Gophers Sweep Team Titles at Jack Johnson Invitational

The Golden Gopher women’s track team won six events, the men eleven to sweep the team titles at the Jack Johnson Invitational on Saturday at the University of Minnesota Fieldhouse.  

Todea-Kay Willis won her second event of the weekend after winning the long jump on Friday. She ran a personal record time of 7.50 seconds in the 60-meter dash, the fifth fastest time ever by a Gopher woman.  Kylie Peterson was second in 7.59.

Alena Brooks won the 600 meters in 1:31.49. Bria Halama won the triple jump with a PR of 39-3 1/4 (11.97m). The Gophers’ “A” 4x400m relay, which included Brooks, finished first in 3:47.48.

The women milers had a solid showing with Laura Docherty(4:53.08), Becca Dyson(4:53.93), Molly Kayfes (4:54.49) and Maggie Bollig(4:57.97) claiming the top four spots. Christina DeLakis won the shot put with a season-best toss of 49-9 3/4 (15.18m). Devin Stanford (58-5 1/4) and Jeri-Johnson Chambers (57-7 3/4) set new PRs in finishing second and third in weight throw.

“I was really pleased about this weekend,” director of track and field/cross country Matt Bingle said. “Everyone competed well, and there were PRs across the board. But we can’t be satisfied. Everyone has plenty of things to fix going forward. We need to keep having a good attitude and working hard.”

 Minnesota's women scored 203 points. North Dakota State (135) and Western Michigan (128) finished second and third. Minnesota men’s team finished with 236.50 points. South Dakota(105) and North Dakota State(84.5) were second and third.

Gophers John Simons and Bobby Nicolls went one-two in the mile. Simons ran 4:08.74 while Nicolls ran  4:09.26. Other Gopher winners in running events were:  400-meter dash (Jacob Capek, 48.49), the 600-meter dash (Goaner Deng, 1:19.90), the 800-meter dash (Nick Hutton, 1:51.00) and the 60-meter dash (Sean King, 6.75).

In the field events as Mark Jennings and Emmanuel Onyia finished first and second, respectively, in the shot put. Jennings bested threw 17.64 meters while Onyia 's best toss was  17.52 meters. The Gophers also earned individual titles in the high jump (Danny Schiller, 2.06 meters), the triple jump (Olapido Fagbemi, 14.83 meters) and the weight throw (Jon Lehman, 20.26 meters). In the  heptathlon, Kenny Schofield placed second in the event with a score of 4,930, narrowly trailing  Laquone Robinson of Minnesota State-Moorhead who scored  4,961.

Second day women's results are HERE. Men's results are HERE. 

Team USA Minnesota's Jamie Cheever talks to Flotrack about her PR in the 3K and upcoming US Cross Country Championships HERE, and a video of the men's 3K won by Jon Peterson a few seconds shy of the meet record is HERE.  Peterson post-race interview is HERE.