APPLETON, Wis. – Cornell's men posted personal-bests virtually across the board Saturday and made a valiant run at another team title at the Midwest Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Whiting Field.
 
The 2025 MWC indoor team champion, Cornell was in the thick of the title hunt late in this meet and wound up third in a tight four-team battle at the top. Monmouth was crowned champion with 135.5 points, followed by Ripon (131.5), Cornell (126) and Illinois College (125).
 
Coach Jerry Monner's Rams were only 0.5 points out of first place with two events yet to be scored. Cornell left the Badger State with 10 all-conference performances and three champions over the two-day event.
 
Junior distance phenom Isaac vanWestrienen headlined Saturday's efforts, smashing the MWC Championships record in the 5000-meter run. VanWestrienen chalked up a decisive victory in 14:22.21, more than 24 seconds ahead of his closest competitor.
 
VanWestrienen destroyed the long-standing MWC meet record of 14:42.44, set by Carleton's Doug Simpson back in 1980. Now a seven-time MWC track champion, vanWestrienen won Friday's 10000 and was runner-up in the 1500. VanWestrienen was voted the MWC Most Outstanding Men's Track Athlete of the Year. 
 
Sophomore Jensen Meeker placed second in the 400 with a personal-best clocking of 48.61. He ran on the runner-up 4x100 relay that broke this year's school record in 42.02. The quartet included first-year Dalles Hernandez, sophomore Hadley Beaty and first-year anchor Chase Staker.
 
Meeker also anchored the third-place 4x400 of Staker, Jaxin McGuire and Currey Jacobs in 3:20.69.
 
Senior Caleb Schopen placed second in the 3000 steeplechase (9:47.42). The Rams also received a runner-up finish from freshman Ike Claussen-Tubbs in the high jump (6-4.25).
 
Beaty took fifth in both the 100 (10.88) and 200 (21.53). He came within an eyelash (.01 second) of Ronnie Hendred's 1986 school record in the 200.  
 
Wallace Schmotzer (57.61) and Austin Wilkins (58.18) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 400 hurdles. Staker ran a personal-best 48.66 for fourth in the 400.
 
Brody Williams scored in two throwing events, placing fifth in the hammer (162-10) and seventh in the discus (134-4). Gabe Soda was fifth in the 5000 (15:14.13), Thomas Hunt sixth in the 800 (1:57.62) and Schmotzer eighth in the triple jump (42-0.50).