College of Minnesota Athletics

MINNEAPOLIS — The College of Minnesota males’s monitor and discipline staff is sending its most qualifiers to the NCAA Outside Championships in a decade after the staff’s efficiency in Sacramento, Calif., on the 2023 NCAA West Regional at Hornet Stadium. 

The Maroon and Gold punched two tickets on Wednesday earlier than including one other 5 on Friday to safe the staff’s most spots on the Division I NCAA Observe and Area Outside Championships since 2013 (eight). Minnesota’s qualifiers embody Kostas Zaltos (Hammer), Jake Kubiatowicz (Hammer), the boys’s 4x100m relay (Hosten, Benjamin, Schirmer and Augustine), Matthew Wilkinson (3000m Steeplechase), Michael Buchanan (110m Hurdles), Kion Benjamin (100m) and Carlon Hosten (200m). 

Minnesota had plenty of stand out performances all through the regional meet, however NCAA-leader Kostas Zaltos was locked in and set the tone early for the Gophers on Wednesday within the males’s hammer throw. The Greek nationwide tossed three throws past 70-meters to simply qualify with a mark of 74.42m (244-2). The three-time Huge Ten champion is the one male to throw past 74.42m three totally different instances this season and is presently twentieth on the earth this yr within the occasion along with his lifetime better of 75.27m. 

Becoming a member of Zaltos in Austin, Texas might be fellow hammer thrower Jake Kubiatowicz. The St. Paul, Minn., native got here up clutch in his closing try of the preliminary spherical to safe his first NCAA Outside Championships bid. The mark of 69.73m (228-9) not solely reserved his spot for nationals but additionally was a lifetime greatest within the occasion and is No. 3 all-time on the College of Minnesota behind solely Zaltos and Gopher nice Sean Donnelly. Zaltos and Kubiatowicz each qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the identical season marks the primary time since 2013 that Minnesota has earned a number of NCAA qualifiers within the hammer throw. 

Minnesota’s subsequent ticket to the NCAA Championships added 4 names to their journey celebration with the 4x100m relay stamping their names with an automated qualifying efficiency. Minnesota’s crew of Hosten, Benjamin, Schirmer and Augustine secured the primary 4x100m relay bid for this system in its over 100-year historical past. The Gophers completed with the second-fastest time within the NCAA West Area at 39.02, the second-best time for the staff this season. 

A short while afterward Friday it was the All-American Wilkinson who left little doubt in his return to the NCAA Championships within the 3000m steeplechase. The second-year Gopher completed with an automated qualifying spot with a time of 8:26.33, only a second off of his lifetime greatest within the occasion that he set in Eugene final season to complete eighth within the NCAA. Wilkinson’s qualifying marks six straight NCAA Championships that Minnesota has secured a spot within the males’s 3000m steeplechase (Canceled in 2020). 

One other automated qualifier to the NCAA Championships was first-year Gopher Michael Buchanan within the 110m hurdles. Buchanan, a Jamaican nationwide, clocked a school-record time of 13.66 (+1.7 m/s) to earn his spot on the nationwide meet within the Lone Star State. Buchanan has now damaged the 26-year-old faculty document this season 5 instances, not together with his wind-aided 13.64 he clocked again in March. Buchanan is the primary Gopher to qualify for the NCAA Outside Championships within the 110m hurdles in 62 years (1960). 

Moments later Minnesota punched one other ticket to NCAAs within the type of two-time Huge Ten champion Kion Benjamin within the 100m. In a warmth with three Gophers (Benjamin, Hosten and Augustine) Benjamin was slotted in lane 5 the place he exploded for a season-best time of 10.11 (+1.9 m/s) to win and mechanically qualify himself for his first particular person NCAA Championships. Benjamin, a Trinidad and Tobago nationwide, turns into the primary Gopher in program historical past to qualify for the NCAA Championships within the 100m. 

The Gophers noticed one other historic second go down on Friday night time with Carlon Hosten securing this system’s first qualifier within the 200m along with his automated qualifying efficiency. Hosten, a fellow Trinidad and Tobago nationwide with Benjamin, took second place in his warmth in a time of 20.49 to earn his method to Austin, Texas, in his junior season. 

Minnesota practically had one other pair of NCAA qualifiers on the boys’s facet with Austin Parsons (Javelin) and Kaleb Siekmeier (Discus) each ending simply outdoors the highest 12 cutoff of their respective occasions on Wednesday and Friday.

The Gophers’ ladies will conclude their NCAA West Regional motion on Saturday, Could 27, with eight totally different entries scheduled to compete beginning with the ladies’s excessive soar at 4:30 p.m. CT and concluding with the ladies’s 4x400m relay at 10:45 p.m. CT. A stream on ESPN+ begins at 7 p.m. CT. 

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