University of Minnesota Athletics
McGinnis Tallies NCAA Automatic Qualifier
4/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Minnesota junior R.J. McGinnis posted an automatic NCAA Championships qualifying score of 7,626 points and finished second in the decathlon at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday. McGinnis’ mark is the third best in Golden Gopher history and currently the third highest in the NCAA this season.
While McGinnis battled former Golden Gopher Derek Gearman throughout the competition, Northern Iowa senior Mat Clark hung with the duo, then surged past the Minnesota connection in the final event to capture the title with 7,663 points (second in the NCAA). Clark erased McGinnis’ 120-point lead in the final event, the 1,500 meters, finishing in an impressive time of 4 minutes, 16.89 seconds. McGinnis crossed the finish line in 4:49.13, while Gearman did not finish.
McGinnis secured his second trip to the NCAA Championships with a solid outing at Drake from the first event to the 10th. He picked up career bests in three events (100 meters, long jump and high jump) in the decathlon’s first day then added to his total in the second day.
McGinnis, who was in second place to start the second day, kicked off the second half of the decathlon with a career-best time of 14.91 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles. He took over first place from Gearman with another top performance in the discus landing a career best of 146-1
The eighth event, the pole vault, was where Clark began his move. Clark bettered 15-1, while McGinnis cleared 14-1 1/4. Clark cut further into McGinnis’ lead in the javelin, tossing a throw of 188-11 to 182-8 for McGinnis to set up the final showdown in the 1,500 meters.
“R.J. had a really solid, technically sound performance in every event of the decathlon,” said Golden Gopher assistant coach Paul Thornton. “To get that automatic qualifier is so important and to do it early in the season is so awesome for R.J. Now he can just relax and work on little things to improve on.”
A trio of Gophers competed in the 5,000-meter run on Thursday evening. Justin Grunewald finished fifth in 14:36.53, while Rick Furseth was sixth in 14:39.96. Sean Olson was 17th in 15:03.67.
The rest of the Gopher contingent will begin competing at the Drake Relays on Friday.
Players Mentioned
