University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Close Regular Season at Minnesota Open
5/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Gopher Track This Week:
Minnesota Open
Friday
May 8, 2009
Hosted by Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minn.
Gophers Close Regular Season at Home
The Minnesota men’s track & field team will host the Minnesota Open on Friday, May 8, in the Golden Gophers’ final meet of the regular season. Field events get underway at 2 p.m. with events on the track beginning at 4 p.m.
Gophers’ List of NCAA Qualifiers Stands at 16
Minnesota has 16 athletes who have bettered qualifying standards to compete in the NCAA Midwest Region Championships or NCAA Championships. Adding their names to the list last weekend were Hassan Mead and Chris Rombough in the 5,000-meter run and Jerry Netland in the discus.
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.
Golden Gopher Seniors
Minnesota celebrated its senior recognition at the Snowshoe Open during the indoor season, but Friday’s Minnesota Open will be the last home competition for 12 Golden Gopher seniors: Andy Bastian, Raymond Blackledge, Rick Furseth, Justin Grunewald, Sayfe Jassim, Ibrahim Kabia, Walter Langkau, Mike Linnemann, Jerry Netland, Ben Puhl, Luke Silovich and Hans Storvick.
Hassan Mead Smashes Record, Earns Big Ten Honor
Golden Gopher sensation Hassan Mead was named the Big Ten Conference Track Athlete of the Week after smashing his own Minnesota record in the 5,000-meter run last weekend. Mead, a sophomore from Minneapolis, clocked a time of 13 minutes, 28.45 seconds to better his own Gopher record by over 15 seconds and post the third-fastest time in the collegiate ranks this season. Mead won his section of the event at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford last Saturday night. The weekly award is Mead’s first of his track career.
Amazingly, Mead is the first Golden Gopher to capture a Track Athlete of the Week Award in eight years. The last Gopher runner to earn the honor was Tom Gerding in the 2001 season. During that span, however, Minnesota athletes had countless Big Ten Field Event Athlete of the Week accolades. It should be noted that decathletes are counted as field event athletes for the Big Ten weekly nomination.
Overall in the 2009 campaign, including the indoor season, Minnesota has celebrated Athlete of the Week award winners 10 times.
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.
Kabia Leads Gophers at Hamline’s Meet of the Unsaintly
Ibrahim Kabia won the 100-meter dash and helped the 4x100-meter relay to a first-place finish as Minnesota collected nine titles at the Hamline Meet of the Unsaintly in St. Paul. Kabia won the 100 meters with a season-best time of 10.48 seconds. The relay of Joey Schwecke, Kabia, Sean King and Blake Bowers clocked a time of 41.44 seconds.
Five of Minnesota’s titles came on the track. Mike Linnemann won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.55 seconds, battling a tough wind along the backstretch. Logan Stroman captured his victory in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:52.32. Matt Barrett added the fifth title on the track wining the 5,000-meter run in a time of 14:48.17.
Two Gophers notched season bests in winning field events. Matt Clauer cleared 6-8 to capture the crown in the high jump. Raymond Blackledge landed an effort of 47-6 in the triple jump.
Other Gophers winning titles were Andy Bastian in the hammer with a throw of 184-11 and Addison Demer who won the long jump with a leap of 21-11 3/4.
Jerry Netland placed second in the discus with a throw of 169-11, adding his name to the Gophers’ list of NCAA Midwest Region Championships qualifiers.
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.
