University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Tally Several Career Bests at Saturday Meets
5/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Minnesota senior Chris Rombough was one of several Golden Gophers to clock career-best times at Stanford’s Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in Stanford, Calif., on Saturday evening. Rombough placed third in a stacked Section 2 of the 5,000-meter run in a time of 13 minutes, 48.80 seconds.
Rombough’s time ranks third in school history moving past his coach, Steve Plasencia, who ran what was a school-record time of 13:49.15 in 1977.
Mike Torchia added a top-10 time of his own placing fourth in Section 3 of the 5,000 meters clocking a time of 14:02.00. Matt Barrett was 14th in the race in 14:17.73.
Ben Blankenship placed fourth in Section 1, the fastest heat, of the 1,500-meter run. Blankenship ran to his career-best time and the fourth-fastest clocking in school history of 3:41.96. Stanford’s Dylan Ferris broke away from the pack with 200 meters to go and captured the win in 3:40.07. Blankenship used a nice kick to move from sixth to fourth in the last 100 meters.
Two other Gophers recorded personal-best times in the 800 meters. Both Travis Burkstrand and Joe McFarland competed in Section 1 with Burkstrand finishing third in 1:50.17 and McFarland fourth in 1:50.42.
True freshman Harun Abda placed third in Section 3 of the 800-meter run with a Minnesota freshman record time of 1:48.62 seconds. Overall Abda’s third rookie record-breaking performance ranks fifth overall in Minnesota history. Starting in an outside lane, Abda sprinted to the head of the pack and held the lead throughout the first lap. BYU’s Ryan Waite passed Abda on the backstretch and went on to win in 1:47.54.
Rombough’s time ranks third in school history moving past his coach, Steve Plasencia, who ran what was a school-record time of 13:49.15 in 1977.
Mike Torchia added a top-10 time of his own placing fourth in Section 3 of the 5,000 meters clocking a time of 14:02.00. Matt Barrett was 14th in the race in 14:17.73.
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Ben Blankenship placed fourth in Section 1, the fastest heat, of the 1,500-meter run. Blankenship ran to his career-best time and the fourth-fastest clocking in school history of 3:41.96. Stanford’s Dylan Ferris broke away from the pack with 200 meters to go and captured the win in 3:40.07. Blankenship used a nice kick to move from sixth to fourth in the last 100 meters.
Two other Gophers recorded personal-best times in the 800 meters. Both Travis Burkstrand and Joe McFarland competed in Section 1 with Burkstrand finishing third in 1:50.17 and McFarland fourth in 1:50.42.
True freshman Harun Abda placed third in Section 3 of the 800-meter run with a Minnesota freshman record time of 1:48.62 seconds. Overall Abda’s third rookie record-breaking performance ranks fifth overall in Minnesota history. Starting in an outside lane, Abda sprinted to the head of the pack and held the lead throughout the first lap. BYU’s Ryan Waite passed Abda on the backstretch and went on to win in 1:47.54.
Players Mentioned
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