Women's track and field: Gophers expect to be in middle at Big Ten meet

"Indoors, obviously, it didn't go as had hoped," Gophers coach Matt Bingle said. "But we had a ton of injuries indoors."

Minnesota was last in the Big Ten women's indoor track and field meet. He expects the outdoor meet this weekend at the University of Wisconsin to go much better.

"We are a lot healthier," he said. "We feel like we can be as high as probably sixth place. Between sixth and eight place, which is where we should be. We are very young."

So what are the U's strengths?

"We've got good people in the 100, long jump, steeple chase, 10K. Our hammer thrower is top three. Both relays can do well there, 400 hurdles. We have it spread out quite a bit. It is actually a good group."

Here is a look at the Gophers' top threats:

100: Senior Chimerem Okoroji, seeded fifth (11.62). Junior Kylie Peterson is also entered. ... Okoroji was fourth last season behind three Ohio State runners. ... Top seed is sophomore Chesna Sykes of Ohio State (11.42). ... Preliminaries are 3:50 p.m. Saturday.

400: Junior Alena Brooks was fifth last year. ... Prelims 3:20 p.m. Saturday.

10K: Sophomore Laura Docherty (34:07.40) is seeded third. ... Wisconsin junior Caitlin Comfort (33:27.02) is the top seed. ... Finals 9:15 Friday.

400 hurdles: Senior Sharyn Dahl, tied for fourth in the seeding (59.54). ... Top seed is Nyjah Cousas (58.64). ... Prelims are 5:55 p.m. Saturday.

3000 steeplechase: Sophomore Katie Moraczewski is the fourth seed (10:18.60). ... She was seventh last year. ... Prelims 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

4x100 relay: Gophers are third seed (44.95) behind Ohio State (43.88) and Illinois (44.29). ... Prelims 2:10 p.m. Saturday.

Hammer throw: Senior DeAnne Hahn is seeded third (60.04 meters) behind top seed Melissa Kurzdorfer of Penn State (62.97). .... Hahn was first two years ago. Prelims, 3:30 p.m. Friday.