University of Minnesota Athletics
Big Ten Champs Set for NCAA Regional Test
5/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
NCAA Midwest Region Championships
Friday-Saturday
May 29-30, 2009
John Jacobs Field
Hosted by Oklahoma
Norman, Okla.
Gophers Head into NCAA Regional Action
The Minnesota men’s track & field team travels to Norman, Okla., on Friday-Saturday, May 29-30. This regional site and three others around the country will determine the field for the NCAA Championships hosted by Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark, on June 10-13.
To Get to the NCAA Championships...
The fop five place winners from the NCAA Regional competitions will advance to the NCAA Championships on June 10-13 in Fayetteville, Ark. The NCAA has built a few loop holes into the system to account for injury, illness or poor performance at the regional meet level. If an athlete owns a performance this season that is among the best in the nation, that athlete will likely receive an at-large berth to the NCAA Championships. The NCAA Championships field will be capped at 544 athletes for both the men and the women.
Feeling More Like the Big 12
The only Big Ten school that joins Minnesota in the NCAA Midwest Regional is Iowa. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin will compete in the NCAA Mideast Regional in Louisville, Ky. Penn State is the lone Big Ten school to compete in the NCAA East Regional in Greensboro, N.C. The fourth regional site is the West Region in Eugene, Ore. The Midwest Region Championships will have the definite feel of a Big 12 Conference meet with every team from that conference but one (Missouri) competing in this region.
Gophers’ List of NCAA Qualifiers Stands at 19
Minnesota has 19 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. R.J. McGinnis owns an automatic qualifier and Joey Schwecke a provisional qualifier for the NCAA Championships in the decathlon.
McGinnis Already Set in NCAA Championships Field
R.J. McGinnis already has his ticket punched for the NCAA Championships by virtue of his automatic qualifying score in the decathlon. Joey Schwecke owns a provisional NCAA mark, but will not make it into the NCAA field due to the NCAA limiting the decathlon field to 16 athletes. The other event that qualifies directly to the NCAA Championships is the 10,000 meters.
Gophers Ranked No. 20
The Golden Gophers were ranked No. 20 in the May 20 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.
Gophers Capture Big Ten Indoor/Outdoor Sweep
Minnesota captured a sweep of the Big Ten indoor and outdoor track & field titles for the first time since 1998. The Golden Gophers won the titles in dominating fashion. The Gophers collected a 42-point margin of victory in the indoor meet and a 27-point victory margin in the outdoor championships. The indoor crown was the second in Minnesota history and first since 1998. The outdoor victory was the Gophers’ sixth overall and first since 2003.
Gophers Win With Talent and Depth
Minnesota crowned two individual Big Ten champions in Hassan Mead (5,000 meters and 10,000 meters) and Aaron Studt in the shot put. To tally their impressive team victory, Minnesota scored points in 17 of 21 events with the big hitters coming in the 5,000 meters (21), 10,000 meters (16) and decathlon (17). A great sign for upcoming years for the Gophers - the Minnesota senior class contributed just 28 of the 130 points scored.
Mead a Double Big Ten Titlist
Sophomore Hassan Mead just keeps piling up the awards and accolades. Mead won the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships to become the first Golden Gophers to win two individual events at the Conference meet since Ron Backes accomplished the feat in the shot put and discus in 1986. Mead also defended his title in the 5,00 meters. The last time a Gopher won back-to-back Big Ten titles was Travis Brandstatter in the decathlon in 2004 and 2005.
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 matched the height to share the nation’s top spot. Fisher placed second in the Big Ten Championships clearing a height of 7-2 1/4.
Gophers Sweep Major Big Ten Awards for Outdoor Season
Minnesota’s Hassan Mead and Aaron Studt swept the Big Ten Conference’s Athlete of the Year awards, while Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia was named the Big Ten Outdoor Track Coach of the Year. Mead and Studt were also named the Track Athlete of the Championships and the Field Event Athlete of the Championships, respectively.
Mead, a sophomore from Minneapolis, earned the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year honor after capturing the double victory in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races at the Big Ten Championships last weekend. Mead heads into NCAA action ranked third in the 5,000 meter (13:28.45) in the nation. He has enjoyed an amazing sophomore season overall, winning the Big Ten individual cross country title and Big Ten Cross Country Runner of the Year accord last fall. Mead also won two events, the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, at the Big Ten Indoor Track Championships. He has already gathered All-America honors in cross country and indoor track this year.
Studt, a junior from Ripon, Wis., was named the Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year as the most dominating thrower in the Big Ten this season. Studt added the outdoor Big Ten shot put title to his win in the indoor season. He owns the eighth-best throw in the nation (61-11 /12) this season as the NCAA postseason rolls around. Studt was the national runner-up in the shot at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this spring.
Plasencia guided his Golden Gopher charges to their first Big Ten outdoor team titles since 2003. He was also honored as the Big Ten Indoor Track Coach of the Year.
The Big Ten officially announced its honor squads for the 2009 outdoor season. As Big Ten champions, Mead and Studt were named to the All-Big Ten First Team. Conference runners-up were accorded All-Second Team honors. Matt Fisher (high jump), Ibrahim Kabia (100 meters) and R.J. McGinnis (decathlon) were honored on the All-Big Ten Second Team.
Golden Gopher senior Ben Puhl was named as Minnesota’s recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. Awardwinners are student-athletes who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. In addition, they must be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting.
Big Ten Outdoor Championships Review
Sunday, May 17 - Minnesota used a 21-point performance, including a title run by Hassan Mead, in the 5,000-meter run to secure the team crown at the 2009 Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Sunday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The Golden Gophers, who also won the Big Ten indoor team title, compiled 130 points, 27 better than runner-up and host Ohio State.
Mead added his fifth Big Ten individual title to his spectacular sophomore season. The Minneapolis native won the individual cross country crown last fall, the 3,000 and 5,000-meter races at the indoor Big Ten track championships and then the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events at the outdoor championships.
Mead was the headliner in the 5,000 meters, crossing the finish line in 14 minutes, 20.75 seconds, but the Gophers once again displayed the team depth that made the difference in so many events. Junior Chris Rombough finished third in a time of 14:25.98, while Ben Blankenship placed fourth in 14:26.15.
“I can’t say enough good things about Hassan,” said Golden Gopher Steve Plasencia. “But he certainly wasn’t the only guy to step it up this weekend. We got points from the people who we expected we would and more from a lot of other events across the board.”
A Gopher who was expected to contribute big points and who delivered was junior Aaron Studt in the shot put. Studt landed the winning throw 61-6 1/4 - on his fifth attempt after firing a long throw just outside the sector on her first throw of finals.
Senior Ibrahim Kabia sprinted to runner-up honors in the 100-meter dash clocking a time of 10.44 seconds. Kabia added a sixth-place showing in the 200 meters in 21.44 seconds.
The Gophers scored two runners in the 1,500-meter run. Blankenship finished fourth in a time of 3:58.48, while Andy Richardson placed seventh in 4:00.68. Joe McFarland chipped in a sixth-place effort in the 800 meters with a time of 1:51.44.
Minnesota scored in both hurdles events. Mike Linnemann finished sixth in the 400-meter hurdles in 53.61 seconds and Sean Duling placed eighth in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.62 seconds.
The Gophers scored in two of the three other field events contested on Sunday. Joe Plencner finished fourth in the pole vault clearing 16-10 3/4, while Raymond Blackledge placed seventh in the triple jump with a leap of 48-9 1/2.
Saturday, May 16 - Minnesota will take a 26-point lead into the third and final day of the 2009 Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The Golden Gophers were paced by runner-up finishes by Matt Fisher in the high jump and R.J. McGinnis in the decathlon, but overall Minnesota’s team depth is making the difference.
The Gophers have 67 team points after seven events scored. Indiana is second with 41 points. In addition to advancing seven runners to finals on the track, Minnesota will rely on its power and depth in the field events, especially the shot put and pole vault.
The decathletes of McGinnis, Joey Schwecke and Garrett Wankel combined for 17 points. McGinnis finished with 7,330 points for second place. McGinnis led for most of the competition but fell out of top spot after struggling in the pole vault clearing just 12-7 1/2 in the eighth event of the decathlon. Ohio State senior Patrick Woods took advantage scoring big points with a 14-7 1/4 vault to take the lead.
McGinnis made up some ground in the javelin with a throw of 146-7 and by running a 1,500-meters time of 4:34.10, 12 seconds faster than Woods, but the deficit was too large to overcome. Woods scored 4,405 to better McGinnis by 75 points.
Schwecke scored an NCAA Championships provisional qualifying tally of 7,014, his career best and the seventh-highest score in Gopher history. The Gopher sophomore handled the challenge of competing in the pole vault for the decathlon and the open long jump competition at the same time. He was successful on both fronts, clearing a best vault of 13-11 1/4 and adding a sixth-place showing in the long jump with a leap of 23-2.
Wankel also accumulated a career-best score of 6,798 points, good for ninth all-time in Gopher history, to add a sixth-place finish. He held his position with solid outings in the pole vault (13-11 1/4) and javelin (154-4).
Fisher finished as the Big Ten runner-up in the high jump, matching the winning height of 7-2 1/4, but losing the tie-breaker on the number of missed attempts. The Gopher junior had two near-misses at 7-3 1/4 but come up empty.
Senior Ben Puhl chipped in a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, running a season-best time of 9:01.70. He improves on his eighth-place showing in the event a year ago.
Closing out the second-day scoring for the Gophers was Matt Clauer, who was sixth in the high jump clearing 6-10 3/4, Addison Demer, who finished seventh in the long jump with a leap of 23-0 1/2, and Jerry Netland, who was eighth in the discus with a throw of 164-7.
Ibrahim Kabia tops the list of Gophers that earned spots in Sunday’s finals. Kabia, the defending 100-meter champion, ran a time of 10.59 seconds to earn a final berth and a chance to repeat in his best event. Kabia also ran a career-best time of 21.33 seconds in the 200 meters to advance to that final.
Sophomore Ben Blankenship, running in his first Big Ten Outdoor Championships after transferring to Minnesota from Mississippi State, ran the top qualifying time in the 1,500 meters of 3:50.66. He will be joined in the final by freshman Andy Richardson to ran a time of 3:52.42 in prelims.
Friday, May 15 - Hassan Mead used a last-lap sprint to capture the Big Ten title in the 10,000 meters at the Big Ten Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Columbus on Friday. Mead’s victory in addition to a third-place finish by Chris Rombough scored 16 points in the event helping the Golden Gophers to a first-day lead with 27 points.
“We were hoping to score big points in the 10,000 meters to help us get a good jump in the meet,” said Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia. “We’re off to a solid start as a team. It should be a exciting meet.”
Mead, Rombough and Michigan’s Lex Williams broke away from the pack at the race’s midway point and hit the bell lap with the race’s outcome up in the air. Mead grabbed the lead at the 200 meter mark with long strides was able to push ahead to take the victory by less than a second. Mead, who won the 3,000 and 5,000 meters at the indoor meet and the cross country individual crown last fall, clocked a time of 30:03.21. Williams finished in 30:03.89, while Rombough crossed the finish line in 30:18.92.
Minnesota is off to a great start in the decathlon as R.J. McGinnis and Joey Schwecke are currently first and third after the first day of competition on Friday.
McGinnis has 3,965 points after five events, edging Ohio State’s Patrick Woods total of 3,960. McGinnis clocked a time of 11.37 seconds in the 100 meters and marked a leap of 23 feet, 5 1/2 inches in the long jump, before taking the lead with a throw of 47-7 3/4 in the shot put. He maintained his advantage by clearing 6-7 in the high jump and finishing the first day with a time of 51.15 in the 400 meters.
Schwecke jumped out to the early lead in the first two events running a time of 11.24 seconds in the 100 meters and landing a career-best leap of 23 feet, 6 1/4 inches in the long jump. He landed a throw of 41-11 1/2 in the shot put and cleared 6-6 in the high jump. Schwecke finished the fifth and final event of the day with a time of 51.94 in the 400 meters.
Garrett Wankel iwas in 10th with a score of 3,504 after day one. Wankel’s best event was the 400 meters where he clocked a time of 50.71 seconds.
The Gophers had two hammer thrower score as Aaron Studt finished third with a throw of 196-11 and Andy Bastian was fourth with an effort of 192-0.
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 (communications studies) and Luke Silovich (kinesiology).
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
