The University of Minnesota Duluth men's/women's indoor track & field teams combined for nine first place finishes at the Twin Ports Open over the bridge in Superior, Wis. on Saturday afternoon. 

The Bulldog men finished with strong outings in both the field events and distance events. UMD was led by Owen Dickenson who finished with a personal best and facility record in the men's 1000m in a time of 2:31.80. Bulldog cross country leaders brought a solid performance into the men's one mile race finishing third (Jack Van Kempen - 4:25.28), fifth (Lucas Selman - 4:27.08), and sixth place (Austin Antony - 4:31.42). In the field events, the Bulldog men's team saw a number of top performances led by Colton Kostynick in the shot put with a personal best (plus provisional qualifying mark) and first place finish of 16.62m. Eli Bicek (15.90m) and Jackson Weston (15.20m) added a second and third place performance. Bicek and Weston both added another second and third place performance in the men's weight throw. William Heydt landed the top spot in the triple jump with a leap of 13.83m while Jaden Johnson earned a personal best in the high jump with a clearing of 1.91m for a tie for second place with fellow teammate Luke Oberleitner.  

Not to be out done, the UMD women's team proved to be a force to reckon with in the running events. The women were lead by first place finishes in the 60m by Emily Anderson (7.79 and new facility record) and Bryn London in the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.60. Anderson followed up her first place finish in the 60m with a second place finish in the 200m with a time of 26.51. Megan Gilles won the 200m hurdles in a time of 28.45 followed by a dominating performance in the women's 600m by Savannah Schley (first place - 1:37.11) and Rachel Boelke (second place - 1:40.28). The next two first place finishes came in the women's 800m (Alaina Steele - 2:24.5) and Cailee Peterson with a personal best in the 1000m in a time of 2:51.42. The Bulldog women also landed the second (Maddie Verkerke - 2:56.24), third (Franny Seidel - 3:04.51) and fourth place (Josie Bond - 3:15.16) finishes in the women's 1000m. In the women's mile the Bulldogs recorded 10 of the top 14 finishes. In the triple jump, Emily Jones landed a second place with a leap of 10.17m.


Coach Brautigam's Thoughts on the women's team:
"We had a great day of competing and came away with quite a few first place finishes. Exciting to have our full team competing for the first time and show our depth in the middle distances. First year Emily Anderson had a great sprint in the 60M and captured the facility record in the process "

Coach Brautigam's Thoughts on the men's team:
"Our men's throws group was a real highlight today. Colton Kostynick marks the first provisional qualifying make for our team today in Men's shot put, followed by his teammates Eli and JD who also had breakout performances. It was great to see our middle distance crew show their depth as well. Owen Dickenson left his mark with the facility record in the 1000m. We have some work to do to be the team we want to be down the stretch, but today was a solid check point."

Up Next
The Bulldogs will head down I-35 next weekend to compete in the Jack Johnson Classic hosted by the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Friday (January 27th) and Saturday (January 28th).