The Gophers walked away with 10 medals between the men and women, sending 39 athletes to the NCAA West Regionals. The men’s team tied with Wisconsin, both earning 81 points.

The men’s track and field team jumped around the top ten of NCAA national rankings all season. They peaked at number two in early April, but at the time of the meet were ranked sixth.

Day 1 of the championships ended with the Gophers leading in points. The men had 4 events: hammer throw, pole vault, javelin and the 10,000-meter run. 

The men’s Gophers took home first and second in the hammer throw, as well as second in the pole vault. 

Senior Jak Urlacher earned the silver medal with the best pole vault performance by a Minnesota pole vaulter in 28 years, moving him to No. 2 in Gophers history.

The meet was Urlacher’s last Big Ten Championship, but when asked about the pressure of performing well in his final year, he said he was not worried about it.

“I like pressure, personally,” Urlacher said. “I typically jump better at championship meets, the goal for me is just to go out and put together my best meet, and be able to jump what I’m capable of.”

On Day 2, the men competed in the long jump, high jump, decathlon, shot put and 3000-meter steeplechase. 

The standout performance for the Gophers was sophomore Charles Godfred.

Godfred’s first jump attempt was ruled illegal but the jump, he said, would have likely beaten the meet record.

“I knew I was supposed to do that for my first jump,” Godfred said. “I was shocked when they raised the flag. I was just a pinch away. I think the jump was about 8.20 something.”

The meet record is 8.13 meters, set in 1935 by Jesse Owens. Godfred broke that record at other meets, but has yet to do it at the Big Ten Championships. 

Godfred came in first for the second year in a row, despite not using all of his jump attempts. He said he chose not to use them due to injury risk. 

“Due to the rain and bad weather, the board was a bit slippery and I didn’t want to take the risk,” Godfred said.

The rest of the track events were done on the final day of competition. The final meet record for the Gophers came from the men’s 4×100 meter relay team.

The team consisted of juniors Zion Campbell and Aaron Charles, senior Devin Augustine, and graduate student Kion Benjamin broke their own meet record they set in 2023.

Benjamin spoke about his expectations for the meet, especially because this is his final year with the Gophers.

“We came into the meet having the meet record already. So, the goal was to break the meet record on Hayward Field,” Benjamin said. “We had one job, and that was to come home with the gold medal. I just wanted to leave (my teammates) with a bang. I think that’s exactly what we did.”

Augustine put up the most individual points for the men, with 18. Augustine competed in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4×100 meter relay. He placed third in the 200-meter and seventh in the 100-meter.

Senior hammer thrower, Kostas Zaltos, was also awarded the Big Ten Men’s Field Athlete of the Championships.  

The Gophers had six athletes on the men’s All-Big Ten First Team, the most in the Big Ten.