University of Minnesota Athletics
Blankenship Joins List of Gophers Headed to NCAAs
5/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Sophomore Ben Blankenship earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships in the 1,500-meter run on Saturday to highlight the Golden Gopher men’s track team’s performance at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships in Norman, Okla.
Blankenship joins teammates Hassan Mead (5,000 meters), Matt Fisher (high jump) and Aaron Studt (shot put) headed to the NCAA meet at the University of Arkansas on June 10-13.
Blankenship finished second in the 1,500 meters with a career-best time of 3 minutes, 45.37 seconds. Going into the bell lap, Blankenship and Oklahoma State freshman German Fernandez broke away from the pack. Blankenship dashed to the lead but couldn’t shake Fernandez, who won the NCAA indoor title in the mile earlier this season. Fernandez passed Blankenship with 200 meters to go and went on to win in a time of 3:43.09. Andy Richardson finished the race in 11th place with a time of 3:54.48.
Neither of the Gopher hammer throwers was able to pop a big enough throw to advance to the final in the event. Studt finished 13th with a throw of 184-0, while Andy Bastian landed a throw of 180-1 for 15th. Bastian completes his Golden Gopher career ranked third all-time in the hammer with a throw of 197-5 from the 2007 season.
Two Gophers among the 26 entrants in the lengthy pole vault competition. Joe Plencner and Brock Spandl both cleared 16-7 1/4. Plencner placed eighth taking missed attempts into account. Spandl finished in a tie for 15th.
The Gophers had two throwers compete in the men’s discus. Jerry Netland finished 15th with a throw of 169-11, while Trey Davis was 18th with a toss of 159-11.
Minnesota’s final competitor of this Midwest Region meet just crossed the finish line. Senior Ben Puhl placed 14th with a time of 9:19.87.
Minnesota finished seventh in the team standings with 33.25 points. Texas A&M won the regional title with 98 points. A total of 33 teams scored.
Players Mentioned
