Gopher Men's Track Features Youthful Five at NCAA Championships

Golden Gopher Track Action This Week

NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Wednesday-Saturday, June 11-14
Host - Drake Des Moines, Iowa
Drake Stadium

Gophers Send Five to NCAA Championships
The Minnesota men’s track & field team will send five athletes to compete in the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, June 11-14, in Des Moines, Iowa. Drake University’s Drake Stadium, the track of the legendary Drake Relays, is the host site for the national meet.

Catch Some NCAA Championships Action on TV
CBS will televise two hours of the final day of the NCAA Outdoor Championships live on Saturday, June 14, from 3-5 p.m. (CT). For Comcast customers with a sport tier, CBS College Sports Network (previously CSTV) will broadcast the Championships for three hours from 7-10 p.m. on Friday, June 13.

NCAA Championships History
Florida State is the two-time defending team champion, having captured its first NCAA outdoor track title in 2006, then repeating a year ago. Minnesota won its only national team title in 1948. Since 1996, and during the coaching tenure of Phil Lundin, the Gophers’ top national finish was ninth in 1997 and 2003. Minnesota send four athletes to the Championships in 2007, but did not score.

Minnesota’s Youth Movement
Last year Minnesota was represented by four seniors at the NCAA Championships. In 2008, the Golden Gopher youth movement takes hold as the quintet of Minnesota athletes headed to the NCAA Championships consists of four sophomores (R.J. McGinnis, Ben Peterson, Chris Rombough, Aaron Studt) and a true freshman (Hassan Mead).

Hassan Mead Continues Brilliant Rookie Season
True freshman Hassan Mead has enjoyed a sensational rookie season at Minnesota. Mead helped the Golden Gopher men’s cross country team to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships last fall, shared team MVP honors and captured All-America and Big Ten runner-up accord. Turning his attention to the track in the spring, Mead first ran to a second-place showing in the indoor 5,000 meters, then cruised to a decisive title in the event in the outdoor championships. Mead earned an automatic NCAA berth with a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships. He enters his first NCAA track meet ranked ninth overall and as the top freshman in the 26-man field in the 5,000 meters.

Rombough Joins Mead in NCAA 5,000m Field
Sophomore Chris Rombough is a veteran of three cross country national meets where he has twice earned All-America honors, but he will make his NCAA debut on the track this week in the 5,000-meter run. Rombough has two Big Ten titles on his resumes, the cross country crown in 2006 and the 10,000-meter run in 2008.

McGinnis Makes Transition to Division I
A year ago, R.J. McGinnis earned All-America honors with a second-place finish in the decathlon at the NCAA Division II Championships as a member of the St. Cloud State (MN) squad. McGinnis took the 75-minute trip southeast on Interstate 94 from St. Cloud to the Twin Cities transferring to Minnesota and making a go of it competing at the Division I level. Coaches saw immediate potential in McGinnis as he jumped on to the Gophers’ career top-10 list in his very first decathlon wearing Maroon and Gold. He continued to improve as the season went on. McGinnis placed third at the Big Ten Championships scoring a career-best point total of 7,290, the fifth-highest score in Minnesota history.

Studt Looks to Shake Slump in Season Finale
Sophomore Aaron Studt would be the first to tell you how unhappy he was with his performance at the recent Big Ten Championships. Studt was the top seed in the shot put heading into the meet but struggled to a disappointing eighth-place finish. Then, he ran into some bad luck suffering a muscle strain to his elbow in his throwing arm during the shot put trials at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships. Studt was unable to compete in the finals yet ended up in sixth place at the regional meet. Studt’s throw of 62-7 1/2 from the Tommie Twilight Meet (4/18) earned him an at-large berth into the NCAA field. Studt makes his NCAA debut seeded eighth in the event.

Peterson Just Keeps Raising the Bar
Pole vaulter Ben Peterson has raised the bar to the tune of an 11-inch improvement over his sophomore season with the Golden Gophers. Peterson grabbed an automatic berth for his NCAA Championships debut by clearing a career-best 17-5 in the jump-off at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships. The Cody, Wyo., native won the Big Ten title during the indoor season and posted a runner-up finish at the outdoor meet.

Hassan Mead Clocks Olympic Trials “B” Standard
Freshman Hassan Mead edged teammate Chris Rombough to win section 2 of the 5,000-meter run at Stanford’s Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational (May 4) and in the process clocked an Olympic “B” Standard time. Hassan finished with a time of 13 minutes, 49.35 seconds, the third-fastest mark in Golden Gopher history. Rombough finished in a time of 13:51.71, the fourth-best time in school history.running in section 1 of the 5,000 meters,

Gopher Tracksters Collect Their Diploma This Spring
In addition to preparing for the championship portion of their season, several Golden Gophers received their undergraduate degrees: Jason Erickson, Justin Grunewald, Eddie Kibira, Peter Miller, David Van Orsdel , Hans Storvick and Seijen Takamura.

Phil Lundin Leaving Minnesota Post at Conclusion of 2008 Season
Phil Lundin, the Golden Gopher head men’s track & field coach for the past 13 seasons, will leave his post at Minnesota to assume a head coaching position at St. Olaf College. Lundin will coach the Minnesota squad through the conclusion of the 2008 track season.

“I am grateful for the support and opportunities the University of Minnesota has provided to me as a student and coach,” said Lundin. “It is tough leaving my colleagues and athletes, but this it a good move for me at his point in my life.”

Lundin has led his Gopher squads to numerous accomplishments, including winning four Big Ten Championship titlesoutdoor titles in 1998, 1999, and 2003, plus an indoor title in 1998. Additionally, the team has either placed first or second at the outdoor championships in eight of the last ten seasons.

Perhaps the shining moments of Lundin’s head coaching tenure came in the 2003 season. He guided the Gophers to a pair of top-10 NCAA finishes and was honored as the U.S. Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches National Coach of the Year. The national award capped off a triumvirate of accolades for the head coach. Lundin was also named the Midwest Region Coach of the Year as well as Big Ten Coach of the Year for a third time in his career.

The remarkable progress of Gopher athletes and the Minnesota program as a whole was clearly on display throughout the 2003 campaign, which marked finest season for the Golden Gopher men’s track & field program. Minnesota captured the 2003 Big Ten outdoor title while posting the highest team score in conference history in the process, 168.5 points. The Gophers finished in the top 10 at both 2003 NCAA Championships; seventh at the national indoor meet and ninth at the outdoor. Minnesota also won the Midwest Regional outdoor team crown for the first time in school history in 2003.

Under Lundin’s tutelage, Adam Steele became Minnesota’s first sprinter to win an NCAA individual title, capturing the 400-meter national crown. Steele also became the Gophers’ first individual NCAA champion since 1971. Additionally, eight of Lundin’s student-athletes earned All-America honors in 2003, and three relaysthe distance medley and both the indoor and outdoor 4x400-meter relaysran to All-America distinction. Nine Gophers were crowned as Big Ten champions, and over the course of the 2003 season, nine school records fell a total of 11 times. Sprinter Mitch Potter was named the Big Ten Men’s Athlete of the Championships and also honored as the NCAA Midwest Region Indoor and Outdoor Athlete of the Year. The 2003 squad had 10 student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Men’s Outdoor Championships, and six earned All-America honors. Eight Golden Gophers qualified for the Indoor Championships, and all eight left with All-America accolades.

Lundin has established Minnesota as a perennial conference title contender while also maintaining the high standards that are now expected of the program by recruiting exceptional student-athletes and having the assistance of top-notch coaches. All told, student athletes have earned 84 All-America certificates, 98 Big Ten Conference gold medals, eight Academic All-America selections and 81 Academic All-Big Ten awards while Lundin has been a coach at the University of Minnesota.

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