University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Men's Cross Country Fifth in Griak
9/28/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Behind the strength of junior Andrew Carlson's tenth place finish, the Minnesota Golden Gophers were able to claim fifth place at the 17th Annual Griak Invitational. No. 9 Oregon was able to claim the school's first Griak title and Brigham Young sophomore Kip Kangogo broke the course record en route to defeating the defending NCAA champion Boaz Cheboiywo of Eastern Michigan.
Beating five teams ranked ahead of them, including defending Big Ten champion Wisconsin, the Gophers were able to improve on their 17th place finish from a year ago. Led by Carlson's tenth place finish (24:44), the Gophers also got strong races from seniors Will McComb (24:50.5) and Neil Hanson (24:52.3) who placed 26th and 28th respectively. Rounding out the top five for Minnesota were Ryan Ford who placed 65th and Erik Grumstrup who placed 66th. ?It just so happened that I had more left at the end of the race then the rest of my team. On any given day any of us could finish anywhere from first to fifth on the team. Today it just happened to be me,? said Carlson.
?Carlson ran as well as I have seen him run,? Minnesota men's head coach Steve Plasencia said. ?He ran a smart race and was able to come from behind at the end.?
?This race was a baptism by fire for some of the younger guys, but they need to take a step up sometime and this was a good race for them to do so,? Plasencia commented.
In the team competition on the strength of four finishers in the top thirty, Oregon ran away with the title with 96 points. Eastern Michigan was second with 105 points. Individually, Kangogo smashed the course record, covering the 8-kilometer course in a time of 23:38.9, nearly 18 seconds better than the former record of 23:57, set by Jonah Kiptarus of Nebraska in 1996.
?I liked the race and the course. I thought it was a good challenge for me. The competition was at a very high level and I responded well to it,? Kangogo said. ?It was really nice to beat Cheboiywo. I stayed with him the whole race and was able to pull away from him at the end. This meet is going to help me for the rest of the season.? The Golden Gophers will have a week off before resuming competition when they travel to LaCrosse, Wisc. for the Tory Neubauer Invitational on October 12.
Players Mentioned
