With the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Indoor Championships this weekend, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Men’s and Women’s track and field teams have a lot to look forward to. Men’s coach Josh Buchholtz and women’s coach Nickolas Davis look to continue the success of past years for their respective teams.  

“From the beginning of the season until now, we’ve seen some big improvements across the board and with that, our team’s confidence has been growing as well.  Given the relative youth of our team, this has been incredibly important,” stated Davis when recalling the indoor season thus far. “At this point, I would say we have great momentum going into championship season and I’m excited to see what our women can achieve in the upcoming weeks.”  

Buchholtz echoed this, saying that the men’s team is “…a young team with some strong talent that is developing into what we are as a team.  We also have some good upperclassmen leadership which is critical to the team’s development.”  

Expectations for the teams are very high, with both coaches stating that their goal is to win the WIAC Indoor Conference Championship. However, Buccholtz knows that it will not be easy and easy task. “Our conference is arguably the toughest in the nation.  This year is no exception we have several of our conference rivals ranked in the top 20 nationally.”  

There have been many strong performers on both teams this year. On the women’s team Sadie Kroll has followed up her 2017 Cross Country All-American campaign with the second fastest time in the conference.  Sophomore jumper Maddie Nelson is currently ranked number two in the triple jump and number 12 in long Jump while freshman Savannah Rygiewicz ranks number ten in NCAA Division III in the 200m. All three are favorites to win this weekend at the championship this weekend.  

The men’s side has had equally impressive performances with several number one rankings in the WIAC such as senior Ernest Winters in the 200m, senior Austin Bates in the 60m hurdles, and senior Brendan Deiss in the high jump. However, Buccholtz wants to bring attention to the throwers, specifically, sophomore Andrew Jarrett, senior Nathan Berg, and junior Christian Morzinski who all hold top ten spots in the shot put and weight throw. 

As the indoor season begins to transition to the outdoor season, Buccholtz knows what he wants from his team. “As the defending indoor and outdoor national champions, there are a lot of teams gunning to knock us off the top.  We will continue to prepare for the outdoor season once we have completed our indoor campaign.”  

Davis’s expectations mirrored Buccholtz’s, stating, “My expectations for our outdoor season are to continue making progress as a program and work toward another WIAC Outdoor Championship, while doing our best to place as high as possible at nationals. This program has been successful for a long time and my intention is to build from that success and continue to improve every day.” 

The WIAC Indoor Conference Championships begin Friday, February 23, at 11:30 AM and continue on through Saturday, February 24. They will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Multi-Activity Center. The Division III National Indoor Championships will begin Friday, March 9 and will run through Saturday, March 10 in Birmingham, Alabama.