University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Name Six Captains for 2016
12/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Dec. 29, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS - The Minnesota women's track & field team has named six captains for the 2015-16 season. This year's captains are Alex Beckman, Jess Lehman, Titania Markland, Nicolle Murphy, Lyndsey Thorpe and Kaila Urick.
Beckman and Lehman are in their second seasons as track & field captains, while Urick served as a captain during the 2015 cross country season. Markland, Murphy, and Thorpe are first-year captains for the Gophers this year.
Last season, redshirt senior Alex Beckman set career-best marks indoor in the 800m and shot put and outdoor in the 200m, 800m, high jump, and shot put along with scoring a career-best 5,088 points in the heptathlon to move into fifth in Minnesota history. Beckman finished fourth in the heptathlon at the 2015 Big Ten Championships with a career-best 5,088 points after placing sixth in the B1G indoors in the pentathlon. A nursing major from Apple Valley, Minn., Beckman was named a USTFCCCA All-Academic team honoree, Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, and Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
First Team All-American and All-Big Ten First Team honoree Jess Lehman placed fifth in both the pentathlon and heptathlon at the 2015 NCAA Championships after winning Big Ten titles in both events as well. She became Minnesota's first Big Ten pentathlon champion since 2008 with 4,361 points and went on to win the B1G heptathlon title with a Minnesota school record and Big Ten Championship record 6,014 points. She set career-best marks in all five pentathlon events and six of seven heptathlon events in 2014. The fifth-year senior from Dickinson, N.D., is also a USTFCCCA All-Academic honoree, Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, and an Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Titania Markland was a Second Team All-Big Ten and Second Team All-American honoree as a sophomore in 2014. The sprinter from Annotto Bay, Jamaica, Markland was the B1G runner-up indoors in the 600m with a time of 1:29.91. During the outdoor season, Markland broke the Minnesota program record in the 400m dash twice, including clocking a career-best 52.86 in the NCAA West Prelim quarterfinal to place 13th, and anchored the Gophers' program-record 4x400m relay team (3:32.68). She anchored the Gophers' second-place B1G 4x400m relay team and earned All-American honors on Minnesota's 13th-place 4x400m relay at the NCAA Championship as well.
Junior Nicolle Murphy became Minnesota's first All-American in the javelin since 2008 by earning a sixth-place finish with a season-best throw of 53.56m (175-09) at the 2015 NCAA Championship. She was also the Big Ten runner-up in the javelin for the second-straight season. Murphy competed in the javelin at eight meets and the hammer throw at three meets as a sophomore, securing a career-best hammer throw of 47.57m (156-01). She was honored as an Academic All-Big Ten honoree in 2015. The Arkansas City, Kan., native took 17th in the javelin with a throw of 45.70m (149-11) at the 2015 USATF Senior Outdoor Championships as well.
Fifth-year senior Lyndsey Thorpe ended her redshirt junior season ranked fourth among all-time Gopher throwers in both the weight throw (19.41m, 63-08.25) and the hammer throw (59.78m, 196-1.75). During the indoor season, she competed in both the shot put and the weight throw at six meets, earning career-best marks in both events. Outdoor season saw Thorpe set career-best marks in both the shot put and the hammer throw at the Big Ten Championship. She placed fifth in the hammer (59.78m, 196-1.75) and took 17th in the shot (14.01m, 45-11.75), improving on her indoor B1G performance where she took seventh in the weight and 18th in the shot. Thorpe qualified for the NCAA West Prelim in the hammer throw and finished 27th with a throw of 57.63m (189-01). The Stanley, Wis., native is a USTFCCCA All-Academic team honoree, Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, and Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Kaila Urick ended the 2015 season ranked fifth in program history in the 3,000m steeplechase (10:18.45) and ranked 10th among all-time Gopher milers with a 4:45.28 in prelims at the 2015 Big Ten Indoor Championship. As a redshirt junior, the Chaska, Minn., native ran career-best times in the mile (4:45.28) and the 3,000m (9:39.10) indoor and the 800m (2:12.28), 1,500m (4:25.03), 5,000m (17:07.02), and 3,000m steeplechase (10:18.45) outdoor. Urick placed fourth in the 3,000m steeplechase at the B1G Championship and qualified for the NCAA West Prelim in the 3,000m steeplechase. She is a USTFCCCA All-Academic team and Academic All-Big Ten honoree. Most recently, Urick earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors during the 2015 cross country season, placing 14th at the B1G Championship. She helped Minnesota to an 18th-place team finish as the Gophers' fourth runner at the NCAA Championship as well.
The Gopher pentathletes kicked off the 2015-16 season at the St. Scholastica Opener earlier this month, and the entire team opens this year's campaign by hosting the Minnesota Open at the University of Minnesota Fieldhouse on Saturday, Jan. 16. Field events are scheduled to begin at 12 p.m., followed by running events at 1 p.m.
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Players Mentioned
