The University of Wisconsin-Superior men’s and women’s track and field team opened their outdoor season with a meet in the Twin cities this past Saturday. The meet was hosted by Hamline University. Teams from all over Minnesota and other parts of the Midwest competed at the meet in two separate divisions.

Freshman Matt Reijo ran the 400 meter hurdles for the first time in his career and finished fourth with a time of 57.52 seconds to lead the Yellowjackets. Scott Behling placed tenth in the 1500 meter run, an event that included over 90 runners. He crossed the line with a time of 4:02.38.

Kevin Olson placed 12th in the pole vault clearing 3.70 meters or 12 feet 2 inches. Nils Hansen finished 17th in the hammer throw with a toss of 41.57 meters or over 136 feet.

The 4x100 meter relay team which consisted of Reijo, Olson, Will Hermanson, and Tyler Houghton finished in third place with a time of 45.55 seconds. The men’s 4x400 meter relay team would also crack the top ten with a time of 3:33.83.

On the women’s side, Alyssa Breu finished 12th in the 400 meter hurdles, finishing with a time of 1:13.90. She also placed in the top 20 for the 400 meter dash finishing in a time of 1:06.26.

Katie Capriglione placed 9th in the shot put with a throw of 10.99 meters or 36 feet.

 “I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with how our relay teams did. Overall, we had seven women get a PR and eight men get a PR,” Head Coach Glen Drexler said.

A “PR” stands for personal record meaning that seven women and eight men broke their previous best time, height or length this past weekend.

The Yellowjackets will be competing at the Falcon Invite on Sat., April 9 in River Falls. Start time for the meet is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.