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MILWAUKEE, Wis. (April 20, 2006) - After facing national-caliber talent at last weekend's Sea Ray Relays, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's track and field team returns to the Midwest for the Illinois Benedictine Invitational, Saturday in Lisle, Ill. The meet kicks off at 10 a.m.

Last Time Out
The Panthers placed two runners in the top-10 of the 10,000m and posted top-five times in two relays to highlight its competition at the Sea Ray Relays last weekend in Knoxville. Freshman Holly Nearman ran the 10th-fastest time in school history in the 10,000m in taking sixth. She crossed the line in 37:58.55, while junior Kourtney Nault was ninth in the event in 38:49.80. UWM also had entries in both the 4x100m hurdle shuttle and 4x800m relays. In the shuttle, Milwaukee's quartet combined on a time of 1:00.41 for seventh place and the second-best time in school history. In the 4x800m relay, the Panthers posted a time of 9:22.57. That time is fifth in school history.

All-Time Top-10's
UWM's 4x100m shuttle relay of seniors Andrea Ziebell and Katie Slamka, junior Taryn Cozine and freshman Jenni Saarinen missed the school record of 59.68 by just 0.83 seconds. Its 4x800m relay of seniors Tenia Fisher, Griffin McNulty and Katie Anderson and junior Kris Gasser also cracked the top-five. Freshman Beth Zimmerman also improved her all-time standing, jumping 36-9 in the triple jump to improve from ninth to sixth on the school's all-time top-10 in the event. Lastly, with Holly Nearman's 10,000m time cracking the top-10, the Panthers now have three active athletes on their all-time top-10 for the event.

No Surprise Here
Probably the least-surprising mark reached was a personal record in the 400m by Tenia Fisher. She ran a time of 56.04, shaving 0.54 seconds off her best time. She remains third in school history in the event and continues to inch closer to the school record of 54.81, set in 1984. She has already broken the indoor 400m, 600m and 800m records this season, in addition to the outdoor 800m April 1 at the Stanford Invite.

Smart Cookies
Senior Katie Slamka and sophomore Angie Huebner were selected to the Academic Indoor Track and Field All-Horizon League Team when the league office announced its winter all-academic teams Tuesday. This is the third-straight award for Slamka, while Huebner is being honored for the first time. Slamka was named to the league's all-academic team last year for both the indoor and outdoor seasons, while majoring in kinesiology. She boasts a 3.924 grade point average. Huebner, the indoor league champion in the 5000m is an architecture major, and has maintained a 3.628 GPA.

Up Next
Milwaukee wastes little time returning to action next weekend at the prestigious Drake Relays, Thursday through Saturday (April 27-29) in Des Moines, Iowa.