The Gophers women captured two meet titles at the Drake Relays this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.
The women’s 4×800-meter relay team highlighted the weekend with an outstanding performance.
iowa twilight Meet
what: Women’s track
when: Time TBA, Saturday
where: Iowa City
The team, comprised of juniors Julie Schwengler, Jamie Cheever, Gabriele Anderson and Heather Dorniden, won the Drake Relays event with the fastest time in the world this year.
The Gophers, ranked No. 23 in the nation according to NCAA.com, were also paced by senior Ruby Radocaj’s gold-medal performance. Radocaj threw the javelin 179 feet, 11 inches.
Iowa Twilight
what: Men’s track
when: Time TBA, Saturday
where: Iowa City
This is the first Drake Relays title for Radocaj, who has already qualified for the Olympic Trials and NCAA Midwest Regionals this year.
Senior Andrea Smith finished second in the pole vault, followed by sophomore Alicia Rue in fourth.
Senior thrower Liz Podominick finished third in the shot put, and senior Christin Kingsley finished fourth in the long jump.
The 4×1600 relay team of Cheever, Anderson, Dorniden and freshman Nikki Swenson finished in a close second, but set a new school record with 19 minutes, 6.11 seconds.
Men
The Gopher men’s team showed impressively this weekend at the Drake Relays.
Junior All-American Ibrahim Kabia won the 100-meter dash Saturday with a photo-finish time of 10.44.
Big Ten Field Event Athlete of the week Aaron Studt also took home Drake gold.
Continuing a streak of success, the sophomore threw the shot 60-8.
This was his third consecutive meet with a throw of 60 feet or better and his fourth consecutive shot put gold.
The 4×1600 team of sophomore Hassan Mead, junior Chris Rombough and seniors Eddie Kibira and David VanOrdsel finished in third in a tight race.
The rest of the Gophers squad was scheduled to compete in the Gustavus Adolphus Drake Alternative Meet, which was cancelled due to weather.
The men’s and women’s teams will compete next weekend in the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University and the Iowa Twilight Meet at the University of Iowa.
