University of Minnesota Athletics
Brock Spandl Headed to the NCAA Championships
5/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Once the top 12 finalists in the preliminary meet are determined, the competition ends, thus there is no actual winner in the event. Spandl making the NCAA field in the pole vault helps ease the pain of missing the cut in the decathlon by just five points.
Another top event for the Gophers on Thursday was the 800-meter run where five Minnesota runners competed with three advancing to Friday’s quarterfinal round. Harun Abda, who didn’t run this distance at the Big Ten Championships, won his heat with a time of 1 minute, 48.94 seconds. Nick Hutton captured an automatic qualifying spot as well with his third-place showing in his heat clocking a time of 1:50.74. David Pachuta garnered one of the at-large qualifiers to the next round by his time of 1:50.25. He placed fourth in his heat.
The other Gophers competing in the 800 meters were Travis Burkstrand and Max Hanson. Burkstrand’s time of 1:50.74 matched Hutton’s but Burkstrand placed fifth in his heat. The top three places in each heat earned the automatic qualifying spots to the quarterfinal. Hanson was seventh in his heat with a time of 1:52.51.
Trey Davis made the final in the shot put but finished 15th with a top throw of 57-0 3/4. He will compete in the discus on Friday.
The Gophers had two competitors in both the 1,500 and 10,000-meter races. Paul Hilsen placed sixth in his heat running a time of 3:49.17. Andy Richardson was eighth in his heat posting a time of 3:49.72.
Mike Torchia ended his Golden Gopher career with an impressive 16th place finish in the 10,000 meters in a time of 29:30.38. Pieter Gagnon finished 21st in a time of 29:52.26.
Sean King was unable to overcome a slow start out of the blocks and finished sixth in his heat of the 100 meters in a time of 10.68 seconds.
Completing the list of Gophers in action in day one of the NCAA West meet was Addison Demer in the long jump and Ben Peterson in the pole vault. Demer finished 19th with a leap of 23-11 3/4. Peterson, once again attempt to vault on a very tender ankle, did not make a height in the pole vault.
Players Mentioned
