DULUTH, Minn. – The UW-Superior men's indoor track and field team won its fifth consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship at Burns Wellness Commons on the campus of St. Scholastica on Saturday.
 
The Yellowjackets scored 143 points, topping the field by 54. UWS used four event wins and depth to pull away for the title. Tyler Finger (Clintonville, Wis./Clintonville) won the 800-meter run in 2:04.85, Brett Goplen (Hugo, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran Academy) took the 60-meter hurdles in 9.08 and Andrew Grabarkewitz (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids Senior) won the pole vault with a vault of 3.70 meters (12 feet, 1.5 inches). The 4x200-meter relay team of Mitchell Peterson (Foley, Minn./Foley), Steven Pearson (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior), Ethan Westimayer (Laona, Wis./Laona) and Lennon Shimon (Albert Lea, Minn./Albert Lea Senior) won that event in 1:35.88.
 
Grabarkewitz paced Superior individually, scoring 24 points on the day. He also ran second in the 400-meter dash in 52.34 and third in the 200-meter dash in 23.46.
 
"I'm so proud of our men in their efforts today," head coach Glen Drexler said. "Once we put in our entries, we don't have much opportunity to change anything, so we put them in expecting a very close contest. There is some good talent in this conference – we just had good depth and a lot of guys who showed up and performed well."

Derrick Moe (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet) completed a 1-2 finish for UWS in the 800, clocking a time of 2:04.91 for eight more points. Isaiah Arntson (Esko, Minn./Proctor) was fifth in the race in 2:09.62 for another two points. Finger finished second in the mile run in 4:38.98, while Moe was fourth in the 3,000 meters in 9:32.43 for four points.
 
The 'Jackets scored 13 points as a team in the 5,000-meter run. Alex Fike (St. Paul, Minn./Harding Senior) finished third in 17:29.53, Connor Nelson (Rockford, Ill./Rockford Lutheran) was fourth in 17:38.37, Travis Gee (Minocqua, Wis./Lakeland Union) was fifth in 18:38.87 and Josh Porter (Osseo, Wis./Osseo-Fairchild) sixth in 19:23.73.
 
Nate Huju (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids Senior) was third in the 60 hurdles in 9.87 and Earl Foster (Forest Lake, Minn./Spectrum) was fifth in 10.77 to round out the scorers in that event.
 
The 4x400-meter relay team of Shimon, Huju, Nelson and Fike finished fourth in 3:51.69 for four points. The distance medley relay team of Moe, Peterson, Arntson and Finger finished third there in 12:22.58.
 
Goplen tied for the top spot in the high jump with Bethany Lutheran's Jake Marzinske at 1.75 meters (five feet, 8.75 inches), but Marzinske took the title. The 'Jackets scored 11 points in the event as Foster placed fourth with a leap of 1.65 meters (five feet, five inches). Forster was also fifth in the pole vault for two points with a vault of 2.80 meters (nine feet, 2.25 inches).
 
"We had some great PR performances," Drexler said. "We had some plain old gritty performances, too, but through it all, our guys worked very hard for this win and I'm very happy for all they put forward to earn this."

Pearson was third in the triple jump with a mark of 11.81 meters (38 feet, nine inches) and fourth in the long jump in 5.86 meters (19 feet, 2.75 meters) for a total of 10 points. He was also fifth in the 200 in 23.67, two hundredths of a second ahead of Westimayer.
 
Nate Ohman (Lake Nebagamon, Wis./Northwestern) was sixth in the shot put with a mark of 12.31 meters (40 feet, 4.75 inches). Tanner Lee (Siren, Wis./Siren) finished second in the weight throw with a mark of 14.67 meters (48 feet, 1.75 inches) and Brock Phernetton (Frederic, Wis./Frederic) was sixth with a heave of 13.44 meters (44 feet, 1.25 inches).
 
"I think we're really fortunate to have had this opportunity this year," said Drexler. "When we started talking about the season, we weren't sure we'd get through a single meet. So, to complete a season and get a championship meet, it's just really special."