University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Win 4x800m Title at Drake Relays
4/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Minnesota continued its dominance of the 4x800-meter relay at the Drake Relays cruising to its fourth consecutive title at “America’s Athletic Classic” in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday night. The Golden Gopher foursome of Nikki Swenson, Alena Brooks, Jamie Dittmar and Gabriele Anderson captured the victory in a time of 8 minutes, 33.98 seconds over nine seconds faster than runner-up Nebraska.
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Swenson and Anderson won their third Drake Relays crown in the event. Overall, Anderson now has four career Drake Relays titles to her credit.
The Gopher distance medley relay of Elizabeth Yetzer, Rikita Butler, Brooks and Megan Duwell finished third with a time of 11:19.59. Minnesota’s 4x200-meter relay of Adrienne Thomas, Chioma Omeoga, Kelly Stalpes and Linnea Johnson placed fourth in a time of 1:36.50. The Gophers’ 4x100-meter relay of Chimerem Okoroji, Omeoga, Todea-Kay Willis and Kylie Peterson finished second in their heat with a time of 46.39 seconds, but fell one spot short of qualifying of Saturday’s final.
Junior Samantha Sonnenberg added a second-place finish in the rain-soaked pole vault competition. Weather conditions played havoc with the event. Sonnenberg cleared 13 feet, 1 1/2 inches for second place. The champion, Nebraska’s Natalie Willer managed just 13-5 1/4. Minnesota’s Becca Pilkerton was fifth with a vault of 12-7 1/2, a career best and the seventh-best height in Gopher history.
The Drake Relays concludes on Saturday. The Gophers look to defend their Drake title in the 4x1,600-meter relay.
Drake Quotes
Minnesota (Nikki Swenson, Alena Brooks, Jamie Dittmar, Gabriele Anderson), winner, women’s university 4x800 Meter relays University,
8:33.98, the fastest U.S. time this season. It was Minnesota’s fourth straight Drake Relays 4x800 women’s title.
Lead-off leg Nikki Swenson, junior, who was the lone member back from last year’s winning relay: “Going in being the leadoff, I knew that I couldn’t get stuck on the rail because there were 15 girls that were on the start line. So you have to get out quick and be able to use your elbows and just clear it out for everybody else. I was second leg last year and that’s what I learned from the leadoff last year.”
Second leg Alena Brooks, freshman: “I was too excited to run my leg and my first 100 was a bit too fast, so I died.”
Third leg Jamie Dittmar, junior, who broke free in a tight battle with Nebraska at the front: “You know, I just had that mindset ‘OK, they’re right there after me, you’ve got to move.’ I didn’t know where she [the Nebraska runner] was. I figured she was right on my heels the entire time. So I was just going.”
Anchor leg Gabriele Anderson, senior, who has run on a previous Drake Relays 4x800 champion, but not on last year’s team: “I think having
experience coming into Drake is really important. I mean, we know the atmosphere and it’s less pressure on our shoulders. But there’s more pressure in a way because you’re running on behalf of three other people and a whole team. So it’s a really unique experience and we always look forward to running Drake Relays. It’s been fun to build a Minnesota legacy here for the last few years.”
On Minnesota’s recent dominance here in this race: “Yeah, I don’t think it’s something we expected to do, but we’ve been able to have kind of a really good training group for the past four or five years. And we’ve had some good recruits come into our training block and we have a good group of girls who are willing to work hard for themselves and each other.”
Players Mentioned
