Riley and Tapplin Earn All-America Honors at NCAA III Championships; UW-L Tied for Third

For Immediate Release: Thursday, May 22, 2008

Oshkosh, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men’s track & field team is tied for third-place after the first day of competition at the NCAA Division III Championships at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium. The Eagles have 10.0 team points. Monmouth College (Ill.) leads the men’s standings with 13.0 points while UW-Platteville is second with 12.0. Joining UW-L tied for third are UW-Whitewater, the University of Redlands (Calif.) and Mount Union College (Ohio).

The University of St. Thomas (Minn.) is seventh with 9.0 points while Wartburg College (Iowa), McMurry University (Texas) and Loras College (Iowa) are all tied for eighth with 8.0 points.

Bobby Riley and Alex Tapplin both earned All-America honors Thursday. Riley placed third in the discus throw at 167-9 while Tapplin finished fifth in the pole vault (15-11 ¼).

Riley picked up his sixth career All- America award, including third outdoors. He placed second in the shot put and third in the discus throw a year ago. Riley will compete in the shot put Saturday afternoon.

He has three indoor All-America accolades, including two shot put national titles (2007, 2008). Riley placed seventh in the shot put in 2005.

Tapplin earned his third career honor in the pole vault. He finished third outdoors and seventh indoors in 2006.

The Eagles’ 4x400-meter relay of Alex Rooker, Ryan Mendez, Jonathon Doble and Dylan Randolph failed to advance to Saturday’s final after running 3:16.90 in the preliminaries. Doble nearly fell during his leg, colliding with a runner from Wheaton College ( Ill.).

For complete results, click here.

Action continues Friday at UW-Oshkosh.