Jan. 24, 2013

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's and women's track & field teams return to Iowa for the second-straight weekend, this week heading to Cedar Falls for the Jack Jennett Invitational Friday and Saturday.

Multi events will start Friday and conclude Saturday morning while the rest of the action is set to start up Saturday at 11 a.m.

Scouting The Meet
This marks the second-straight year the Panthers will head to Northern Iowa for the Jack Jennett Invitational. UWM won five events and broke the Panther men's pole vault record in Cedar Falls a season ago.

Milwaukee will be going against some quality competition on the weekend. Beside host UNI, the Panthers will be squaring off with Drake, Western Illinois, Indiana State and Nebraska-Omaha, as well two top-10 D-III schools in the nation in UW-Whitewater and UW-Platteville.

Last Time Out
UWM took the top two spots in the women's triple jump, won two more events and posted 27 top-10 finishes over two days at the ISU Open in Ames, Iowa last weekend.

Milwaukee had strong outings across the board, including the fifth-best mark ever in school history in men's weight throw by sophomore Alex Chollet.

National Rankings
The indoor season is only two weeks into the schedule but Milwaukee already boasts quite a few national rankings in a variety of categories. Senior Samia Taylor leads the way, sitting 15th in the nation in women's triple jump with a leap of 40 feet, 11 ¾ inches (12.49m). Sophomore Aaron Dillon is ranked 86th in triple jump on the men's side at 18-10 ½ (5.75m). Taylor is also ranked 89th (18-10 ½, 5.75m) in women's long jump.

Others earning national rankings early are Jake Reilly (77th, 15:12.08) and Bobby Glotfelty (96th, 15:17.76) in men's 5,000m and both men's DMR teams of Reed Schmidt, Jeff Pigg, Kurt Sustachek, Gerrit Bruni (80th, 10:28.01) and Joseph Morgan, Jordan Schmidt, Tony Sustachek and Weston Brusky (95th, 10:34.02).

League Recognition
Just two weeks into the season and Milwaukee has already shown some of the best performances across the Horizon League by earning league Athlete of the Week awards.

Samia Taylor repeated as women's field athlete of the week after sweeping both the triple jump and long jump for the second-straight week. Sophomore Aaron Dillon joined Taylor in week one after

Samia Taylor and Aaron Dillon swept the league's field honors after week one. Taylor took the top spot in both triple and long jumps while Dillon won the triple jump and finished runner-up in long jump.

Triple Jump U
Over the past few years, Milwaukee has established itself as one of the top triple jump universities, not only in the Horizon League, but in the entire NCAA. The men have won seven of the last nine triple jump league titles in both indoor and outdoor and have had a combined nine second-place showings in that time, as well.

Meanwhile, the women have won three-straight indoor titles and five-straight outdoor crowns, with quite a few All-League Second-Team showings over years.

On the national level, Milwaukee has qualified for the regional meet six times in the last six years, highlighted by Samia Taylor's run to the NCAA Championships in 2011. Taylor finished 18th in the country that year, earning All-American Honorable Mention status.

Up Next
The Panthers are off to South Bend, Ind. for the annual Meyo Invitational hosted by Notre Dame. The two-day meet starts Friday at 3 p.m. central time and with Saturday's session set for 9 a.m. CST.