MILWAUKEE, Wis. –
Kayla Bruton (
Jr.-Milwaukee, Wis.) and
Trenton Nickel (
Sr.-Kiel, Wis.) both broke school records, part of a number of personal bests as the Lakeland University men's and women's track & field teams completed the first day of competition at the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Outdoor Championships.
Both the men's and women's teams were in eighth of 10 teams on their respective sides after the first day of competition at Wisconsin Lutheran College's Raabe Stadium, with the men's team accumulating four points and the women's team scoring three. Both squads were in position to add on plenty to that total on Saturday, though, with a number of entries in the finals of sprinting events.
Bruton set a pair of Lakeland modern era records in qualifying for the finals in the women's 100-, 200- and 400-meter races. The junior qualified second in the 200 with a time of 25.72 seconds, breaking her own previous record, and she also qualified second in the 400 with a time of 1:00.98. Bruton also tied for the third-fastest time in the 100 preliminaries with a school-record time of 12.64, besting a record set by D'Andrea Johnson in 2016.
Nickel qualified fourth in the men's 200 meters with a time of 22.39, breaking his previous school mark by a quarter of a second. He also was the top qualifier in the 400, winning his heat in 50.59.
Anthony Romens (
So.-Slinger, Wis.) also qualified for the finals in the men's 400 with a time of 51.23. Romens also set a personal record in the 200 with a time of 22.81, just missing the final by seven hundredths of a second.
Nickel and
Nathalie Cairo (
Jr.-Kenosha, Wis.) recorded the two scoring finishes for Lakeland on the first day, both coming in the javelin. Nickel finished fourth in the men's javelin with a best of 139 feet, 11 inches (42.66 meters), while Cairo was sixth in the women's javelin with a PR of 91-1 (27.77m).
Nydia Brewer (
Fr.-Redford, Mich.) also added a personal best in the 200 meters, where she finished 13th with a time of 28.78.
"I am so very proud of our runners, who have persevered during this unusual season," said head coach
Pete Barth. "I'm convinced we have some of the hardest workouts around, and over the past few months these outstanding student-athletes have gritted their teeth and done what was asked of them. Today's success was well-deserved."
Aurora University leads the women's standings with 71 points after one day, well ahead of second-place Concordia University Wisconsin (49). Milwaukee School of Engineering holds a big lead in the men's standings after the first day with 98 points with Aurora in second with 40.
The championships conclude Saturday with events beginning at 11:15 a.m.
Day 1 Results
