University of Minnesota Athletics
Studt, Peterson lead the Gophers on Day One
2/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
The Gophers' Aaron Studt repeated as shot put champion in dramatic fashion capturing the title with his final throw of the day. In prelims, the senior had faulted twice and moved to the finals trailing Joe Kovacs of Penn State. Studt's first two throws of finals left him at the second spot, and it wasn't until the pressure was on that he heaved the best toss of his career to be crowned Big Ten Champ. Just missing the podium but grabbing points in the shot put was Gophers Trey Davis who took fourth with a personal best toss of 57-5.50.
Junior Ben Peterson captured his first Big Ten title in the pole vault on his very last attempt at the winning height of 17-6.50. Peterson was trailing Purdue's Eric Sparks in misses as he lined up his third and final attempt, but had the crowd behind him as he cleared the bar. The mark was a personal best for his career. He was joined on the podium with teammate Brock Spandl who placed third.
Defending champion in the Heptathlon, senior R.J. McGinnis, had a strong showing through four events topping all others in the field. He is followed by the Gophers freshman Jack Szmanda at the number two spot. McGinnis won both the shot put and 60-meter dash today.
Minnesota's Chris Rombough finished in third in the 3,000 meter run. After making a push to pull into the lead Rombough lost a shoe and continued to run the final seven laps with only one shoe.
Minnesota had a strong first day of competition as they attempt to repeat as Big Ten Champs. They ended the day with 49.50 points with Ohio State trailing the Gophers with a score of 40.50
"I thought the team performed well overall," Head Coach Steve Plasencia said. "The wins in the shot, and pole vault were big and our heptathlon is in good position. We had a lot of guys qualified through to the finals. As far as moving on to tomorrow we put ourselves in really good position, but we opened the door in the last few events. Ohio State scored 18 to close the gap, and Wisconsin scored a win and have some good things coming. We will put the pencil to the paper tonight and see exactly what it does mean. We have some guys coming back tomorrow and it's just a matter of whether we have enough."
The day also saw two University Fieldhouse records fall, in the 400 and 800-meter runs. Thomas Murdaugh of Ohio State set the record in the 400-meter run with a time 47.72. The previous record was set in 1984 by Jeff Goss of Augustana. Zach Mellon of Wisconsin ran a 1:50.18 in the 800-meter to break a record held by Byron Goodwin of Manitoba set back in 1997.
Tomorrow's competition will begin with the Heptathlon at 10:20 a.m. at the University Fieldhouse. The remaining Heptathlon events include the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1000-meter run. Individual events will begin at 12:00 noon with the triple jump. The day will close with the awards ceremony, scheduled for 3:45 p.m.
Big Ten Network will air the entire 2010 Men's Indoor Track Championships on March 9th at 9:00pm.
Players Mentioned
