The Gophers women’s track and field team won the Big Ten outdoor championship for the first time since 2018 on Sunday, finishing with 131 points in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Gophers women’s track and field wins Big Ten outdoor championship
With a big final day of competition, the Gophers won the conference title for the fourth time overall and first since 2018.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
May 13, 2024 at 3:19PM
The Gophers clinched their fourth conference title when their 4x400-meter relay team of Jayla Campbell, Janielle Josephs, Brooke Jaworski and Abigail Schaaffe won by .01 seconds at 3:33.34.
That was the Gophers women’s only title Sunday, giving them three for the three-day meet after Shelby Frank won the hammer throw Friday and Zoie Dundon won the 3,000 steeplechase Saturday. But they scored 80 points over 12 events on the final day after entering in third place, getting off to a good start when the 4x100 team of Odell Frye, Victory Godah, Zariyah Black and Alliyah McNeil finished third in 44.39 seconds.
From there, the Gophers picked up plenty of points the rest of the way. Erin Reidy finished second in the 1,500; Maja Maunsbach finished third and Zariyah Black fifth in the 100 hurdles; Frye and Godah finished second and third, respectively, in the 100; Godah and Frye then finished third and fourth in the 200 (separated by .004 seconds) to put the Gophers at the top of the standings; and then the 4x400 team wrapped up the title when Schaaffe passed Ohio State’s Chanler Robinson at the very end.
Nebraska was second with 115⅓ points, barely ahead of Ohio State’s 115.
On the men’s side, the Gophers added two event titles Sunday and finished seventh. Devin Augustine won the 100, placed third in the 200 and was part of the third-place 4x100 relay with Charles Godfred, Finn Schirmer and Gary Afram, and Jak Urlacher closed the day by winning the pole vault at 18-1.
Nebraska won the meet with 136 points, 50 more than second-place Iowa.
U baseball rallies
The Gophers baseball team scored 11 runs in its last two at-bats to rally for a 15-12 victory over Michigan State at Siebert Field.
Trailing 12-4 going into the bottom of the eighth, the Gophers scored six runs to pull within 12-10.
In the ninth, the Gophers tied it on an RBI single by Josh Fitzgerald and a run-scoring groundout by Boston Merila. Drew Berkland completed the comeback with a three-run homer to left field. It’s the first Gophers victory on a walk-off homer since April 9, 2019.
Ike Mezzenga was 3-for-5 with two homers and four RBI and Jake Perry was 4-for-6 with a two-run homer for the Gophers, who had 16 hits.
The Gophers (23-22, 9-12 Big Ten) end the regular season with a three-game series at Northwestern that begins Thursday.
Reynoso update
Long-absent Minnesota United star Emanuel Reynoso has returned from Argentina but remains far from playing for the Loons.
A team spokesman said the Loons have “outlined clear steps that he must complete before any reintegration with the first team.”
Reynoso left the team in late March, returning to his native Argentina to work out a green card issue. He then missed an appointment, which stalled that process and created clear friction with the team.
Etc.
• PWHL Minnesota plays at Xcel Energy Center for only the second time since March 24 when it plays Toronto on Monday in Game 3 of their best-of-five playoff series. Minnesota, losers of seven in a row, was shut out in each of the first two games in Toronto.
• The Gophers softball team was not invited to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012. It finished 28-25 this season.
Rutgers views Athan Kaliakmanis as an upgrade over last year’s starting QB, and the Gophers are leaps and bounds better with Max Brosmer. Neither team expressed hard feelings this week.
