Milwaukee/Marquette Dual Meet Heat Sheet in PDF Format

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (April 9, 2009) - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's and women's track and field teams will start an annual tradition this weekend when it travels across town to take on Marquette in a dual meet Friday.

The meet gets underway at 2 p.m. at Melvin "Bus" Shimek Memorial Track and Field Facility at Valley Fields.

Milwaukee enters the dual meet on a strong start to the outdoor season. Already, three Panthers have qualified for regionals in senior Holly Nearman and juniors Tyler Bucholz and Quinn Mongoven. Nearman ran a school-record time of 16:42.51 in the 5000m at the Raleigh Relays. That time broke her own school record by over five seconds and qualified her for the regional meet for the second-straight season.

Bucholz, who competed at the regionals as a league champion in the 200m last season, will return this season as an automatic qualifier. He ran a time of 21.31 at last weekend's Florida Relays to eclipse the qualifying standard. Mongoven, meanwhile, has cleared 6-10 3/4 in the high jump at each of the first two meets of 2009. That height is the qualifying height for the event.

UWM had a handful of strong showings last weekend, as Nearman won the 1500m at the Big Blue Classic and both squads posted a number of top-five finishes. Junior Erin Havener and sophomore Erika Hanson added runner-up finishes on the women's side, with Havener clearing 12-1 1/2 in the pole vault. Hanson ran a time of 2:16.45 in the 800m to miss first place by just 0.06 seconds.

On the men's side, freshman Nick Dalske placed fourth in the 400m hurdles and missed the school record in the event by just 0.02 seconds. His time of 53.91 trails only Nate Andrews in school history (53.89).

Mongoven and Bucholz highlighted a contingent of Panthers at the Florida Relays. Mongoven took fourth in the high jump and Bucholz tied for 12th in the 200m, both with their regional-qualifiers.

The Panthers and Golden Eagles expect this weekend's meet to be the start of an annual tradition between the two Division I schools in the state. UWM actually has not competed in a true dual meet since the 1997 indoor season. The teams plan to meet on a yearly basis during either the indoor or outdoor seasons.

There are plenty of storylines between the two schools, including Marquette head coach Bert Rogers and assistant coach Ken Hunt being Milwaukee alums. Rogers (1996-99) was a league champion in the indoor 200m for the Panthers, earned three all-league second-team awards and is in the top 10 of the 400m both indoors and outdoors.

Hunt (1999-2002) won league titles in the indoor and outdoor triple jumps in 2002, breaking both school and league records in doing so. He also has three all-league second-team awards over the long and triple jump events.

The intrigue delves a bit further as sophomore Tanaiya Fisher's brother, Randey, is a sophomore on the Marquette squad.

After its first in-state meet of the 2009 outdoor season, Milwaukee returns to the road next April 18. The majority of the team heads to the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, while some Panthers will go to the Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, Calif.