University of Minnesota Athletics
Bartnik Earns Fred O. Watson Award
12/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
MINNEAPOLIS (GopherSports.com) - The University of Minnesota men's cross country program named junior Aaron Bartnik as the Fred O. Watson Award recipient on Wednesday night as the Gophers' MVP for the 2014 campaign.
The Eden Prairie, Minn., native earned First Team All-Big Ten and All-Region honors and represented the Maroon & Gold at the NCAA Championships last month in Indiana after battling through injuries over the last three seasons.
Bartnik led the Gophers in all six of his races this season and posted four top-10 finishes, starting with a runner-up finish at the UC Riverside Invitational as the Gophers picked up their first of three team titles for the season. The junior finished eighth at the 29th annual Roy Griak Invitational and became the first Gopher since 2010 to earn First Team All-Big Ten honors with a seventh-place finish at the Big Ten Cross Country Championship. Bartnik finished fourth overall at the NCAA Midwest Regional to earn All-Region honors and advance to the NCAA Championship, where he closed out the season with a 135th-place showing.
Minnesota's MVP award is named after University of Minnesota alum Fred O. Watson, who won three-straight Big Ten titles from 1913-15 and was the conference's first-ever repeat champion. As a captain in 1914, Watson also helped the Gophers to their second Big Ten team title. Watson, who passed away in 1965, was a founding member of the University of Minnesota's `M' Club and was inducted into the USATF Minnesota Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2002.
Additionally, the Gophers announced Aaron Bartnik, Christian Skaret and Adam Zutz will serve as captains for the 2015 cross country season.
Players Mentioned
