After Friday's opening day of the Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships, Matt Bingle didn't have high hopes that the Gophers women's team would defend its title in Geneva, Ohio.

"On Saturday, most of the day we thought we were going to lose,'' Bingle, director of track and field for Minnesota's men's and women's teams, said Monday. "We were down double digits on our charts to Ohio State.''

Instead, a couple of unexpected finishes and depth in some distance events on Saturday helped the Gophers surge past Day 1 leader Penn State and Ohio State to capture the crown again. Minnesota, which had 18 points Friday and trailed Penn State by 16, finished with 102 points. Ohio State was second with 94, followed by Penn State (85), Michigan (78) and Wisconsin (58).

"Our team did a great job, took on some challenges and it was exciting to watch,'' Bingle said after the Gophers women won their sixth indoor title in program history and their ninth Big Ten title overall.

The Gophers also won the Big Ten cross-country title last fall, so with this indoor title, they can aim for a conference triple crown when they host the Big Ten outdoor track and field championships May 13-15.

Minnesota's comeback Saturday got a big boost in the triple jump when Tiera Robinson-Jones, on her third and final attempt, moved from eighth to third with an effort of 41 feet, 7 inches, the fourth-best jump in school history. Robinson-Jones collected six points for her team, doubling the total that Ohio State's Cierra Pyles received.

"All of a sudden, we were in it,'' Bingle said.

The Gophers got a 2-3 finish by Odell Frye and Amira Young in the 60-meter dash and a 3-5 showing by Shelby Frank and Tess Keyzers in the weight throw, lifting their team hopes.

Abby Kohut-Jackson was runner-up in the mile in a school-record time of 4 minutes, 35.36 seconds and followed up with an eighth-place finish in the 5,000.

The 5,000 proved to be the decisive race for the Gophers, and Bethany Hasz followed-up her 3,000 win on Friday with a runner-up finish in 16:22.37. Her sister, Megan, was right behind at 16:26.90.

"When we got to the 5K, we had to score 16 points to win the meet, and we had two events to do it,'' Bingle said. "We scored 15 in the 5K, and that sealed the deal.''

The Gophers finished the meet with an exclamation point, with the quartet of Jayla Campbell, Janielle Josephs, Val Larson and Abigail Schaaffe winning the 4x400 relay in 3:34.35.

"I was super proud of how the women and staff stuck together throughout the day because it was really up and down throughout the two days,'' Bingle said. "… It was probably one of the program's biggest wins it's had at the Big Ten level with the way it went down over the two days.''