After having their seasons cut short last season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh softball team and men’s and women’s track and field teams are making their 2021 seasons memorable.
On Thursday, the Titan softball team began playing for a national championship at the Softball World Series in Salem, Virginia, while the Titan men’s and women’s track and field teams started their push for national championships at the NCAA Division III National Championships held in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Here’s a look at what happened on the first day of competition for all three teams.
A national champion crowned
A national title by senior Sydney Thompson and an All-America performance by senior Morgan Florek in the discus kickstarted the opening day of the DIII track and field championship for the Titan women’s track and field team.
Thompson won her first career national title and became the Titans’ 49th individual national champion and 51st overall with a winning discus throw of 153-04. Teammate Florek placed fifth and earned All-America honors with a distance of 141-01.
The finishes by both Thompson and Florek helped the Titans accumulate 14 points after the first day of activity. The Titans are in third place leading into Friday’s competition.
Thompson will compete again Saturday in both the shot put and hammer. She is the top-ranked athlete in the shot put and 14th overall in the hammer.
Also competing Thursday was Alexandria Demco and Cara Volz. Demco raced in the preliminaries of the 1,500-meters. Her finish of 4:36.72 qualified her for the finals of the event, which is scheduled for Saturday. Volz placed 15th in the javelin with a distance of 124-04.
Three All-America performances on day one
The UW Oshkosh men’s track and field team scored 13 points Thursday to take the lead after the opening day of the NCAA D III men’s track and field championship.
Senior Jack Flynn began the competition for the Titans with a second-place finish in the discus with a throw of 168-02. He finishes his career a three-time All-American after finishing fifth in the country in the discus in 2018 and fourth in 2019.
The Titans had two additional All-America performances Thursday. Sophomore Jamyle Brantley and freshman Joshua Rivers finished fifth and eighth, respectively, in the long jump. Brantley jumped a distance of 23-04 ½ while Rivers jumped a distance of 22-08.
Softball drops World Series opener
The UWO softball team pushed the top ranked team in the country to the limit, but DePauw University scored twice in the fifth inning and held on for a 2-1 come-from-behind win during the opening game of the World Series Thursday.
The eighth-seeded Titans scored in the first inning and had the tying run on first base with no outs during the seventh frame, but a strikeout preceded a groundout that turned into an umpire-ruled ending of the game. Amanda McIlhany singled to represent the tying run. A strikeout kept Mcllhany at first base, a grounder off the bat of Acacia Tupa resulted in a force-out at second base and Tupa was safe easily at first as the throw caromed into the Titan dugout on the first base side. However, following an umpire conference, interference was called at second base, resulting in Tupa also being called out to conclude the contest.
UWO will play an elimination contest at 10:30 a.m. Friday against fifth-seeded Tufts University. A livestream of the game is available here.
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