University of Minnesota Athletics
Jacenta Spandl Has Big Day at Big Ten Track Championships
5/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Minnesota redshirt freshman Jacenta Spandl placed second in the heptathlon to highlight the Golden Gopher women's track & field team's performance in the second day of the Big Ten Championships in West Lafayette, Ind. Spandle compiled a score of 5,000, an provisional NCAA Championships qualifier and just the third heptathlon of 5,000 or higher in Minnesota history.
Spandl entered the final three events of the heptathlon in third place but used a career-best throw of 134 feet, 11 inches in the javelin to climb into second place. She held on to her position by running a time of 2 minutes, 30.44 seconds in the 800-meter run. Redshirt freshman Maggie Jaunich placed fifth in the heptathlon with 4,790 points.
Spandl wasn't finished with the heptathlon. The Gopher standout sailed a throw of 151-1 in the open javelin competition, another personal best this time by nearly 20 feet, to place fourth in the event.
"The team overall has done a great job so far in the meet," said Golden Gopher head coach Gary Wilson. "Jacenta (Spandl) had just a fantastic performance."
Senior Monica Stearns placed third in the pole vault clearing a height of 12-9 1/2. The event was moved from Friday to Saturday due to weather conditions.
Also scoring points for Minnesota was freshman Sarah Nelson in the long jump and sophomore Liz Ababi in the shot put. Nelson landed a career-best jump of 18-10 1/2 to place fourth. Alabi finished sixth with a throw of 48-6 3/4.
The Golden Gopher qualified six runners to finals on Sunday. Freshman Kadian Douglas qualified for the 100-meter and 200-meter dash finals by running personal-best times in both races. Douglas sprinted to a time of 11.64 seconds in the 100 meters, the second-fastest time in school history and an NCAA regional qualifier. Her time of 24.07 in the 200 meters was the third-best in Minnesota history.
Minnesota had two runners qualify for finals in both the 400-meter hurdles and the 800-meter run. Melissa Steele won her heat of the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:00.78, the second-fastest time in prelims. Shari Schutz advanced with a career-best time of 1:01.72. Mollie Hupp and Rachel Schutz advanced to finals in the 800 meters with times of 2:10.00 and 2:11.07, respectively. Hupp's time qualifies her for the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Liz Woolford ran a time of 14.25 seconds to qualify for the finals in the 100-meter hurdles.
Minnesota will enter the final day of competition in fifth place in the team standings with 31 points. Michigan leads with 53.5 points.
Players Mentioned
