 1500m run, finishing seventh and moving up to ninth on the program's all-time list with a time of 4:37.57.

Competing in her first 800m race of the season, Anelise Egge placed fourth with a 2:13.74 time. Leah Handshoe took third place in the 400m hurdles, clocking in at 1:02.43.

"We definitely faced some adverse conditions with the cold and rain but I thought we got a lot accomplished and performed really well," Basler continued. "Just across the board I thought Katie was great in the 400m, Victoria, Anelise, Cailin, and Leah all ran great races, it was awesome to see."

Concluding the meet, the 4x400m relay team composed of Burns, Handshoe, Brooke Crosby, and Alexandria Simmons triumphed in their event with a 3:52.52 finish. In field events, Anna Szepieniec secured second place in the long jump with a 5.62m effort, while Hailey Soriaga earned third place in the pole vault by clearing 3.60m.

Overall, Milwaukee finished third among 29 teams with a total of 69.5 points. Looking ahead, the Panthers have two upcoming meets scheduled for the following weekend, starting with the Drake Alternative hosted by UW-Whitewater on April 25, followed by the Fighting Illini Twilight in Champaign, Illinois.