University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Take Third at 2011 Roy Griak Invitational
9/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Sept. 24, 2011
Complete Men's Gold Division I Results
The Minnesota men's cross country team placed third (153 points) in the Griak Merrill Fischbein Men's Gold Race on Saturday in Falcon Heights, Minn. North Carolina State won the overall team title with a score of 96 points. Portland took second (114), Arizona State finished fourth (178) and Penn State rounded out the top five with 195 points.
Arizona freshman Lawi Lalang, won the individual title and set a new Griak record after finishing with a time of 23:15.5.
Senior All-American Hassan Mead set a personal-best time on his home 8-kilometer course with a time of 23:49, which was good for a fifth place finish. Mead's performance is a great start to the 2011 season along with his Gopher teammates. Junior Pieter Gagnon finished in 19th (24:35), Andrew Larsen crossed in 27th (24:46) and Bobby Nicolls rounded out the top 50 finishing in 49th (25:03) for the afternoon.
Head Coach Steve Plasencia was very pleased with his squad and their performance for the day,
"It was a good day," Plasencia said. "We came in as the third highest ranked team today and got beat by the two teams ahead of us. Overall, this team really has some good depth and that showed today."
Rounding out the Gopher lineup Sophomore Erik Truedson finished in 55th place overall (25:06), freshman Marcus Paulson took 70th (25:20) and Travis Burkstrand finished with a time of 25:22 for a 71st place finish.
Minnesota will have some time off before its next competition as the Maroon and Gold won't run again until October 14 at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational.
2011 Griak Merrill Fischbein Men's Gold Race
Saturday, Sept. 45, 2011
Les Bolstad Golf Course - Falcon Heights, Minn. - 8K
Top 10 Teams
1 North Carolina State 2-12-22-25-35-(37)-(58) 96
2 Portland 6-10-14-41-43-(54)-(96) 114
3 Minnesota 3-19-27-49-55-(70)-(71) 153
4 Arizona State 5-28-33-39-73-(100)-(135) 178
5 Penn State 8-30-36-53-68-(69)-(85) 195
6 Iowa State 13-17-50-51-81-(87)-(106) 212
7 Cal Poly 9-21-56-64-83-(89)-(92) 233
8 Michigan State 26-31-40-74-75-(97)-(104) 246
9 California 15-18-60-80-82-(129) 255
10 Duke 32-44-48-66-76-(108)-(111) 266
Top 10 Individuals
1 Lawi Lalang (Arizona) 23:15.5
2 Ryan Hill (North Carolina State) 23:44.1
3 Hassan Mead (Minnesota) 23:48.7
4 Kelly Wiebe (Regina) 23:49.8
5 Darius Terry (Arizona State) 23:45.1
6 Trevor Dunbar (Portland) 23:57.3
7 Callum Hawkins (Butler) 24:07.3
8 Kyle Dawson (Penn State) 24:12.4
9 David Cardona (Cal Poly) 24:18.3
10 Alfred Kipchuma (Portland) 24:21.9
Players Mentioned
