Jan. 17, 2005

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The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's track and field team coninues the early portion of its indoor schedule when it travels to Champaign, Ill., this weekend (Jan. 21-22) for the Central Collegiate Championships.

A Look At Central Collegiate Championships
The field at this weekend's Central Collegiate Championships features teams from a variety of conferences. Joining the Panthers and host University of Illinois from the Big Ten will be Horizon League foe Wright State, DePaul University of Conference USA, Vanderbilt University from the SEC, the Mid-Continent Conference's Western Illinois University, the University of Dayton from the Atlantic 10 and McKendree College of NAIA. Aside from UWM, WIU had the most success at its indoor conference meet last year, taking third.

Last Time Out
Juniors Stephanie Ray and Tenia Fisher each won events, in addition to UWM's 4x400m relay, to lead the Panthers to a third-place finish at the Division I Invitational Saturday afternoon in Kenosha. All three Milwaukee wins established meet records, while Ray topped the school record in the pole vault and Fisher broke a fieldhouse record in the 800m. Fisher also competed with the first-place relay.

Record Breaker
Stephanie Ray wasted little time in returning to postseason form, setting a school record in the pole vault during Milwaukee's first meet of the season. At the Division I Invitational, Ray won the pole vault competition with an indoor school-record height of 11-7 3/4 to break the former standard of 11-7 1/4 set by Lynda Thiel in 2003. This is the second school mark for Ray, as she also holds the outdoor hammer throw mark (129-3) as well.

More Records Fall
Tenia Fisher joined Ray in getting into the record-breaking act, breaking the fieldhouse and meet records at Carthage College on Saturday. Her time of 2:14.15 eclipsed the former marks by over a second and gave her top honors at the meet by over four seconds. Fisher also ran with the first-place 4x400m relay that topped the previous meet record, while Ray's school-record pole vault is also a meet record.

Seeking The Title
UWM is looking to regain its championship form after taking second place at both the Horizon League Indoor and Outdoor Championships last season. Milwaukee is in good shape to do so in 2005, as it returns four league champions from last year. Juniors Iris Perez (200m) and Tenia Fisher (800m) each won crowns indoors, while Fisher was named League Indoor Athlete of the Year. At the outdoor meet, senior Katie Slamka (400m hurdles) and junior Stephanie Ray (pole vault) broke league records in taking individual titles.

Up Next
The Panthers have a week off before heading to Cedar Falls, Iowa, for the Northern Iowa Invitational on Feb. 5.