University of Minnesota Athletics
NCAA Track Championships Updates - Day Two
6/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Welcome to day two of the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at John McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas. Check back often for the latest from the meet and then later in the day video highlights from your Gophers in action.
I should introduce myself since I once in a while refer to a personal reference during these blogs. I’m Becky Bohm from Athletic Communications and if you’d like to fire a comment or question to me today at the NCAA Championships, my email is bohmx002@umn.edu. I hope you are enjoying the updates and video on gophersports.com. I appreciate the opportunity to bring the news of these incredible Minnesota student-athletes to you.
After a day of dicey weather to start the meet yesterday, today’s action gets underway under partly cloudy skies, a temperature of 75 degrees and a sticky 67 percent humidity. The forecast once again threatens to bring some strong thunderstorms into the area again today.
I sure hope the weather holds since a 3 hour, 15 minutes delay last night meant that some of us were away from the track for a short night last evening. I spoke with an Arkansas athletic department staffer who reported the last people left the track last night about 4 a.m. The men’s 5,000 meters, where Hassan Mead won the last race of the night, was completed well after 1 a.m. We are back at the track and ready to go as Liz Roehrig is the first Gopher to compete today in the first day of the heptathlon. The 100-meter hurdles is the first heptathlon event with the first gun going off at 11:15 a.m.
2 p.m.
The first two events of the heptathlon are in the books and Liz Roehrig is currently in fourth place with 1,951 points. The Gopher fifth-year senior opened the competition with her second-best career time in the 100-meter hurdles in a heptathlon with a time of 14.13 seconds. In the field of 27 heptathletes, Roehrig’s score of 960 points was 16th.
Roehrig jumped up to fourth by clearing 5-11 1/4 in the high jump to score 991 points. She was one of only two athletes to clear the height, the other being Jasmine Cotton from Cincinnati (currently in fifth with 1,950 points).
USC junior Nia Ali leads after two events with 1,978 points. Gopher fans may remember the names of Bettie Wade (Michigan) and Gayle Hunter (Penn State) who have battled Roehrig in the Big Ten heptathlon battles for years. Wade is in third (1,954), while Hunter is 11th (1,829).
In the world of useless trivia...they announced that a heptathlon high jump attempt was made every 19 seconds.
The heptathlon heads to the shot put next.
The decathlon is also about to start its second day of competition with the 110-meter high hurdles at 2:30 p.m. R.J. McGinnis starts the second half of the dec in 11th place.
3:00 p.m.
R.J. McGinnis made a move from 11th to eighth place (the top eight earn All-America honors) by running a time of 14.77 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles to add 878 points to his total. McGinnis heads to event number-seven, the discus, with 4,850 points.
Liz Roehrig climbed a few spots up the heptathlon leaderboard as well in the shot put. Roehrig landed a throw of 43-7 1/4 to move into second place with 2,698 points. Bettie Wade has taken over first place after landing a throw of 44-6 1/4 in the shot with 2,719 points, 21 points ahead of Roehrig.
4:25 p.m.
Roehrig remained in second place but first place changed hands after the 200 meters, the final heptathlon event of the day. Liz clocked a time of 24.29 seconds to score 953 points. She finishes the first day with 3,651 points, her best first-day heptathlon score of her career. Roehrig trails USC’s Nia Ali (3,663) by just 12 points. Wade is in third with 3,601.
7:30 p.m.
Things are moving fast and furious at the NCAAs. I’ll quickly catch you up and then write in further detail after the 1,500-meter races.
Aaron Studt captured his first outdoor All-America honor by placing fifth in the shot put with a career-high effort of 63-2 3/4. The throw improves his No. 3 standing on the Gophers’ all-time top-10 list in the event.
Heather Dorniden advanced to the final in the 800 meters after placing fourth in a very tough semifinal heat. She posted her top time of the season 2:03.77.
R.J. McGinnis is in seventh place in the decathlon with three events to go. He has 5,537 points after adding 687 points with a throw of 134-9 in the discus. The decathlon is finishing up at the pole vault. R.J. cleared 14-1 1/4.
Next up on the track are two Golden Gopher 1,500-meter runners making their NCAA debut Elizabeth Yetzer and Ben Blankenship.
8:55 p.m.
It’s too bad the NCAA won’t allow a baker’s dozen in the final of the 1,500 meters because Elizabeth Yetzer ran the race of her life, cutting over six seconds off her career fastest time, only to be the first one on the out list of the final. Yetzer, who entered the meet seeded 25th of 26 runners, clocked a time of 4:18.11, good for third on the Gophers’ all-time top-10 list.
A very excited Coach Sarah Hesser was ecstatic with Yetzer’s efforts as was teammate Heather Dorniden, who hugged her teammate telling her, “See, you proved you belonged here.”
Yetzer ran in the first heat and finished seventh. The top three finishers from each of the three heats earned automatic qualifiers to the final. The field is then completed by adding in the athletes with the next three fastest times. Those three athletes were the runners to finish fourth, fifth and sixth ahead of Yetzer. Still, it’s easy to see that Elizabeth is thrilled with her very first NCAA track championships race.
Ben Blankenship also ran in his first NCAA Track Championships and clocked a career-best 1,500-meter run time of 3:42.47, the fifth-best time in school history. Blankenship tried to push the pace in his heat, the third of three, taking the lead early and holding it until 200 meters to go. He went on to finish fifth in the heat and 14th in the qualifying round overall.
10 p.m.
Amy Laskowske ran to a 10th-place finish in the 10,000-meter run to complete the day’s competition for the Gopher women. Laskowske clocked a time of 34:24.11 in her first NCAA race.
11 p.m.
R. J. McGinnis was hoping an elbow injury from the Big Ten Championships wouldn’t flare up. He didn’t warm up by throwing the javelin but by stretching. He took one attempt, a painful one, and that was all the elbow would take. The throw sailed just 133-7, a far cry from his career-best throw of 195-0 from last year’s NCAA Championships in the event. The throw scored just 453 points and dropped the Gopher junior out of All-America contention.
After over nine hours of competition, McGinnis courageously decided to finish the decathlon and compete in the grueling 10th and final event, the 1,500 meters. McGinnis ran a time of 4:52.84 to finish the decathlon in 17th place with a score of 7,294 points.
I should introduce myself since I once in a while refer to a personal reference during these blogs. I’m Becky Bohm from Athletic Communications and if you’d like to fire a comment or question to me today at the NCAA Championships, my email is bohmx002@umn.edu. I hope you are enjoying the updates and video on gophersports.com. I appreciate the opportunity to bring the news of these incredible Minnesota student-athletes to you.
After a day of dicey weather to start the meet yesterday, today’s action gets underway under partly cloudy skies, a temperature of 75 degrees and a sticky 67 percent humidity. The forecast once again threatens to bring some strong thunderstorms into the area again today.
I sure hope the weather holds since a 3 hour, 15 minutes delay last night meant that some of us were away from the track for a short night last evening. I spoke with an Arkansas athletic department staffer who reported the last people left the track last night about 4 a.m. The men’s 5,000 meters, where Hassan Mead won the last race of the night, was completed well after 1 a.m. We are back at the track and ready to go as Liz Roehrig is the first Gopher to compete today in the first day of the heptathlon. The 100-meter hurdles is the first heptathlon event with the first gun going off at 11:15 a.m.
2 p.m.
The first two events of the heptathlon are in the books and Liz Roehrig is currently in fourth place with 1,951 points. The Gopher fifth-year senior opened the competition with her second-best career time in the 100-meter hurdles in a heptathlon with a time of 14.13 seconds. In the field of 27 heptathletes, Roehrig’s score of 960 points was 16th.
Roehrig jumped up to fourth by clearing 5-11 1/4 in the high jump to score 991 points. She was one of only two athletes to clear the height, the other being Jasmine Cotton from Cincinnati (currently in fifth with 1,950 points).
USC junior Nia Ali leads after two events with 1,978 points. Gopher fans may remember the names of Bettie Wade (Michigan) and Gayle Hunter (Penn State) who have battled Roehrig in the Big Ten heptathlon battles for years. Wade is in third (1,954), while Hunter is 11th (1,829).
In the world of useless trivia...they announced that a heptathlon high jump attempt was made every 19 seconds.
The heptathlon heads to the shot put next.
The decathlon is also about to start its second day of competition with the 110-meter high hurdles at 2:30 p.m. R.J. McGinnis starts the second half of the dec in 11th place.
3:00 p.m.
R.J. McGinnis made a move from 11th to eighth place (the top eight earn All-America honors) by running a time of 14.77 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles to add 878 points to his total. McGinnis heads to event number-seven, the discus, with 4,850 points.
Liz Roehrig climbed a few spots up the heptathlon leaderboard as well in the shot put. Roehrig landed a throw of 43-7 1/4 to move into second place with 2,698 points. Bettie Wade has taken over first place after landing a throw of 44-6 1/4 in the shot with 2,719 points, 21 points ahead of Roehrig.
4:25 p.m.
Roehrig remained in second place but first place changed hands after the 200 meters, the final heptathlon event of the day. Liz clocked a time of 24.29 seconds to score 953 points. She finishes the first day with 3,651 points, her best first-day heptathlon score of her career. Roehrig trails USC’s Nia Ali (3,663) by just 12 points. Wade is in third with 3,601.
7:30 p.m.
Things are moving fast and furious at the NCAAs. I’ll quickly catch you up and then write in further detail after the 1,500-meter races.
Aaron Studt captured his first outdoor All-America honor by placing fifth in the shot put with a career-high effort of 63-2 3/4. The throw improves his No. 3 standing on the Gophers’ all-time top-10 list in the event.
Heather Dorniden advanced to the final in the 800 meters after placing fourth in a very tough semifinal heat. She posted her top time of the season 2:03.77.
R.J. McGinnis is in seventh place in the decathlon with three events to go. He has 5,537 points after adding 687 points with a throw of 134-9 in the discus. The decathlon is finishing up at the pole vault. R.J. cleared 14-1 1/4.
Next up on the track are two Golden Gopher 1,500-meter runners making their NCAA debut Elizabeth Yetzer and Ben Blankenship.
8:55 p.m.
It’s too bad the NCAA won’t allow a baker’s dozen in the final of the 1,500 meters because Elizabeth Yetzer ran the race of her life, cutting over six seconds off her career fastest time, only to be the first one on the out list of the final. Yetzer, who entered the meet seeded 25th of 26 runners, clocked a time of 4:18.11, good for third on the Gophers’ all-time top-10 list.
A very excited Coach Sarah Hesser was ecstatic with Yetzer’s efforts as was teammate Heather Dorniden, who hugged her teammate telling her, “See, you proved you belonged here.”
Yetzer ran in the first heat and finished seventh. The top three finishers from each of the three heats earned automatic qualifiers to the final. The field is then completed by adding in the athletes with the next three fastest times. Those three athletes were the runners to finish fourth, fifth and sixth ahead of Yetzer. Still, it’s easy to see that Elizabeth is thrilled with her very first NCAA track championships race.
Ben Blankenship also ran in his first NCAA Track Championships and clocked a career-best 1,500-meter run time of 3:42.47, the fifth-best time in school history. Blankenship tried to push the pace in his heat, the third of three, taking the lead early and holding it until 200 meters to go. He went on to finish fifth in the heat and 14th in the qualifying round overall.
10 p.m.
Amy Laskowske ran to a 10th-place finish in the 10,000-meter run to complete the day’s competition for the Gopher women. Laskowske clocked a time of 34:24.11 in her first NCAA race.
11 p.m.
R. J. McGinnis was hoping an elbow injury from the Big Ten Championships wouldn’t flare up. He didn’t warm up by throwing the javelin but by stretching. He took one attempt, a painful one, and that was all the elbow would take. The throw sailed just 133-7, a far cry from his career-best throw of 195-0 from last year’s NCAA Championships in the event. The throw scored just 453 points and dropped the Gopher junior out of All-America contention.
After over nine hours of competition, McGinnis courageously decided to finish the decathlon and compete in the grueling 10th and final event, the 1,500 meters. McGinnis ran a time of 4:52.84 to finish the decathlon in 17th place with a score of 7,294 points.
Players Mentioned
MD
/ Women's Track & Field
DIST
/ Women's Track & FieldME
/ Women's Track & Field
DIST
/ Women's Track & FieldDyandra Gray | 2025 All-American
Sunday, June 15
Ali Weimer Breaks School Record at NCAAs
Sunday, June 15
Ali Weimer Qualifies for NCAAs
Thursday, June 05
Dyandra Gray Qualifies for NCAAs
Thursday, June 05