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Mid-Distance
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Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Mid-Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Distance
/ Women's Track & Field
Hopkins Previews Distance Events
12/13/2018 10:35:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Distance coach Sarah Hopkins breaks down the Gophers' distance corps for 2019.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Distance coach Sarah Hopkins breaks down the Gophers' distance corps for 2019, looking at key returners and newcomers heading into the indoor track & field season along with looking ahead to the outdoor season.
Coming off a strong cross country season that saw 15 different Gophers run 6K career-best times, the Maroon & Gold distance runners are poised for a strong track & field season. Bethany Hasz and Megan Hasz lead the way as returning B1G scorers on the track while Carissa Dock, Abby Kohut-Jackson, Patty O'Brien, Paige Peschel, Elyse Prescott, and Kelli Schmidt all have B1G experience on the track as well. The Gophers also add in Olivia Hummel, Anastasia Korzenowski, Tate Sweeney, and Jaycie Thomsen coming off strong cross country seasons this fall after red-shirting.the 2018 track & field season.
"I'm really looking forward to the season," Hopkins said. "In a lot of the meetings I had post-cross country, there was just a lot of excitement for the fact that people thought we were really training at a high level during cross and maybe it wasn't quite showing on race day yet. A lot of times that is a little bit of a plateau before the next breakthrough, and I think you see that with a lot of these second or third-year kids. They're right at the cusp of really some big and exciting things, so it'll be fun to get them back on the track in uniform and see what those next steps are."
Mid-Distance (800m, 1000m, Mile)
Key Returners: Paige Peschel, Kelli Schmidt
Key Newcomers: Sophie Schmitz, Libby Halbmaier
Hopkins: We're super excited about the mid-distance group this year. They probably had the best fall they've ever had from a training perspective.Most of them don't love cross country, but they did a really good job of committing to it this fall. I think they got a lot better and a lot stronger. We already got to see them race at SDSU, and they are starting way ahead of where they have been.
I think the two leaders you're going to see in that group are Paige Peschel and Kelli Schmidt. Paige had a great spring last spring, had some big PRs, and is picking up right where she left off. Kelli made her first Big Ten team indoors last year and just missed the outdoor Big Ten team but started off with a lifetime PR in the 800m, both indoors and outdoors, at SDSU. Those two are going to be the leaders in that group physically, but then you have people like Kelsey Sather, who's a great emotional leader, and Sophie Schmitz, who is coming up from red-shirting last year and can make a good impact. Abby Lange had a good year last year, but had some injury issues, so if we can keep her healthy I think you'll see a really good nucleus in that group that you haven't seen for a while.
We've been a little bit thin in that area for the last several years, and we've been pretty deep in other areas. What's exciting to me is seeing this group have a little bit more depth to it and have some great training groups that can help each other keep getting better. You'll also add in more 800m/1500m runners like Libby Halbmaier, who ran 2:11 in high school; it remains to be seen if we'll redshirt her or not, but she adds some more great depth in the 800m/mile. That's another person I'm excited to see in this training group and see how that plays itself out.
Longer Mid-Distance (Mile/1,500m, 3000m)
Key Returners: Bethany Hasz, Abby Kohut-Jackson, Elyse Prescott
Key Newcomers: Olivia Hummel, Anastasia Korzenowski
Hopkins: Getting into that next group, which is going to be more the mile/3,000m, still sort of middle-distance but trending longer a little bit, this is a group that has some experience but also some great depth. Bethany Hasz will be the leader in this group. She's obviously our best returner in the mile, was a Big Ten scorer in the mile and led off the DMR last year. She has some great wheels to go with some pretty stellar endurance and set school records in the 3,000m and the 5,000m last year. She'll focus more on the mile/3,000m indoors.
Then you put in people like Olivia Hummel, Anastasia Korzenowski, Abby Kohut-Jackson, and Elyse Prescott, and some of the others who had a great cross country season this fall. A lot of them were redshirts on the track last year and learned a lot. Olivia redshirted all of last year. You bring all of them together with a year of experience, some confidence coming out of cross country, and a really good training group. They got some great mojo training together during the fall, and I think you'll see that build during the track season.
I'm excited to see what a lot of the younger runners who are in year two or year three can start doing on the track. Obviously the track is harder in some ways to make an impact at the Big Ten level. I think some of them are definitely ready to make that next step of not just getting to a Big Ten meet, but hopefully getting to a Big Ten meet and scoring once they get there.
Distance (3,000m, 5,000m)
Key Returners: Megan Hasz, Patty O'Brien
Key Newcomers: Jaycie Thomsen
Hopkins: Our long distance type kids who will probably be more 5,000m/10,000m outdoors, in that group your leaders are Megan Hasz, who was number two all-time in the 5,000m and the 10,000m last year as a redshirt freshman and comes in off a good cross country season for her, and then Patty O'Brien, who had a rough spring last spring while she was student teaching, but I think she's ready to made some big drops in the 5,000m and then the 10,000m outdoors. Then you put in some new people in that group, whether that's Jaycie Thomsen or others who had some breakout falls from the standpoint of red-shirting and figuring things out. I'm excited to see how that group meshes together and again has some good mojo and group dynamics going in to be able to work together and push each other.
Outdoor Season: 3,000m Steeplechase
Key Returners: Elyse Prescott, Carissa Dock
Key Newcomers: Tate Sweeney, Olivia Hummel, Jaycie Thomsen
Hopkins: Looking ahead to outdoor, the steeple and the 10,000m have always been great events for us. They're kind of niche events. Nothing is ever easy in the Big Ten, but they're not events that everybody gets thrown into like the mile or the 5,000m. You have to really be specific in training, so it's an area that we've always had some success in. The steeple is exciting. Obviously we had Madeline Strandemo the last four years, and she's been a queen bee in the conference in the steeple. We really got some good experience last year with Elyse Prescott and Carissa Dock making the Big Ten team in the steeple, and especially Elyse having a really good breakthrough race at the Big Ten meet. I think it's going to be fun to see her continue to progress. We're also going to try some of the younger kids in there. Tate Sweeney is somebody who had a great cross country season, and that will be a niche event for her. We're potentially going to put Abby Kohut-Jackson back in there. She tried it a little bit as a redshirt and we got away from it last year. We may go back to it. Olivia Hummel is another one where I believe it's a good race for her going forward, so there's definitely some new people in there. If we can get a good training group going, we may not have one person who can win the conference meet but we can have three or four people who are in scoring positions in the Big Ten.
Outdoor Season: 10,000m
Key Returners: Megan Hasz, Patty O'Brien
Key Newcomers: Jaycie Thomsen
Hopkins: Getting back into the 10,000m, obviously for Megan Hasz, last year was the first year she had done it. Getting that experience under her belt and having a huge PR at the first round sets her up to really well to go into the conference meet and be a contender to win the 10,000m. Again, you come back to Patty O'Brien, who has some good 10,000m experience and I think is a first round caliber type runner in the 10,000m. Then we'll try out some of the younger kids up there. We're maybe not as deep as we have been in the past in the 10,000m in terms of number of bodies. We may end up putting Jaycie Thomsen in that world, too, kind-of depends how the indoor season goes for her. We're still steepling her a little bit. We'll pick a direction with her after the indoor season, but she'll end up in one of those two spots outdoors. After that with the 10,000m, there are a lot of people who are going to be working their way into that group, whether it's Maria Eastman or Abby Kargol or some of them who have some experience there who are ready and hopefully excited to take the next step.
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Coming off a strong cross country season that saw 15 different Gophers run 6K career-best times, the Maroon & Gold distance runners are poised for a strong track & field season. Bethany Hasz and Megan Hasz lead the way as returning B1G scorers on the track while Carissa Dock, Abby Kohut-Jackson, Patty O'Brien, Paige Peschel, Elyse Prescott, and Kelli Schmidt all have B1G experience on the track as well. The Gophers also add in Olivia Hummel, Anastasia Korzenowski, Tate Sweeney, and Jaycie Thomsen coming off strong cross country seasons this fall after red-shirting.the 2018 track & field season.
"I'm really looking forward to the season," Hopkins said. "In a lot of the meetings I had post-cross country, there was just a lot of excitement for the fact that people thought we were really training at a high level during cross and maybe it wasn't quite showing on race day yet. A lot of times that is a little bit of a plateau before the next breakthrough, and I think you see that with a lot of these second or third-year kids. They're right at the cusp of really some big and exciting things, so it'll be fun to get them back on the track in uniform and see what those next steps are."
Mid-Distance (800m, 1000m, Mile)
Key Returners: Paige Peschel, Kelli Schmidt
Key Newcomers: Sophie Schmitz, Libby Halbmaier
Hopkins: We're super excited about the mid-distance group this year. They probably had the best fall they've ever had from a training perspective.Most of them don't love cross country, but they did a really good job of committing to it this fall. I think they got a lot better and a lot stronger. We already got to see them race at SDSU, and they are starting way ahead of where they have been.
I think the two leaders you're going to see in that group are Paige Peschel and Kelli Schmidt. Paige had a great spring last spring, had some big PRs, and is picking up right where she left off. Kelli made her first Big Ten team indoors last year and just missed the outdoor Big Ten team but started off with a lifetime PR in the 800m, both indoors and outdoors, at SDSU. Those two are going to be the leaders in that group physically, but then you have people like Kelsey Sather, who's a great emotional leader, and Sophie Schmitz, who is coming up from red-shirting last year and can make a good impact. Abby Lange had a good year last year, but had some injury issues, so if we can keep her healthy I think you'll see a really good nucleus in that group that you haven't seen for a while.
We've been a little bit thin in that area for the last several years, and we've been pretty deep in other areas. What's exciting to me is seeing this group have a little bit more depth to it and have some great training groups that can help each other keep getting better. You'll also add in more 800m/1500m runners like Libby Halbmaier, who ran 2:11 in high school; it remains to be seen if we'll redshirt her or not, but she adds some more great depth in the 800m/mile. That's another person I'm excited to see in this training group and see how that plays itself out.
Longer Mid-Distance (Mile/1,500m, 3000m)
Key Returners: Bethany Hasz, Abby Kohut-Jackson, Elyse Prescott
Key Newcomers: Olivia Hummel, Anastasia Korzenowski
Hopkins: Getting into that next group, which is going to be more the mile/3,000m, still sort of middle-distance but trending longer a little bit, this is a group that has some experience but also some great depth. Bethany Hasz will be the leader in this group. She's obviously our best returner in the mile, was a Big Ten scorer in the mile and led off the DMR last year. She has some great wheels to go with some pretty stellar endurance and set school records in the 3,000m and the 5,000m last year. She'll focus more on the mile/3,000m indoors.
Then you put in people like Olivia Hummel, Anastasia Korzenowski, Abby Kohut-Jackson, and Elyse Prescott, and some of the others who had a great cross country season this fall. A lot of them were redshirts on the track last year and learned a lot. Olivia redshirted all of last year. You bring all of them together with a year of experience, some confidence coming out of cross country, and a really good training group. They got some great mojo training together during the fall, and I think you'll see that build during the track season.
I'm excited to see what a lot of the younger runners who are in year two or year three can start doing on the track. Obviously the track is harder in some ways to make an impact at the Big Ten level. I think some of them are definitely ready to make that next step of not just getting to a Big Ten meet, but hopefully getting to a Big Ten meet and scoring once they get there.
Distance (3,000m, 5,000m)
Key Returners: Megan Hasz, Patty O'Brien
Key Newcomers: Jaycie Thomsen
Hopkins: Our long distance type kids who will probably be more 5,000m/10,000m outdoors, in that group your leaders are Megan Hasz, who was number two all-time in the 5,000m and the 10,000m last year as a redshirt freshman and comes in off a good cross country season for her, and then Patty O'Brien, who had a rough spring last spring while she was student teaching, but I think she's ready to made some big drops in the 5,000m and then the 10,000m outdoors. Then you put in some new people in that group, whether that's Jaycie Thomsen or others who had some breakout falls from the standpoint of red-shirting and figuring things out. I'm excited to see how that group meshes together and again has some good mojo and group dynamics going in to be able to work together and push each other.
Outdoor Season: 3,000m Steeplechase
Key Returners: Elyse Prescott, Carissa Dock
Key Newcomers: Tate Sweeney, Olivia Hummel, Jaycie Thomsen
Hopkins: Looking ahead to outdoor, the steeple and the 10,000m have always been great events for us. They're kind of niche events. Nothing is ever easy in the Big Ten, but they're not events that everybody gets thrown into like the mile or the 5,000m. You have to really be specific in training, so it's an area that we've always had some success in. The steeple is exciting. Obviously we had Madeline Strandemo the last four years, and she's been a queen bee in the conference in the steeple. We really got some good experience last year with Elyse Prescott and Carissa Dock making the Big Ten team in the steeple, and especially Elyse having a really good breakthrough race at the Big Ten meet. I think it's going to be fun to see her continue to progress. We're also going to try some of the younger kids in there. Tate Sweeney is somebody who had a great cross country season, and that will be a niche event for her. We're potentially going to put Abby Kohut-Jackson back in there. She tried it a little bit as a redshirt and we got away from it last year. We may go back to it. Olivia Hummel is another one where I believe it's a good race for her going forward, so there's definitely some new people in there. If we can get a good training group going, we may not have one person who can win the conference meet but we can have three or four people who are in scoring positions in the Big Ten.
Outdoor Season: 10,000m
Key Returners: Megan Hasz, Patty O'Brien
Key Newcomers: Jaycie Thomsen
Hopkins: Getting back into the 10,000m, obviously for Megan Hasz, last year was the first year she had done it. Getting that experience under her belt and having a huge PR at the first round sets her up to really well to go into the conference meet and be a contender to win the 10,000m. Again, you come back to Patty O'Brien, who has some good 10,000m experience and I think is a first round caliber type runner in the 10,000m. Then we'll try out some of the younger kids up there. We're maybe not as deep as we have been in the past in the 10,000m in terms of number of bodies. We may end up putting Jaycie Thomsen in that world, too, kind-of depends how the indoor season goes for her. We're still steepling her a little bit. We'll pick a direction with her after the indoor season, but she'll end up in one of those two spots outdoors. After that with the 10,000m, there are a lot of people who are going to be working their way into that group, whether it's Maria Eastman or Abby Kargol or some of them who have some experience there who are ready and hopefully excited to take the next step.
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