BIRMINGHAM, ALA- Shea Wissler placed seventh in the Heptathlon at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
The Senior becomes the first Banana Slug student-athlete to earn an All-America commendation in Track and Field. He moved up four places from yesterday and finished with a two-day score of 4,858 points, bettering his own school record set last week in Iowa.Â
"Incredibly impressed with Shea over the last eight days," said Head Coach David Klech. "Flying to Iowa and hitting a qualifying mark, and then seven days later competing at the NCAA Indoors Championships and setting another PR."
Wissler opened Saturday running an 8.91 in the 60m hurdles, then followed it up with a school and personal record of 4.30m in the Pole Vault. He finished the day placing 5th out of the 20 competitors in the 1000m run, crossing in 2:50.11. Wissler earned two points for UC Santa Cruz in the event, single-handedly putting the school 59th at the Championships out of 245 schools.
He is just the second male UC Santa Cruz athlete to compete at the NCAA Championships, after Decathlete Conrad Pereira competed at the 2021 Outdoor Championships.
"Heading into the 1000m, I knew I had to give it everything I had," Wissler said. "So I put everything out there on the track and did well. I wasn't necessarily thinking about All-American status coming into the weekend, but to finish Top 8 and score points at a National Championship is a huge accomplishment for all the hard work I've put in."
Wissler on the Podium
"Shea rose to the occasion with two personal bests in the Pole Vault and 1000 to solidify his All-American status," Klech said. "When we added Indoors last season, the goal was to provide our student-athletes another opportunity at an NCAA Championship. It's been a big mission of mine to put UC Santa Cruz in the National spotlight in Track and Field, and Shea put us on the map!"
