The Gophers track & field teams will have eight women and three men participating in the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships at Eugene, Oregon beginning June 5.
Freshman Charles Godfred was the first of his teammates to advance to the Championship when he qualified in the long jump.
Godfred’s leap of 7.80m placed him seventh, five spots above the 12th-place qualification mark. He was shocked to find out he was the first men’s Gopher since 1995 to compete in the NCAA Outdoor Championships’ long jump.
“Oh wow,” Godfred said. “How many years since someone has qualified for the NCAA Championships? It is not easy, everything is about dedication and commitment and also hard work.”
Freshman Angelos Mantzouranis punched his ticket to Oregon in the hammer throw. Before competing at the NCAA West First Round in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he faced a 12-hour weather delay.
Mantzouranis was scheduled to compete at 10 a.m., but the delay pushed his start time to 10:15 p.m., giving him lots of downtime.
“I woke up really early that day because I had to check in,” Mantzouranis said. “After I did that, coach (Peter) Miller called me and asked if I was good at taking naps.”
The delay did not deter Mantzouranis as he threw 72.57m, the topmost mark at the competition.
Senior Shelby Frank helped the Gophers sweep the hammer throw in the women’s west regional when she threw marks of 67.96m to place first. Two days later, Frank threw 60.10m in discus to place second.
Redshirt freshman Annie Nabwe qualified in the shot put to continue her illustrious freshman campaign. Nabwe ended her indoor season setting the NCAA freshman record with a 23.36m throw.
Nabwe, a Jamestown, North Dakota native, rose from 44th to sixth place in her final attempt at the shot put on May 23. She hit a mark of 17.59m and earned a spot at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Another redshirt freshman, Diarra Sow, will make her first appearance in the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the women’s triple jump. Like Nabwe, Sow sat below the top-12 cutoff on her final attempt. It took an all-time best of 13.51m to qualify into 10th place.
The Gopher women’s 4x100m relay team will also travel west to Oregon for the Outdoor Championships. Graduate student Odell Frye, freshman Victory Godah, junior Zariyah Black and senior Alliyah McNeil nearly broke the school record to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Their 43.81 time was 0.03 seconds from breaking the school record.
Frye also qualified individually for the 100m. Her time of 11.12 seconds put her in 12th place, just 0.02 seconds ahead of 13th. She became the third women’s Gopher to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100m.
Freshman Zoie Dundon’s time of 10:20.76 for the 3000m steeplechase put her in third place in her heat, making her an automatic qualifier despite finishing 14th overall.
This will be the eighth consecutive year Minnesota sends athletes to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the steeplechase event.
Junior Devin Augustine missed out on placing in the 100m by just 0.01 seconds but bounced back with an automatic qualifying time of 20.36 seconds. Augustine became the second men’s Gopher to qualify for the 200m, a year after fellow Trinidad and Tobago native Carlon Hosten.
“It’s amazing because I still talk to (Hosten),” Augustine said. “He’s still pushing me and we stay in communication. I think that carrying that flag is amazing.”