University of Minnesota Athletics
Rombough, Mead All-Americans, Gophers 15th
11/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Golden Gopher senior Chris Rombough set Minnesota cross country history on Monday, becoming the first three-time All-American in school history as Minnesota finished 15th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Rombough finished 17th overall, covering the 10-kilometer course the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind., in a time of 29 minutes, 54.4 seconds. Rombough’s time is the fourth-fastest time in school history. His top finish at the NCAA meet was 14th in 2006, while he placed 29th in 2007.
“I’m proud of Chris,” said Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia. “He’s a strong runner who loves cross country. He kept pounding away, moving up through the field. We are going to miss him.”
Mead didn’t run his best race but still managed to collect All-America honors with a 31st-place finish in a time of 30:06.2. The Gopher sophomore, who won both the Big Ten and NCAA Midwest Region individual titles, is the seventh runner to earn multiple All-America citations.
“Hassan fought back but he didn’t have a good day,” said Plasencia.
Plasencia also noted that Mead and most of the Gophers, other than Rombough, didn’t seem to have as much energy as he would have hoped. “Overall we had a mediocre performance today. We didn’t have a lot of zip. I’m thinking that running on that very difficult course at the regional meet may have taken a lot out of us. We didn’t start the race well and that left too much to make up. I guess it says something, though, when we aren’t necessarily pleased with a 15th-place finish at the NCAAs. We had higher hopes, higher expectations, but we just didn’t have the depth to pull it off.”
The Gophers were unable to finish with a tight pack of runners, as they had in the NCAA Midwest Region Championships nine days ago. Sophomore Ben Blankenship ran a solid race to finish as the Gophers’ number-three runner, clocking a time of 30:55.1 to place 100th overall, but the gap widened for the important fourth and fifth scorers.
Matt Barrett was the Gophers’ fourth runner to cross the finish line, placing 160th in a time of 31:23.6, followed by Mike McFarland in 171st in 31:27.0.
Also competing for Minnesota was Ben Puhl, who placed 214th in 32:00.3 and Mike Torchia in 231st in 32:25.0.
Oregon defended its team with title with 93 points and three runners in the top 10, including individual medalist Galen Rupp. Rupp used a kick in the final 800 meters to overtake Liberty’s Samuel Chelanga (29:08.0).
Iona College ran to an impressive runner-up showing (147), followed by Stanford (227) and Wisconsin (229). Other Big Ten finishes were Michigan in 24th (522) and Penn State in 25th (547).
Rombough finished 17th overall, covering the 10-kilometer course the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind., in a time of 29 minutes, 54.4 seconds. Rombough’s time is the fourth-fastest time in school history. His top finish at the NCAA meet was 14th in 2006, while he placed 29th in 2007.
“I’m proud of Chris,” said Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia. “He’s a strong runner who loves cross country. He kept pounding away, moving up through the field. We are going to miss him.”
Mead didn’t run his best race but still managed to collect All-America honors with a 31st-place finish in a time of 30:06.2. The Gopher sophomore, who won both the Big Ten and NCAA Midwest Region individual titles, is the seventh runner to earn multiple All-America citations.
“Hassan fought back but he didn’t have a good day,” said Plasencia.
Plasencia also noted that Mead and most of the Gophers, other than Rombough, didn’t seem to have as much energy as he would have hoped. “Overall we had a mediocre performance today. We didn’t have a lot of zip. I’m thinking that running on that very difficult course at the regional meet may have taken a lot out of us. We didn’t start the race well and that left too much to make up. I guess it says something, though, when we aren’t necessarily pleased with a 15th-place finish at the NCAAs. We had higher hopes, higher expectations, but we just didn’t have the depth to pull it off.”
The Gophers were unable to finish with a tight pack of runners, as they had in the NCAA Midwest Region Championships nine days ago. Sophomore Ben Blankenship ran a solid race to finish as the Gophers’ number-three runner, clocking a time of 30:55.1 to place 100th overall, but the gap widened for the important fourth and fifth scorers.
Matt Barrett was the Gophers’ fourth runner to cross the finish line, placing 160th in a time of 31:23.6, followed by Mike McFarland in 171st in 31:27.0.
Also competing for Minnesota was Ben Puhl, who placed 214th in 32:00.3 and Mike Torchia in 231st in 32:25.0.
Oregon defended its team with title with 93 points and three runners in the top 10, including individual medalist Galen Rupp. Rupp used a kick in the final 800 meters to overtake Liberty’s Samuel Chelanga (29:08.0).
Iona College ran to an impressive runner-up showing (147), followed by Stanford (227) and Wisconsin (229). Other Big Ten finishes were Michigan in 24th (522) and Penn State in 25th (547).
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