Gopher Men's Track Competes Saturday at Musco Twilight Invitational

Golden Gopher Track Action This Week

Iowa Musco Twilight Invitational
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Cretzmeyer Track Complex
Host - Iowa Iowa City, Iowa

Carleton Relays
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Laird Stadium
Host: Carleton College - Northfield, Minn..

2007 Minnesota Men’s Outdoor T&F Watch List
Minnesota Men’s Track Team Travels to Iowa For Musco Twilight Invitational - The Minnesota men’s track & field team will compete in the Iowa Musco Twilight Invitational on Saturday, April 21, in Iowa City, Iowa. The meet will be scored, marking the only team-scored event on the Gopher schedule other than championships at the end of the season.
Gearman Named Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week - Senior Derek Gearman was named the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week after winning the high jump with a regional qualifying height of 7-0 1/2. Gearman is now set to compete in the Midwest Region meet in the high jump, long jump and triple jump.
Kabia, Langkau Grab Regional Qualifiers With Top-10 Times - Sophomores Ibrahim Kabia (100 meters) and Walter Langkau (800 meters) captured their first regional qualifying times of the season, doing so with times that rank among Minnesota’s top 10.
Buzard Improves 400m Time and Rank - Aaron Buzard won the 400 meters at the Sun Angel Classic with a time of 46.16 seconds, the ninth-fastest mark in the nation this season.
Drake Relays on the Horizon - Several of the top Golden Gophers will rest this weekend to prepare for next week’s prestigious Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.

Gopher Men Compete in Rare Scored Competition
The Minnesota men’s track & field team travels to Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday (April 21) to compete in the Iowa Musco Twilight Invitational. The meet is the only team-scored event on the schedule other than the championships at the end of the season.

Musco Twilight Format
Teams are allowed to enter 34 athletes in the Musco Twilight with a maximum of four entries allowed in the field events. Schools expected to join Minnesota and host Iowa at the meet are Illinois-Chicago, Marquette, Northern Iowa, Western Illinois and Wisconsin.

Gophers Send a Handful of Athletes to Carleton
A handful of Gophers will compete at the Carleton Relays on Saturday in Northfield, Minn.

Gopher Trio Idle This Weekend
Minnesota head coach Phil Lundin will have three of his top athletes - Aaron Buzard, Derek Gearman and Ibrahim Kabia - skip the Musco Twilight Invitational to rest for the upcoming Drake Relays next week.

Gearman Grabs High Jump Mark and Big Ten Honor
Senior Derek Gearman was named the Big Ten Field Athlete of the Week after winning the high jump title at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, Ariz. Gearman’s winning leap of 7 feet, 1/2 inch garnered the Lennox, S.D. native his third NCAA Midwest Region qualifying mark of the season in three separate jumping events. Previously, Gearman had qualified in the long jump and triple jump.

Sophomores Claim Top-10 Times
Ibrahim Kabia and Walter Langkau recorded regional qualifying times in their respective races at the Sun Angel Classic, and in turn earned spots on the Minnesota top-10 list. Kabia placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.47 seconds, the seventh-fastest clocking in school history. Langkau finished fourth with the 10th-best time in Gopher history of 1:50.20 in the 800 meters.

Buzard Betters Regional Qualifier in 400 Meters
Aaron Buzard bettered his NCAA Midwest Region qualifying time in the 400 meters by over four-tenths of a second in winning the event at the Sun Angel Classic. Buzard’s time of 46.16 seconds ranks second in the region and ninth nationally.

Last Week’s Recap
Derek Gearman completed his trifecta of qualifying in the jumping events for the NCAA Midwest Region Championships by bettering the standard in the high jump. Gearman won the event with a height of 7 feet, 1/2 inch at the Sun Angel Track Classic in Tempe, Ariz.

Gearman is now set to compete at the Midwest meet in the long jump, triple jump and high jump. He is also a member of the Gophers’ 4x100-meter relay, which just missed the qualifying mark and placed seventh at the Sun Angel with a time of 40.79 seconds.

Ibrahim Kabia made his first outdoor meet of the season a good one, placing second in the 100-meter dash with a regional qualifying mark of 10.47 seconds. The time is the seventh fastest in school history.

Aaron Buzard posted his best time of the season in the 400-meter dash with a clocking of 46.16 seconds. Buzard finished fourth overall, but was second among collegiate competitors.

Walter Langkau also added his name to the Gophers’ list of regional qualifiers with a time of 1:50.20 in the 800-meter run.

A pair of Gopher throwers turned in a pair of qualifiers tosses as well. Adam Schnaible finished seventh in the hammer with a throw of 190-4. Aaron Studt placed eighth in the shot put with a heave of 55-11 3/4.

Highlighting the Golden Gophers competing in local meets were Jerry Netland and Seijen Takamura, both competing at the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Open. Netland won the shot put with a throw of 51-8 1/2 and added a third-place showing in the discus at 155-10. Takamura won the 10,000-meter run with a time of 31:38.56.

The distance crew hoped to find good competition and better weather at the Oklahoma John Jacobs Invitational, but rain and wind hampered the times of all competitors on April 13 in Norman, Okla.

The Gophers were paced by a third-place finish by Chris Rombough in the 1,500-meter run in a time of 3 minutes, 56.03 seconds. Todd Johnson added a seventh-place showing in 3:56.52. Hans Storvick also turned in a seventh-place finish in the 800-meter run in a clocking of 1:54.18.

Merkey, Takamura Honored With Top Five Awards
Junior pole vaulter Matt Merkey and sophomore distance runner Seijen Takamura were honored with Top Five Awards at the annual Scholar-Athlete Awards Ceremony on April 3. The Top-Five Award recipients own the best cumulative grade point averages among Minnesota’s male student-athletes. Merkey, an accounting and finance major, is a two-year winner of the award. Takamura is majoring in French studies.

Head Coach Phil Lundin
Golden Gopher head men’s track & field coach Phil Lundin is in his 12th season at Minnesota. Lundin has guided the Gophers to four Big Ten titles and four top-10 NCAA Championships finishes. He is a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year honoree and was named the 2002 United States Track Coaches Association National Coach of the Year.

2007 Team Captains
The Golden Gopher team captains for the 2007 season are Aaron Buzard, Derek Gearman, Chris Hudspith and Antonio Vega.

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