University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
NCAA Outdoor West Preliminary
Markland, Spagnola Break Program Records
5/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
AUSTIN, Texas -- Titania Markland and Emma Spagnola each broke Minnesota program records as the Golden Gophers competed on day two of the NCAA West Prelim Friday evening.
Markland clocked a career-best 52.86 seconds in the 400-meter dash to improve on her own Minnesota record (53.53). She finished one place shy of advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
"Titania ran a great race," director of women's track & field and cross country Matt Bingle said. "She really had to work the last 200 meters. It was awesome for her. When you run that fast and you still don't make it, it's tough but she's had an unbelievable year."
Twelve runners advance to the NCAA Championship, the top three finishers in each of three 400m quarterfinal heats plus the next three best times. After placing fifth in her heat, Markland ended up with the 12th-best time. However, an automatic qualifier finished behind her, so she ended up as the 13th-ranked runner in the quarterfinal round.
Meanwhile, Spagnola ran 13.58 in the 100-meter hurdles to break the previous program record of 13.62 held by Dawn Solberg since 2008. Spagnola finished 28th in the final race of her rookie season.
"I'm really happy for Emma," Bingle said. "It's very well-deserved. Today was a great environment for her with lots of fast people around, and she had a really good warm-up. I knew she could run 13.5 and thought it was coming for a while now. She's had a great freshman year."
Emerald Egwim joined Markland in the quarterfinal round of the 400m dash, finishing in 54.45 seconds for 22nd place. In addition, the 3,000-meter steeplechase saw Kaila Urick run 10:47.12 for 35th place and Taylor Mikkalson come in 40th in 10:50.11.
Agnes Esser led the Gophers in the discus with a throw of 52.08m (170-10) in 22nd place. Devin Stanford, who qualified for the NCAA Championship in the hammer throw on Friday, took 23rd with a throw of 51.99m (170-7). Ke-ke Burks placed 40th (46.14m, 151-4) as well.
Katie Murgic closed out her Gopher career with a 28th-place finish in the pole vault, clearing 3.99m (13-1).
Seven Gophers compete on Saturday evening as the NCAA West Prelim wraps up. Rachel Melum and Nicolle Murphy compete in the javelin at 5 p.m. CT, Liz Berkholtz runs the 5,000-meter run at 8:05 p.m. CT, and the 4x400-meter relay team of Jessica Waldvogel, Emerald Egwim, Erin Hawkins, and Markland is scheduled to run at 9:25 p.m. CT.
###
Players Mentioned
