The Gophers football team paired with the Be The Match organization on Wednesday to add new names to the bone marrow registry — a system used to find bone marrow matches for people with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases.

Minnesota set a lofty goal to add 1,750 new members to the registry, but it fell short after the three-hour drive in the home locker room at TCF Bank Stadium. It added 112 new names to the registry in total.

Before the drive, junior Brock Vereen said the goal was important to the team but not the main focus. He said a big focal point was to bring a greater awareness to the Be The Match organzation and to the fact that people can save lives through the process.

His teammate, junior Connor Cosgrove, is a survivor of leukemia, and he had a similar thought process about the overall team goal.

"We want so badly for that number to be a reality because that makes the chances better that somebody at the University of Minnesota could save someone’s life," Cosgrove said.