• Top Times and Individual Finishes in PDF Format

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (April 25, 2007) - Coming off a strong performance at the Kansas Relays, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's track and field team will head to another prestigious event in the Drake Relays, April 26-28, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Some Panthers will head to the Kip Janvrin Simpson College Open in Indianola, Iowa.

At last year's Drake Relays, sophomore Jenni Saarinen broke the school heptathlon record and was a part of the school-record hurdle shuttle relay. The relay took third in the event, UWM's highest finish by a relay at the event ever.

At the 80th annual Kansas Relays last weekend, sophomores Holly Nearman and Beth Zimmerman led a strong showing all around by Milwaukee. Nearman won the 5000m and Zimmerman broke the school triple jump record on the weekend. UWM also got a second-place finish from Saarinen in the heptathlon.

Nearman was the first Panther to win an event at the Kansas Relays since 2004. That year, Milwaukee boasted first-place finishers in both the 4-mile relay and the 4x880 relay. Afterwards, she was handsomely rewarded by the Horizon League, being named the Track and Field Athlete of the Week and U.S. Army Scholar-Athlete of the Week. The Monroe, Wis., native was the team's second honoree in each during the outdoor season.

Not to be overshadowed by her teammate's first-place finish, Zimmerman broke the school triple jump mark (38-11), now giving her the school standard in the event indoors and outdoors. She paces a talented group of jumps, which also features freshman Reigna Pierce, who had the third-best triple jump (38-3 ¼) in school history last weekend, as well. The duo is usually joined by sophomore Kicha Cary in the event, but Cary has yet to compete during the outdoor season after being second in school history to Zimmerman in the triple jump indoors.

The regular season winds down next weekend, as the Panthers will be broken up amongst two "twilight" meets the next weekend. Some of the team will head to the Butler Twilight in Indianapolis, Ind., May 4-5. The meet will also feature the multi-events for the upcoming Horizon League Championships. The remainder of the squad will be in Madison, Wis., for the Wisconsin Twilight May 5.

The Horizon League Championships then follow May 10-11 in Indy.