The Wisconsin women’s track and field team finished 14th at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday in Eugene, Oregon. Senior Kelsey Card played a big role in that finish.
Card claimed a national championship in the discus with a lifetime-best throw of 208 feet, 5 inches on Saturday.
Card became Wisconsin’s first NCAA track and field champion since Kathy Butler won the 3000 meters at the 1997 NCAA Outdoor Championships. She is also the first UW field athlete to win a national title since Pat Johnson won an AIAW title in the long jump in 1982.
The senior entered the meet with a Big Ten record of 204-2, yet she shattered that mark on each of her throws in the NCAA final on Saturday.
Card’s win in the discus, her fourth-place finish in the shot put on Thursday and Georgia Ellenwood’s fifth-place finish in the heptathlon with a school-record 5,935 points on Saturday helped the Badgers to a 14th place finish.
Men’s competition
Wisconsin freshman Morgan McDonald became just the third Badger to run the 5000 meters in under 13 minutes, 30 seconds, joining Chris Solinsky and Mohammed Ahmed.
McDonald accomplished the feat on Friday at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships, placing fifth in 13:29:79.
McDonald is the first freshman to earn All-America honors on the track since Ahmed finished fourth in the 10,000 meters of the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Thanks to McDonald’s placing and Zach Ziemek’s runner-up finish in the decathlon on Thursday, the Badgers tied for 18th in the team standings with 12 points.
