The Minnesota men’s track and field team ended their indoor home schedule with five event titles on Friday at the Snowshoe Open.
Senior Goaner Deng won the 800-meter run with a time of 1:49.82, which is only a quarter of a second off from the Minnesota Fieldhouse record.
“When he’s near the front [of the pack], that’s his best suit in terms of getting good results,” head coach Steve Plasencia said.
Six Minnesota runners finished in the top-seven spots in the 800-meters, including runner-up redshirt sophomore Derek Wiebke. The Kasson, Minn., native had a time of 1:52.57.
“It was huge to see everyone compete the way we did,” Deng said. “Another consistent performance ahead of the [Big Ten Championships].”
Four Minnesota runners also took the top-four spots in the 600-meters behind freshman Jack Wellenstein’s Snowshoe Open record time of 1:19.49.
The team also took up the top-four spots in the weight throw and six of the top-eight.
Senior Sean Donnelly came in first, competing unattached in the event with a distance of 21.79 meters. Senior Gian Ferretti came in second with a distance of 20.83 meters.
“[Ferretti] is one of the top guys in the country,” Plasencia said. “[Young guys] see what he does, and they have more confidence in their coach because they see that their coach can get guys to that level.”
Women win five titles
The Minnesota women’s track and field team also picked up five titles competing at the Parents Day Invite on Saturday at the Fieldhouse.
“As a team we had so many personal bests,” redshirt junior Caitlin Dillon said. “All around a great day for everyone.”
Minnesota won both of the throwing events, with redshirt freshman Kiley Sabin winning the shot put and redshirt senior Lyndsey Thorpe winning the weight throw.
Sabin set a career-best in her event with a distance of 15.39 meters, which is seventh-best in program history.
Thorpe cleared a distance of 19.61 meters in her event for her second-best throw of the season.
Two other seniors besides Thorpe finished in the top-10 in their events. Kelly Flynn placed in the long jump and graduate student Rebecca Wesley finished eighth in the 800-meters.
“It was definitely a big day for us seniors,” Dillon said.
Dillon also ran season-best 5:29.09 in the mile to finish 19th in event.
Redshirt freshman Bolande Jinadu won the 400-meters in a time of 57.32 seconds, finishing 1.74 seconds ahead of the next runner.
“Our team as a whole is the best we’ve ever had since I’ve been here,” Dillon said. “As a whole, we have so much confidence.”
