Tionna Tobias set a lifetime best in the heptathlon with a 6th-place finish over the last two days at the Big Ten Championships.
Tobias scored 5,124 points in the seven-event two-day challenge at the Big Ten Championships at the University of Minnesota Track Complex in Minneapolis.
Tobias set PRs in two events and beat her PR of 5,083 points from last year’s Big Ten meet, where she placed ninth.
Her final point total of 5,124 points is No. 5 on the all-time Iowa performance list.
Tobias opened with a fast hurdles race, running 13.68 for 1,024 points. That’s only 10-100ths of a second off her lifetime best of 13.58 from last year’s Big Ten Invite in Bloomington, Ind.
She cleared 5-5 in the high jump on her third attempt for 795 points to give her 1,819 after two events.
Next up was the shot put, and Tobias got off a big PR of 35-7 ¾ on her final attempt for 586 points. Her previous PR was 32-6 ¼ at indoor Big Ten’s at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, in February. Her previous outdoor best was a 30-0 ¾ at last year’s outdor Big Ten meet in Champaign, Ill. That put her at 2,405 points through three events.
In the 200, Tobias ran 25.37 to score 853 points and give her 3,258 through seven events at the end of Day 1 with the long jump, javelin and 800 remaining.
Tobias opened up Day 2 in scary fashion, fouling on her first two attempts in the long jump. One more foul would have been disaster. That means no points and there’s no reason to continue in the event. But on her third and final jump, she sailed 18-2 ½ for 715 points.
From there it was off to the javelin, where she recorded her second throws PR of the weekend with a 92-1 for 440 points. Her previous javelin PR was a 79-9 last year at Big Tens.
That left the 800, and Tobias earned 711 more points after a 2:28.58, giving her a total of 5,124 points.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 