University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Men Set For Big Ten Outdoor Championships
5/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Gopher Track This Week:
Big Ten Conference Championships
Friday-Sunday
May 15-17, 2009
Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium
Hosted by Ohio State
Columbus, Ohio
Gophers Compete in Big Ten Championships
The Minnesota men’s track & field team travels to Columbus, Ohio, this weekend (May 15-17) to compete in the 2009 Big Ten Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The three-day event, hosted by Ohio State at the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, kicks off Friday at 11 a.m. CT with the running of the decathlon 100-meter dash and is concluded on Sunday at 2:45 p.m. CT with the 4x400-meter relay.
Big Ten Network Covers Track Championships
The Big Ten Network will televise the Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships on a tape-delayed basis on May 24 at 3 p.m. (CT). The BTN broadcast team of Brent Stover, Butler By’not’e, Suzy Favor Hamilton and Rebecca Haarlow will call the action.
Gophers Chase Indoor/Outdoor Sweep
Minnesota seeks to capture a sweep of the Big Ten indoor and outdoor track & field titles. The Gophers celebrated their second Big Ten indoor crown in school history earlier this season. Minnesota won its first indoor title in 1998 and then captured the sweep taking the outdoor crown as well.
Gophers’ List of NCAA Qualifiers Stands at 18
Minnesota has 18 athletes who have bettered qualifying standards to compete in the NCAA Midwest Region Championships or NCAA Championships. Seventeen (17) Golden Gophers have notched qualifiers for the NCAA Midwest Region Championships in Norman, Okla., on May 29-30. R.J. McGinnis owns an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships in the decathlon.
Gophers Ranked No. 17
The Golden Gophers were ranked No. 17 in the May 5 USTFCCCA National Poll. Florida holds the number-one ranking followed by Oregon and Texas A&M. Minnesota is the only Big Ten school ranked in the national poll.
Big Ten Championships History
Minnesota has won five men’s outdoor titles in its history (1949, 68, 98, 99, 03) and none in more dominating fashion than in 2003 when the Golden Gophers compiled a score of 168.5 points on their home track.
Michigan won the 2008 title, becoming the first school other than Minnesota or Wisconsin to win the outdoor Big Ten crown since 1994. The Gophers placed fifth in the Conference meet a year ago.
Gophers Return Four Big Ten Outdoor Champs
Minnesota has four athletes - Ibrahim Kabia, Hassan Mead, Chris Rombough, and Hans Storvick - seeking to defend Big Ten individual titles this weekend. The last time a Gopher won back-to-back Big Ten titles was Travis Brandstatter in the decathlon in 2004 and 2005.
Kabia captured the title in the 100-meter dash in a school-record time of 10.29 seconds. Kabia and Fred Rodgers (1998) are the only two Gophers to win the 100-meter dash crown.
Rombough is the defending champion in the 10,000-meter run. Rombough clocked a time of 30:12.12 to win the second 10K title in Minnesota history.
Mead won the Conference title in the 5,000-meter run and went to to earn All-America honors in the event. Mead’s Big Ten-wining time was 14:13.68. He is the only Gopher to win a title in the 5,000 meters. Mead won both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters at this spring’s Big Ten Indoor Championships.
Storvick scored the upset victory in the 800-meter run in 2008, running a time of 1:50.06. He was the third Gopher to win the 800 meters.
Big Ten Indoor Champs Add More Punch to the Gopher Lineup
In addition to the four returning Big Ten outdoor champions from 2008, Minnesota’s depth is improved by three Golden Gophers Big Ten indoor champions in Aaron Studt, Matt Fisher and R.J. McGinnis. Studt won the shot put title (62-11 1/4) and went on to capture NCAA runner-up honors. Studt’s top throw in the outdoor season, 61-11 1/2, is the leading effort in the Big Ten this season and ranks sixth nationally. Studt was named the 2009 Big Ten Field Event Athlete of the Indoor Championships. Fisher cleared 7-3 to win his first Big Ten title and was honored as the 2009 Big Ten Indoor Field Event Athlete of the Year. McGinnis won the pentathlon with 5,431 points.
Youngsters Add Depth, and Hopefully Points, to Gopher Team Effort
Almost a third (11 of 34) of the Golden Gophers entered in the Big Ten Championships are freshmen, either the true or redshirt variety. This talented group is sprinkled throughout the disciplines of the team and will play an important role in Minnesota’s chances to win a team title this weekend. Highlighting the Gopher rookie class are five athletes who have posted NCAA regional qualifying marks: Matt Clauer (high jump), Trey Davis (discus), Tyler Kleinhuizen (shot put), Joe McFarland (800 meters) and Andy Richardson (1,500 meters).
Can the Multi-Event Guys Jump-Start the Gophers Again?
Big Ten heptathlon champion R.J. McGinnis and his heptathlon teammates Joey Schwecke (second place) and Brock Spandl (third place) combined for 24 points to give the Gophers quite a push out of the blocks to start the indoor championships. Can one of the Gophers’ deepest events - the decathlon - repeat that kind of performance? McGinnis has proven to be the favorite in the event with his score of 7,626 points over 700 better than his nearest competitor. Schwecke has displayed vast improvement throughout the season and seems poised for a break-through outing at Big Tens. Spandl specializes in the pole vault instead of competing in the decathlon so the very important third decathlon entrant for the Gophers is sophomore Garrett Wankel. Schwecke and Wankel enter the Big Ten Championships seeded fifth and sixth.
Fisher Remains No. 1 Among NCAA High Jumpers
Junior Matt Fisher’s leap of 7-4 1/2, cleared at the Tiger Classic on April 4, remains the top height cleared in the nation this season. Washington State junior Trent Arrivey has matched the height to share the nation’s top spot with Fisher.
Nine Gophers Earn Diploma This Spring
Nine Golden Gophers will earn their degrees this spring: Andy Bastian (kinesology), Raymond Blackledge (architecture), Rick Furseth (finance), Justin Grunewald (biochemistry), Sayfe Jassim (microbiology), Ibrahim Kabia (psychology), and Walter Langkau (biology), Jerry Netland (communication studies) and Luke Silovich (kinesology).
Men’s Track Honored at Golden Goldies
The men’s track team was honored as Minnesota’s Male Team of the Year at the Golden Goldies Awards Banquet. During the indoor season, the Gophers won their first Big Ten indoor title since 1998 and the second in school history. Under the guidance of head coach Steve Plasencia, the Gophers captured individual Big Ten titles in five events and scored points in 16 of the 18 events overall. Minnesota’s 42-point win was the largest margin of victory since 2004 and the fourth largest over the past 20 years. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, Minnesota finished 14th overall at the NCAA Indoor Championships and garnered three All-America honors.
Minnesota Wins Big Ten Indoor Team Title
The Golden Gophers won five individual titles to win the 2009 Big Ten Indoor title and put an end to the eight-year dominance of the Wisconsin Badgers. Minnesota cruised to the title with 135.0 points, 42 ahead of second-place Michigan (93.0). The Gophers’ margin of victory is the largest since 2004 and the fourth largest over the last 20 years. Minnesota received Big Ten champion performances from Hassan Mead (3,000m, 5,000m), Matt Fisher (high jump), Aaron Studt (shot put) and R.J. McGinnis (pentathlon).
Plasencia Leads Charges as Head Coach
Minnesota’s Steve Plasencia is in his first season as the Golden Gopher head coach for track & field, but he is far from being a rookie. Plasencia has served the Gophers’ head men’s cross country coach for 13 season and added the title of head track coach in June of 2008. Plasencia is just the fourth Minnesota head track coach since 1937.
The 2009 Team Captains
The Golden Gopher team captains for the 2009 season are Ibrahim Kabia, Walter Langkau, and Hans Storvick.
Players Mentioned
