Rutgers track and field wins three gold medals at B1G Championships

The Rutgers track and field program won three gold medals and totaled 14 podium finishes at last weekend’s Big Ten Outdoor Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For a program clearly making forward strides under Bobby Farrell, Director of Track & Field and Cross Country, it was a positive performance overall despite the men finishing in a tie for tenth place and the women finishing in twelfth place.

“Although we didn’t get the point total we were after, this was our strongest performance,” said Farrell. “We set two records, got three golds, made the most finals, doubled our podium finishes and tripled the number of times we placed in the top 15.

He continued to summarize the program’s performance, stating, “We had some athletes really step up and do big things. If one thing didn’t go as we liked, another person picked it up in their place. This team is learning fast. The team chemistry this weekend was fantastic, they are really coming together, and we return nearly everyone. With a very strong class coming in, this team knows more than ever now how well we can do next year. The coaches are doing a great job developing and we’re a factor now in any event. New Jersey is the best of the best with talent and we’re going to win this meet one day.”

Senior A’nan Bridgett won the gold in the long jump, freshman Chloe Timberg won gold in the pole vault and sophomore Joshua Mather took home the top prize the javelin. All three earned First Team All-Big Ten honors after winning their respective events.

Bridgett has now won the Big Ten title in the long jump in both Indoor and Outdoor in 2022. His winning jump this time was 7.89m (25’ 10.75”).

Timberg cleared the bar at 4.28m (14’ 0.5”) to win gold after winning silver at the Big Ten Indoor Championships earlier this year.

Mather won the javelin with a throw of 68.16m (223’ 7”) after taking home the silver medal at the 2021 Big Ten Outdoor Championships.

Overall, Rutgers had 14 podium finishers and two athletes broke school records. In the preliminary round, Jameson Woodell established a new program record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 50.52 seconds. Jasmin Van Note broke the school record in the shot put with a distance of 16.28m (53’ 5”) to finish in 8th place.

For full results for Rutgers track and field at the Big Ten Championships, click here.

Next up are the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon at historic Hayward Field on June 8 through June 11. Once qualifiers for Rutgers are announced, I’ll post an update.