MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin women's track and field team battled hard until the end, but ultimately fell to Minnesota, 82-80, in front of a capacity crowd at The Shell.
 
"It was very exciting. It looks like Minnesota just squeaked out the win on both sides," Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Mick Byrne said. "But this is what track and field is about. It's a two-hour meet, head-to-head competition. It was awesome. Great crowd! They were into it, our student athletes were into it and ultimately that was the goal of this meet."
 
Sophomore Banke Oginni started out the day strong, winning the weight throw to put Wisconsin on the board. After a personal best on her second throw, Oginni launched a bomb of 70 feet, 10 ½ inches on her third throw to break the meet record. She now ranks fourth in the NCAA and first in the Big Ten in the weight throw.
 
Oginni continued her outstanding day by throwing a personal-best 51-7 in the shot put to place second. Fellow sophomore Kennedy Blahnik took third with a throw of 51-4 ¼.
 
"Right now I'm getting everything going and everything's coming together and clicking," Oginni said of her performances. "I'm taking it meet by meet but I'm getting into a really good grove, especially early on in the season and hoping I can keep it on through Big Tens and nationals."
 
Freshman Chinne Okoronkwo shined in her triple jump debut for UW, winning the triple jump with a mark of 42-7. Okoronkwo set a meet record and now ranks second all-time at Wisconsin and first in the NCAA for freshmen triple jumpers. Sophomore Tiffany Ike took third in triple jump with a personal-best mark of 38-6.
 
The third meet record to fall was in the 3000 meters as the Badgers came within four points of the Golden Gophers thanks to a 1-2-3 finish.
 
Leading the way was junior Sarah Disanza who ran a meet record 9:32.82 en route to her first win of the season. Sophomore Amy Davis crossed the line second in 9:39.74 and senior Michele Lee rounded out the top three, finishing third with a personal-record time of 9:43.66.
 
Senior Brenna Detra crusied to a victory in the 600 meters with a time of 1:33.67. Freshman Cynthia Ubah clocked in at 1:38.53 to finish third.
 
"I'm pretty happy with it," Detra said. "I though Minnesota would throw some curve balls at me but when they didn't I had to adjust. I just stayed confident and my race went as planned, just to go out and win it."
 
Junior Ebony McClendon had a thrilling win in the 60 meters, clocking in at 7.56, edging out Minnesota's Tayler Whittler by two thousandths of a second. McClendon picked up her second win of the day in the 200 meters, finishing in 24.65.
 
In the long jump, junior Georgia Ellenwood won by almost a foot, jumping 19-8 3/4.
 
Freshman Gabby DesRosiers became the sixth-fastest 400 runner in school history, finishing runner-up in 55.84.
 
Minnesota secured their victory in the 4x400 relay, the final event on the track, running six seconds faster than Wisconsin's team of DesRosiers, McClendon, Ubah and Detra.
 
"I thought we fought very hard in the relay," Detra said. "It's very promising that we can have a good relay this year and this is just the beginning so it's a good feeling."
 
In the mile, senior Sarah Heinemann posted a new personal-best for the second week in a row, crossing the line in 4 minutes, 58.76 seconds, placing second. Freshman Emma Langer finished third in 5:00.49.
 
Sophomore Emma Haugen picked up a personal best in the high jump, clearing 5-9 3/4 to take second. Minutes later in the pole vault, juniors Taylor Amann and Jane McCurry cleared 12-10 1/4 and 12-2 1/2 to finish second and third, respectively.
 
Runner-up in the 800 meters was senior Emma Reifel, completing the four lap race in 2:14.24.
 
The Badgers hit the road next weekend, traveling to Iowa City, Iowa, for the Black and Gold Premier on Friday and Saturday.