Photograph by Stephanie Coren


The Relay for Life of Grant County was held April 16-17 in the UW-P Williams Fieldhouse. There was a total of 54 teams and 399 participants. About $22,300 was raised during this two-day period.

The event, held in the Pioneer Activity Center, began with the opening ceremonies at 6 p.m. on Friday and ended with the final lap at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

The opening ceremonies consisted of local veterans, local boy scout troops, cub scout troops and local girl scout troops waving flags as they walked one lap around the track to the sound of the national anthem. Once the lap was completed the local survivors of breast cancer made a lap around the track. The local survivors participating in this lap ranged from 17 to 87 years old.

“The opening ceremonies were really touching to see all of the support from the community,” Brianna Hardginski, freshman elementary education major, said.

Also in the opening ceremony, the DJ announced that they would be hosting the Ms. Relay contest which is when every team that wished to participate dressed a male on their team to walk for two hours around the track trying to get donations from onlookers or even those participating in the walk. The team that raised the most money in those two hours was crowned Ms. Relay. All of the money donated to the participants of the competition was put towards each team’s total donations for Relay for Life.

Once each team’s name was called from a list of participants, the team was to begin their walking time. Most teams had two-hour blocks of walking times. Teams consisted of companies from the surrounding area, university organizations and residence halls.

“Relay for Life was a fun and tiring experience. Walking wasn’t too bad but the staying over night was exhausting. It was for a great cause so it was all worth the while,” Hardginski said.

Relay for Life also consisted of a remembrance lap that occurred at 11 p.m. This lap was an emotional trip for some people. The lap was a silent lap for those who had lost a loved one. The only noise to be made was a local singing group singing songs of remembrance such as “Amazing Grace” in hushed tones. Over this choir were three volunteers who read the names of community members that lost their lives to cancer.

Throughout the night, teams could walk either on the inside track in the PAC or on the outside track until midnight. The DJ left at midnight and a boom-box was hooked up to speakers to play for those who were walking, but not so loud as to bother those who were trying to sleep.

Throughout the night there were more themed laps such as a cha-cha lap as well as laps moving in reverse directions. Freshman criminal justice major Brittany Raehsler thought that the event could have used a few more activities throughout the late night hours.

“It was a fun environment but needed more interactions later in the night and early in the morning,” Raehsler said.

The building and construction management students and the criminal justice students will be hosting a grand opening of the new forensics investigation crime scene house at 1-4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 4. There will be hors d’oeuvre served and a ribbon cutting ceremony at 1:15 p.m. This semester’s project managers, Rob Crowley and Gretchen Goodenough, the first women project manager in UW-Platteville history, will be providing guided tours for all that attend. This building is a state building that many groups will be able to use. The forensic investigation team, the criminal justice department, the BCM students, the Platteville police department and the Platteville fire department will all be able to utilize the house.

This house was built with special walls for ballistic testing as well as walls painted with special epoxy paint so that blood spatter could be thrown on the walls and cleaned off completely. Throughout the house, special motion sensor cameras have been placed so the professor can view the activities from his office and the class can record their activities and assess them at a later time. There is a room specifically for interrogation practice, and there is also a room in the house with a two-way mirror so that the professor can observe without being in the way of the experiment in process.

This project was started in the fall semester of 2009 when the BCM classes began building the framework of the house. Everything was built by the BCM students besides the decks, which were then created by the criminal justice students. The criminal justince students also created the layout of the interior of the house.

The Platteville community, students at the university and state officials are all invited to the grand opening May 4 located on College Farm Road, directly behind the swine center.

Each child that attended was given presents and a stocking as well as the cookies that they decorated. With the help of donations by individual businesses, campus organizations and individuals in the community, Wilgus Hall was able to spend approximately $30-40 on each child. This included small gifts in the stockings as well as many presents under the tree.

Senior Assistant Lucas Ohl, of Hugunin Hall and sophomore middle-level education major and Resident Assistant Becca Johnson dressed up as Santa Claus’ helpers for this event. Two other members of the staff dressed up as elves to help pass out presents.

The children started to arrive at approximately 1 p.m. and were welcomed with snacks and beanbag toss. There were activities such as coloring holiday pages, decorating cookies, pin the nose on Rudolph and holiday bingo. Local businesses donated coupons as the rewards for winning bingo or being the closest to putting Rudolph’s red nose on the right spot on his face.

The staff at Wilgus, Resident Director Anna Mroch, the executive board and residents of the hall had been planning this event for a little over a month.

“The party went well, it was a lot of fun,” Johnson said. “The children had a great time, they really liked their presents and they were really excited to see Santa.”

This past season, the team beat UW-La Crosse, ranked 10th in the nation, for the first time.

“It was not the big goal to beat them, our big goal was to be in the top 10 at nationals,” Antczak said. “It was nice to beat who you consider the best team. They have plenty of national trophies, so to beat them was satisfying.”

To run in the national meet on Nov. 14, the team needed to place in the top five at the regional meet. This year UW-P placed fourth at the regional meet and advanced to nationals.

“We did not run out best, but we still ran well,” coach Antczak said. Garvens placed fifth.

“The race at nationals I tried to treat like any other race and not let myself get swept up in the hype of it all like some runners do,” Garvens said. “I stayed very relaxed the first four miles, and sat with the lead pack and then really put in a strong effort the last mile to get ahead of the competition.”

Garvens held to this strategy throughout the season, for both regional and national races.

“I ran a personal record time at the regional race for an 8000 meter course, which is the typical distance we run,” Garvens said. “I ran 24:25 at regionals which is an average of about 4:55 per mile.”

Also at the national meet, Pat placed 56th, which is still a strong representation for UW-P. During the season, Klein strained his calf and was out for two weeks.

“The nationals race went well, I just saved too much for the end. The course was very wet, just wasn’t the day to be an All-American,” Klein said.

Overall the team did not have any major challenges throughout the season, a few bumps and bruises but nothing major.

“I am also very proud of my team,” Garvens said. “We were very supportive of one another and due to that, we took home ninth place at nationals, is a school best, and very close to our team goal of eighth we made at the start of the season.”

UW-Platteville’s wrestling team had their second tournament Nov. 21, at Concordia University, where 30 schools were represented. The UW-P team had 10 starters and six of them placed. Head coach Chris Walter’s main focus for the meet is to get the team healthy, because a few wrestlers received minor injuries.

“We need to work on being on top and scoring points on top, less time on the mat. We also need to work on driving opponents into the mat,” said head coach Walter. “The guys wrestled tougher competition, and they came and wrestled harder than the last match.”

“We wrestled well against tough competition, just to place in this tournament is pretty good and we had numerous guys place,” said senior Jesse Milks, wrestling at 157 pounds.

Both Walter and freshman Allen Fish, wrestling at 125 pounds, agree that the team needs to work on not falling to the opponent. The Pioneers need to bring the opponent to where they want to be wrestling, something they hope to work on for the upcoming meet versus UW-La Crosse.

According to the D-III National Wrestling Coaches Association, Platteville entered the rankings at 30 on Nov. 17. The team started out strong and is hoping to continue to move their way up in the rankings.

“Come out and support us, it’s nice to have people in the stands cheering us on,” Fish, building and construction management major, said.

The team’s first meet is against UW-L Dec. 3, and their next tournament is Saturday, Dec. 5. Their first home meet is on Thursday, Dec. 10.