University of Minnesota Athletics
Blankenship, Mead Shine in Olympic Finals
8/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
RIO DE JANEIRO (GopherSports.com) - University of Minnesota All-American alums Ben Blankenship and Hassan Mead didn't disappoint in their Olympic debuts - posting two of the top performances ever by Gopher track & field Olympians.
Blankenship - the first Gopher to compete in the Olympic 1,500 meters - ran 3:51.09 to finish eighth overall while Mead - the first Gopher to compete in the Olympic 5,000 meters - ran a 13:09.81 and finished the night in 11th place after several competitors were disqualified and then later reinstated.
Mead and Blankenship recorded the best Olympic finishes by Gophers since Staffan Strand finished sixth in the high jump for Sweden during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the best performances on the Olympic track by Gophers since Leonard "Buddy" Edelen finished sixth in the marathon for the U.S. at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
Along with the pair of sixth-place finishes by Strand and Edelen, only Karl Anderson's fifth-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles for the U.S. during the 1924 Olympics in Paris (first Gopher Olympian) and Fortune Gordien's three Olympic discus appearances for the U.S. (bronze in 1948, fourth in 1952, silver in 1956) rank above Blankenship's eighth-place showing. Ron Backes's 10th-place finish in the shot put for the U.S. at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona comes in just in front of Mead's 11th-place performance.
A four-time All-American and three-time All-Big Ten honoree for the Gophers, Blankenship won three individual conference crowns while helping the program to five total Big Ten titles. He still holds the school record for the indoor mile (3:57.87), the indoor 3,000 meters (7:52.52) and the outdoor 1,500 meters (3:39.77). Blankenship anchored the U.S. distance medley relay squad to a new world record (9:15.50) at the 2015 IAAF/BTC World Relays and set a new course record (3:55.8) to win the 2016 Medtronic TC One Mile earlier this year.
An eight-time All-American and a nine-time Big Ten champion for the Gophers, Mead still owns Minnesota records in the outdoor 10,000 meters (28:12.74), the outdoor 5,000 meters (13:28.45), the indoor 5,000 meters (13:33.42) and the 8,000 meters in cross country (23:29). Mead made his international debut for Team USA at the 2015 IIAF World Championships in Beijing, China - finishing 15th in the 10,000 meters.
###
