Track & Field

The Gophers track & field teams were a perfect 7-for-7 in earning All-America status at the NCAA indoor championships over the weekend.

All six of the men’s team’s participants scored, helping Minnesota to a sixth-place finish, which tied for the highest mark in program history. Sam Sonnenberg also earned All-America honors as the lone Gophers women’s athlete. 

Florida repeated as team champions with 52 points to Minnesota’s 27.

For the past few years, pole vaulter Sam Sonnenberg has done most of her work from the shadows — the shadows of top vaulters before her, such as Alicia Rue and Laura Massey.

This year, Sonnenberg stands alone and is the only Gophers women’s track and field representative at this weekend’s NCAA indoor championships.

“The previous years she’s had Alicia to hide behind a little bit, just a little bit out of the spotlight,” vaults coach Caroline White said. “Now the younger vaulters need her to be that for them.”

The Minnesota men’s track and field team is heading to the Big Ten championships this weekend as four-time defending champions, and the Gophers aren’t planning on giving up their spot at the top.

Since head coach Steve Plasencia took over the program in the summer of 2008, his team is a perfect 4-for-4 in conference title meets, including two consecutive indoor championships.

Minnesota has a long way to go, however, if it intends to capture the longest streak in Big Ten history –– that honor belongs to Wisconsin, which won eight straight last decade.

In a weekend highlighted by 11 individual titles and the unofficial return of All-American Hassan Mead, the Gophers dominated the Jack Johnson Classic from start to finish.

The women’s team had five title winners and the men’s team six on the weekend.

Chimerem Okoroji set a Jack Johnson Classic all-time record for the 60-meter dash in the preliminary round before winning the outright title in the finals.

Nikki Swenson (1 mile), Steph Price (3,000-meter), Laura Docherty (5,000) and Katie Hill (800) joined Okoroji in earning titles and leading the Gophers to victory.

At the NCAA track championships Saturday, Gabe Anderson etched out another chapter in her ever-expanding lore — and Gopher history to boot — when she made a late push to finish second in the 1,500-meter run.
That tied the Gophers record for the highest finish in a women’s outdoor track championship, and was the highlight of Minnesota’s showing at the championships in Eugene, Oregon over the weekend.

Gophers women’s track distance runner Megan Duwell has already accomplished a lot in her track career, but she is aiming to use those accomplishments as a springboard into the NCAA championships and potentially into the history books.
Duwell and three of her teammates left Minnesota for Eugene, Ore., this past weekend for the NCAA outdoor track and field championships. Accompanying Duwell on the trip are Gabriele Anderson and Nikki Swenson — both in the 1,500-meter run — and discus thrower Nikki Tzanakis .

R.J. McGinnis has conquered quite a bit: college academia, marriage and the Big Ten decathlon. Now his sights are on the NCAA championships.
McGinnis and several of his teammates begin competing at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships today in Eugene, Ore. Also competing is distance runner Chris Rombough, middle distance runner Ben Blankenship and high jumper Matt Fisher . Head coach Steve Plasencia made his team’s goals very clear.
“We want to return to Minnesota with four All-Americans,” Plasencia said.