University of Minnesota Athletics
Five Gophers Earn Big Ten Awards
5/15/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
May 15, 2012
The Big Ten Conference announced today the end of the year conference award winners. Minnesota finished in seventh place over the weekend at the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Quentin Mege was the lone Gopher selected to the All-Big Ten First Team, while Hassan Mead, David Pachuta and Jack Szmanda were voted to the second team. Sam Kettenhofen was voted as a Sportsmanship Award winner.
Mege earned his second straight Big Ten hammer title with a winning and school record toss of 220-01 (67.08m). He is also the first Gopher to win back-to-back hammer titles at the conference championships.
Mead, Pachuta and Szmanda all finished second overall over the weekend in their respective events. Mead competed in the 5,000-meters with a time of 13:51.02 for the Golden Gophers. Pachuta broke the school record in the 800-meter run after clocking in at 1:46.73 and Szmanda also broke the school record in the decathlon with 7,862 points.
Kettenhofen ran a leg of Minnesota's 4x100-relay which finished fifth overall at 40.73.
Track Athlete of the Year
Andrew Riley, Illinois
Field Athlete of the Year
Joe Kovacs, Penn State
Track Athlete of the Championships
Andrew Riley, Illinois
Field Athlete of the Championships
Derek Drouin, Indiana
Freshman of the Year
Robby Creese, Penn State
Coach of the Year*
Ed Nuttycombe, Wisconsin
*Unanimous Selection
ALL BIG TEN First Team
Jade Ackerman, Illinois
Stanley Azie, Illinois
Andrew Riley, Illinois
Bradon Stryganek, Illinois
Andrew Bayer, Indiana
Kind Butler, Indiana
Derek Drouin, Indiana
Zachary Mayhew, Indiana
Matt Byers, Iowa
Troy Doris, Iowa
Craig Forys, Michigan
Jack Greenlee, Michigan
Quentin Mege, Minnesota
Bjorn Barrefors, Nebraska
Miles Ukaoma, Nebraska
Mike Hartfield, Ohio State
Brandon Bennett-Green, Penn State
Brady Gehret, Penn State
Joe Kovacs, Penn State
Casimir Loxsom, Penn State
Aaron Nadolsky, Penn State
Mohammed Ahmed, Wisconsin
Danny Block, Wisconsin
Second Team
Darius King, IndianaNick Stoner, Indiana
Tyler Sult, Indiana
Chris Vaughn, Indiana
Ethan Holmes, Iowa
Ali Arastu, Michigan
Ethan Dennis, Michigan
Hassan Mead, Minnesota
David Pachuta, Minnesota
Jack Szmanda, Minnesota
Chris Phipps, Nebraska
Luke Pinkelman, Nebraska
Chad Wright, Nebraska
Cory Leslie, Ohio State
Brady Hammon, Wisconsin
Kyle Jefferson, Wisconsin
Japheth Cato, Wisconsin
Elliot Krause, Wisconsin
Garret Payne, Wisconsin
Drew Simmons, Wisconsin
Derek Steinbach, Wisconsin
Sportsmanship Award Honorees
Corey Hammon, Illinois
Tyler Sult, Indiana
Jeff Heron, Iowa
Nick Neuman, Michigan
Jay Gillespie, Michigan State
Sam Kettenhofen, Minnesota
Tim Thompson, Nebraska
Matt DeChant, Ohio State
Logan Caldwell, Penn State
Josh Lee, Purdue
Kyle Jefferson, Wisconsin
Players Mentioned
