Johonnot Captures Pentathlon Gold

Thursday, February 25

Boston, Mass.

11:00 AM

Duke University

Day One at ACC Indoor Championships

Johonnot Captures Pentathlon Gold

2/25/2016 10:04:00 PM | Track & Field

ACC Blog/Recap Day 1 Results

By: Duke Sports Information

BOSTON, Mass. – The Duke track & field program secured its first ACC title of the weekend during the opening day of action at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, Mass., as redshirt senior Karli Johonnot captured gold in the pentathlon Thursday, the second ACC pentathlon crown of her career.

With three events scored in the women's competition, the 16^th-ranked Blue Devils sit tied for second with 15 points, trailing only Florida State with 24. On the men's side, Duke is still looking for its first point as Virginia leads with 13 points heading into Friday. The Blue Devils have a good shot of securing points in the heptathlon as senior Robert Rohner paces the pack with 3,190 points after the first four events.

Johonnot started out the pentathlon in sixth after opening the event with the 60-meter hurdles, clocking an 8.75, before clearing 5-7.25 (1.71m) in the high jump to tie for the fourth-best mark. Johonnot continued to move up the leaderboard with the second-farthest throw in the shot put, registering a distance of 42-6.25 (12.96m), then claimed the lead with a personal-best leap of 19-9.75 (6.04m) in the long jump, the second-best jump in Duke history. With a 98-point advantage with only the 800 left to go, Johonnot extended her lead by crossing the line fifth with a season-best time of 2:20.50. Also scoring for the Blue Devils was classmate Teddi Maslowski, who added one point with her eighth-place finish with 3,935 points.

“I felt pretty good going into this meet,” Johonnot said. “The high jump didn't go as well as we hoped, but that's the nature of the multi. You have so many events; not all are going to go as well as you want. I was extremely ecstatic about breaking six meters in the long [jump], something I have always wanted to accomplish. Going into the 800 was stressful for sure, but I think the best feeling was running by Teddi's side and hearing the team cheer for us nice and loud.”

The win felt like déjà vu for Johonnot after she claimed the title as a freshman in 2012 at the same venue.

“It feels unreal,” Johonnot said. “I think that I am still in denial. It was cool to start off my indoor career and end it all on the same track. I am extremely grateful.”

The Duke women picked up four more points in the women's distance medley relay, taking fifth with a time of 11:26.23. Freshman Kim Hallowes handled the opening 1,200-meter leg, clocking a 3:28.65 split, before handing off to fellow rookie India Lowe who covered the next 400 meters in 57.32. Freshman MacKenzie Kerr recorded a 2:13.48 800 split during the third leg, then handed off to senior Olivia Anderson who anchored the race with a 4:46.80 over the final 1,600 meters.

Racing on the men's side, the Blue Devils won the first section and ultimately placed 10^th overall with a time of 9:52.05. Junior Alec Kunzweiler kicked off the race with a 2:59.08 1,200 split, followed by redshirt junior Michal Filipczak's 48.02 400 leg. Junior Dylan Murphy clocked a 1:52.88 over the next 800 meters, before senior Blake Udland capped the relay with his 4:12.08 1,600 split.

In the heptathlon, Rohner produced a phenomenal performance through four events to build a 174-point lead with 3,190 points so far, while sophomore teammate Tanner Johnson sits in third with a score of 2,967 after day one.

Rohner notched the top mark in the first two events to get off to a hot start, running a 6.96 in the 60-meter dash to tie fellow Blue Devil Chaz Hawkins, who currently ranks seventh with 2,883 points, before logging a personal-best long jump distance of 23-2.00 (7.06m) to lead the field. Rohner then registered two more career bests to end the day, launching the shot put 43-4.25 (13.21m) and clearing 6-6.00 (1.98m) in the high jump.

In the weight throw events, senior Michael Foley registered the second-best distance in Duke history, tossing the implement 55-3.50 (16.85m) on his final attempt to place 14^th in the men's division. Competing for the women, freshman Stefani Vukajlovic took 18^th with her personal-best throw of 52-4.75 (15.97m), good for fourth in the Duke records book.

Day two of the ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships will resume Friday at 11 a.m. with the final three events of the heptathlon.

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