University of Minnesota Athletics
Karl Erickson Places Second in Discus, Advances to NCAA Championships
5/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
The top five placewinners advance to the NCAA Championships, held in Sacramento, Calif., June 7-10.
Derek Gearman, fresh off his Big Ten title performance in the long jump, continued to improve setting another personal best with a leap of 25-2 1/2 to place seventh. The mark is the third-longest jump in school history. Gearman will also compete in the triple jump on Saturday. Andy Newman, a Gopher senior and one of the team captains, competed in his first NCAA regional and placed 21st with a jump of 22-7 1/4.
While several field events were contested to completion on Friday, events on the track qualified the top eight finishers to Saturday’s finals.
Trent Riter advanced in the 800-meter run, clocking his fastest time of the season of 1:48.45. Riter placed third in the faster of the preliminary races.
Aaron Buzard won his heat of the 400-meter dash to advance to the final in that event. Buzard, running in lane eight, never allowed the stagger catch up to him, leading throughout the race. Buzard’s time was clocked at 46.50 seconds.
Newman also led off Minnesota’s 4x100-meter relay that placed fourth in their heat and posted a time of 40.50 seconds. Newman was joined by Ibrahim Kabia, Robb Merritt and Buzard.
The temperatures in Austin reached into the mid 90s with sunny skies, an amazing 50 degrees warmer than at the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Mich., two weeks ago.
The NCAA Midwest Region Championships will conclude on Saturday.
Players Mentioned
