Seniors guide team to third place

Seniors Dan Hytinen, Derek Stanley and Jon Schellin took top honors in their respective events, leading the Warhawk men's track and field team to a first-place finish at Friday's Warhawk Classic.

In addition to Hytinen, Stanley and Schellin, four other seniors were also honored before the start of Friday's competition. The seniors as well as the rest of the team responded to the recognition by turning in a total team score of 187 points.

A big portion of the 187 points came from UW-Whitewater's strong finish in the shot put event. Leading the way was Hytinen, who took first with a distance of 16.05 meters. Freshman Luke Hibner and sophomore Joe Schneider finished in second and third place with throws of 15.11 and 14.49 meters, respectively.

The long jump also saw Warhawks finish in the top three positions. Stanley placed first in the event with a leap of 6.92 meters. Sophomore Bruce Zalud finished in a close second, while senior Kyle Ewing placed third with a distance of 6.64 meters. Rounding out the top five was freshman Tyler Eddy, who jumped 6.55 meters.

On the track, the 'Hawks received another phenomenal performance from Schellin. Not only did he win the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.59 seconds, but Schellin won the 200-meter dash as well, edging out UW-Oshkosh's Brent Jude by just one-hundreth of a second.

The two wins left Schellin with a unique feeling of achievement.

"It's a different sense of accomplishment," Schellin said. "With the hurdles, I've worked every day on them the last few years. The work paid off. With the 200, it was an experiment that turned out good. It's a different kind of feeling."

Coach Schneider was proud of his group of seniors and had nothing but high praise for them.

"They're a nice group of guys," Schneider said. "If you look at [UW-Whitewater] throughout its history, this has been the golden era of track. Those guys have helped us get to the point where we're one of the best programs in the nation in track and field. Each one of them is responsible in some sort of way."

The seniors will lead the Warhawks to Madison Saturday, where the team will compete in the Wisconsin Open.