Wildcat throwers performed well against Division I athletes in the 40th annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln on Friday and Saturday.

Senior Sara Wells led the Wildcats with a third place finish in the shotput with a toss of 51’5”.

Sophomore Michaela Dendinger followed at 11th (46’ 1 ¼”) and freshman Shandan Platt finished 13th at 45’8”.

Other marks on the weekend were Dendinger (11th) 56’ 11 ¼”, Wells (13th) 55’ 3 ½”, and Platt (16th) at 53’ 4 ½” all in the weight throw.

“This meet was an opportunity to compete against high level competition and get them ready for Nationals,” coach Brett Sucksdorf said.

The WSC men had two athletes compete Friday and four compete Saturday, both with solid finishes against D-I talent.

Junior Bryan Dunn started the action for the ‘Cats with a 16th place finish in the weight throw at 53’ 8 ¼”.

Redshirt freshman Braxton Adams finished the day with a peak performance in the 60 meter. He finished 16th out of 40 with a personal record 6.87 seconds.

“It was an exciting and great experience running against the best in Division I,” said Adams. “With conference coming up, I hope to continue to improve and get a National mark to qualify.”

On Saturday, senior Zach Thomsen finished 13th in the 800 meter run (1:56.01) and the 4 x 400 meter relay team of William Ernst, Jared Balady, Braxton Adams and Thomsen took 10th in a time of 3:27.63.

The rest of the Wildcats competed Saturday at the Fred Beile Classic at Doane College in Crete.

Megan Svitak led the rest of the team with a second place finish in the 60 meter hurdles (9.08 seconds), and jumped her way to a fourth place finish of 17’ 4 ¾” in the long jump.

Svitak, with a good performance on the weekend, said, “I have been working hard in practice and it’s nice to finally see such great outcomes. As for the rest of the season, I just need to take things one day at a time. We have the conference meet this weekend, so I need to focus on that and not overlook or overthink what I have to do.”

Other Wildcats that finished in the top for the women’s team included Kyndra Sturm, fourth in the weight throw (55’ 4 ¼”), Andrea DeSimone, fifth in the 3,000 meter run (11:38.24), Kelsey Dietrich, seventh in the 200 meter dash (27.23) and the 4 x 400 meter relay team of Mary Alderson, Rebecca Davenport, Elizabeth Pille and Danielle Hart finishing fourth at 4:09.91.

After throwing with thriller athletes in Lincoln, Dunn traveled to Doane with the rest of the team Saturday and led the ‘Cats with a fourth place finish in the weight throw 54’ 2 ¾”.

“The season is going great so far. I feel I have made improvements every meet and practice. I look forward to becoming more competitive and making a big jump in the conference meet,” Dunn said.

Junior Justin Brueggemann also helped lead the Wildcats by bringing home fourth in the 3,000 meter run at 9:13.30.

Freshman Brady Metz, with a new personal best in the triple jump (44’ 8 ¾”), landed him a fifth place finish.

Other top finishers were Nick Schmit, ninth in the 1,000 meter run (2:39.57) and Nate Lechtenberg 10th in the 60 meter hurdles (9.01).

Wayne State will compete at the Concordia Invitational in Seward on Thursday starting at 1 p.m. and the South Dakota State Invite in Brookings, South Dakota on Friday.