University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers 12th in Pre-NCAA Meet
10/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
No. 16 Oklahoma won the White Race title with 106 points, finishing with three runners in the top 25. No. 19 BYU (138) edged No. 4 Colorado (140) for runner-up honors. Minnesota tallied 391 team points.
Sophomore Pieter Gagnon topped the Gopher finishers, placing 51st and covering the 8-kilometer course in a time of 24 minutes, 35.3 seconds. Ben Blankenship was 60th in 24:40.1.
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Completing the scoring five for the Gophers was Andrew Larsen in 76th (24:49.9), Kevin Lachowitzer in 93rd (24:57.4) and Erik Truedson in 111th (25:09.2). Sean Olson finished 137th in 25:25.0, while Mike Torchia finished 169th in 25:48.2.
Torchia was the leading Gopher six kilometers into the race, but suffered cramping in the last two kilometers to fall back in the finishing order.
“Having Torch (Mike Torchia) struggle late hurt our team score obviously,” said Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia. “I did think our young guys ran pretty well today, especially Andrew Larsen). We just need more from our guys up front.”
Liberty’s Samuel Chelanga won the individual title by over 11 seconds running a time of 23:19.9.
No. 1 Stanford cruised to the title in the Blue Race with 43 points with Chris Derrick (23:16.9) leading a Cardinal sweep of the top three places.
Minnesota also competed a team in the Jim Drews Invitational in West Salem, Wis., on Saturday. Paul Hilsen led a pack of four Gophers to finish in the top 10 places as Minnesota tallied 33 points to grab the team title. Hilsen ran a time of 24:44.4 to finish third. John Simons was fourth in 24:46.9, while Mike McFarland was fifth in 24:52.2. Steve Sulkin added a seventh-place showing in 24:53.5.
Players Mentioned
