The NCAA Championships ended in Eugene, Oregon at Hayward Field on Saturday, along with the track and field season.
The Gophers men finished seventh, their highest finish since 1948. The Gopher women did not have enough athletes in attendance to place as a team, but they saw good performances from redshirt sophomore Ali Weimer and graduate student Dyandra Gray.
Weimer became the first female Gopher runner to run the 10K in under 33 minutes. Her performance at the NCAA Championships broke her own school record that she set back in February.
Earlier in the season, after Weimer set her first school record, she mentioned how special it was to her.
“The school record is kind of life-changing in its own way just because we’ve had so many great women come through our program,” Weimer said. “To be able to compete with those names and represent yourself in a way too.”
Gray placed 22nd in the 400 meter hurdles to end her career with the Gophers, but earned her first-ever All-American finish in her career. She is only the third from the Gophers women’s track and field team to do so in the 400 meter hurdles.
The men’s track and field team earned the most points from Greek hammer throwers graduate student Kostas Zaltos and sophomore Angelos Mantzouranis.
The two hammer throwers once again had a 1-2 finish. Zaltos took first, with his first and last NCAA gold medal.
In an interview with KSTP before the championships, Zaltos said that he was not too worried about the competition at the NCAA Championships.
“The results are talking by themselves,” Zaltos said. “We are already doing the best.”
After Zaltos claimed the gold medal, he reaffirmed what he already knew to be true.
“Today I had the best series of my career,” Zaltos said. “I’ll take that. I am excited for the future. (Angelos and I) are the best duo of all-time in NCAA history. We are very excited about that.”
Zaltos threw a lifetime best at his final meet with the Gophers at 78.08 meters.
Mantzouranis said in an interview after his performance that he felt like it was not his day, after throwing 77.96 meters and winning silver, only 0.65 meters shorter than his personal best.
Other notable performances came from sophomore Charles Godfred, who placed fourth in the long jump, and the 4×100-meter relay team, which earned seventh place, as well as first-team All-American honors.
The Big Ten champion relay team was able to finish a program-best seventh, even with an injury to senior Devin Augustine in the last stretch of the race, which forced him to slow down.
