University of Minnesota Athletics
Season Recap: A Look Back at 2015
7/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
MINNEAPOLIS - With the conclusion of the USATF Outdoor Championships and the World University Games, the Minnesota women's track & field team officially wrapped up the 2015 season. The Gophers collected two First Team All-American awards, a Second Team All-American relay team, and four NCAA top-20 finishes at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships to cap the NCAA season.
GOPHERS COMPETE AT NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL MEETS
Several Gophers have represented their home countries in national and international competition following the conclusion of the NCAA Championships. Most recently, Gophers thrower Agnes Esser wrapped up her 2015 track & field season at the FISU World University Games in Gwangju City, South Korea, where she finished 11th in the discus while representing her native Canada.
In addition, Emma Spagnola (100m hurdles) and Kiley Sabin (shot put, discus) competed in the USATF Junior Championships, while Nicolle Murphy competed in the javelin in the USATF Senior Championships. Spagnola ran 13.79 to finish sixth in the 100m hurdles. Sabin finished seventh in the shot put with a career-best throw of 14.76m (48-5.25) and took 11th in the discus at 45.85m (150-5).
Competing in the senior championship, Murphy took 17th in the javelin with a throw of 45.70m (149-11). Fellow sophomore Titania Markland also competed for her home country at the Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association National Senior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. She finished 11th in the 400m dash with a time of 54.07 in the semifinals.
2015 NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS REWIND
The Golden Gophers finished in a tie for 32nd in the team standings with two scoring finishes from Jess Herauf, fifth in the pentathlon, and Nicolle Murphy, sixth in the javelin, at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Minnesota's 4x400-meter relay team of Jessica Waldvogel, Titania Markland, Emerald Egwim and Erin Hawkins became the second Gopher 4x400m relay team ever to advance to the national meet and the first to earn All-American honors as the quartet placed 13th for second-team accolades.
Senior Devin Stanford rounded out Minnesota's NCAA outdoor qualifiers, capping her Gopher career with a 20th-place finish in the hammer throw.
GOPHER TRACK AND CROSS COUNTRY RANK 16TH
Minnesota ended the 2014-15 year ranked 16th in the final standings for the Terry Crawford NCAA Division I Women's Program of the Year award presented annually by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) and honoring the institution that has achieved the most success in each academic year.
In order to be eligible for the award, teams must qualify for each of the NCAA Championships in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. Scoring is based on team's finishes at each championship.
The Gophers placed 31st at the NCAA cross country championship, and Jess Herauf was fifth in the pentathlon for Minnesota at the indoor track & field national meet. Minnesota wrapped up the academic year with two scoring finishes at the outdoor track & field championship to tie for 32nd in the team standings as Herauf took fifth in the heptathlon and Nicolle Murphy finished sixth in the javelin.
OUTDOOR B1G SUCCESS
The Gophers placed third in the team standings at the 2015 Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championship with 14 top-five finishes, one event champion, three event runners-up and 93 total points.
Jess Herauf took home Minnesota's lone event title, winning the heptathlon with a program-record 6,014 points. Herauf set then-personal best marks in the 100-meter hurdles (14.41), high jump (1.76m, 5-09.25), long jump (6.00m, 19-8.25) and the 800m (2:11.44) en route to her second B1G crown of the season after winning the pentathlon title indoor. Herauf used wins in the final three events of the heptathlon to surge past Wisconsin's Deanna Latham and Georgia Ellenwood, who led the heptathlon field after four events and finished second and third.
The Gopher throwers combined for 47 points at the meet, led by All-Big Ten Second Team honorees Devin Stanford (hammer throw runner-up) and Nicolle Murphy (javelin runner-up). Minnesota's 4x400-meter relay team of Jessica Waldvogel, Emerald Egwim, Erin Hawkins and Titania Markland also picked up All-Big Ten Second Team honors with a second-place time of 3:33.76, then a program record.
The Gophers entered the final day of competition with a lead in the team race, but host Michigan State earned 53 points on day three to win the team title on its home track. Nebraska finished second with 97 points, and Ohio State (77 points) and Michigan (67 points) rounded out the top five teams behind Minnesota (93 points). The Gophers secured the program's highest B1G outdoor finish since placing second in 2010.
NINE PROGRAM RECORDS FALL
The Gophers broke nine Minnesota program records in 2015. The indoor season saw records fall in the 200m (Erin Hawkins, 24.03), 60m hurdles (Kimberly Golding, 8.34), high jump (Heta Tuuri, 1.80m) and pentathlon (Jess Herauf, 4,372 points). Outdoor, the team broke records in the 400m (Titania Markland, 52.86), 4x400m relay (Waldvogel, Egwim, Hawkins, Markland, 3:32.68), 100m hurdles (Emma Spagnola, 13.58), hammer throw (Devin Stanford, 61.82m) and heptathlon (Jess Herauf, 6,014 points).
Including the nine new program records, the Gophers recorded 34 all-time top-10 marks in the outdoor season and 27 during the indoor season. Titania Markland, Jessica Waldvogel and Emerald Egwim both ran all-time top-10 400m times indoor and outdoor.
The Gophers throwers combined for 12 all-time top-10 marks, including four indoor in the weight throw in Devin Stanford (second, 20.61m), Lyndsey Thorpe (fourth, 19.41m), Angie Guenther (eighth, 17.41m) and Ke-ke Burks (10th, 17.20m), and five outdoor in the hammer throw in Stanford (first, 61.82m), Thorpe (fourth, 59.78m), Guenther (fifth, 59.38m), Burks (seventh, 58.90m) and Agnes Esser (ninth, 58.40m).
INDOOR SEASON REWIND
Jess Herauf represented the Gophers at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship, earning First Team All-American honors with a fifth-place finish in the pentathlon. She broke her own Minnesota program record with 4,372 points. In addition to a career-high score, Herauf also recorded career-best marks in the 800-meter run at 2:13.90 and the shot put at 13.74m (45-1). She tied her career-best leap of 1.74m (5-8.50) in the high jump as well.
The Big Ten Indoor Championship saw Herauf lead the Gophers, taking home the B1G pentathlon title with 4,361 points. She won three of the five pentathlon events, leading the way in the shot put (13.43m), 800m (2:14.36) and long jump (6.02m). Along with Herauf's B1G title, Titania Markland (second, 600m), Devin Stanford (third, weight throw) and Kimberly Golding (fourth, 60m hurdles) led the Gophers with top-four individual finishes and Minnesota also placed fourth in the 4x400-meter relay.
The Gophers placed ninth at the 2015 indoor B1G meet with 51 points. Ohio State took home the women's team title with 84 points, followed by Michigan (69 points), Penn State (68), Purdue (68), Michigan State (65) and Nebraska (65) as the top six teams with two ties to make up the top five places. Wisconsin was seventh (58), followed by Maryland (53), ahead of the Gophers.
GOPHERS AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Including six All-American awards at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championship, 39 Gophers have now earned 60 first and second team All-American honors since 1983. Sixty-four individuals have represented Minnesota at the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships since 1983 as well. Minnesota's highest outdoor team finish is tied for 13th in 2008. Indoors, the Gophers' best finish is 12th, a feat accomplished in 2006 and 2009 (tied for 12th).
BERKHOLTZ, HERAUF HONORED FOR ACADEMICS, ATHLETICS
Liz Berkholtz and Jess Herauf were recognized for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom as the 2014-15 Capital One Academic All-District Track & Field Teams were announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
31 GOPHERS NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-BIG TEN
The women's track & field team represented 31 of Minnesota's 148 spring Academic All-Big Ten honorees. To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, student-athletes must be letterwinners in at least their second academic year at their institution and maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher. Derek Wiebke of the men's track and field team holds a 4.0 GPA.
Megan Bailey, Alex Beckman, Amanda Beckman, Liz Berkholtz, Frances Conlin, Lauren Domski, Becca Dyson, Anne Ferguson, Cami Gilson, Angie Guenther, Erin Hawkins, Jess Herauf, Haley Johnson, Kat Keller, Rachel Melum, Katie Murgic, Nicole Murphey, Nicolle Murphy, Megan Petermann, Chelsea Pettit, Jamie Piepenburg, Rebecca Rethwisch, Devin Stanford, Stacey Swatek, Lyndsey Thorpe, Hannah Trasser, Sara Tseng, Kaila Urick, Jessica Waldvogel, Audra Winter and Andie Zeman were honored by the Big Ten.
In addition, Alex Beckman; Amanda Beckman, Becca Dyson, Jess Herauf, Marnie Kinnaird, Rachel Melum, Katie Murgic, Chelsea Pettit, Jamie Piepenburg and Lyndsey Thorpe were named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars, recognized for recording a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year, along with being letterwinners in at least their second academic year at the University of Minnesota.
GOPHERS ADD 23 FOR 2015-16
Director of women's track & field and cross country Matt Bingle has announced the addition of 23student-athletes for the 2015-16 academic year. The Gophers are pleased to welcome Sophia Anderson, Emily Betz, Allison Dugan, Emma Gambol, Erin Huls, Megan Flanagan, Mallori Johnson, Madayln Kammer, Abigail Kargol, Alexis Kiefer, Abigail Lange, Kayla Nelson, Shay Nielsen, Samantha Prouty, Veronica Rasmussen, Kelsey Sather, Rachel Schow, Allyson Smith, Christina Stathakis, Rebecca Wesley, Rachel Wians, Taylor Wiebke and Shanique Wright to the Minnesota family.
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Players Mentioned
