University of Minnesota Athletics
Monday, March 15
Stillwater, OK
11:50 AM
University of Minnesota
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NCAA Championships
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Gophers Place Fifth at NCAA Championships
3/15/2021 12:29:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Men's Track & Field, Women's Cross Country, Women's Track & Field
The Minnesota women earned the highest NCAA finish in program history at the 2020-21 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday.
STILLWATER, Okla. -- The Golden Gopher women's cross country team placed fifth in the nation at the 2020-21 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday. Led by an eighth-place finish by Bethany Hasz, the Maroon & Gold women earned their highest NCAA team finish in program history.
Minnesota scored 239 points to finish fifth in the country, marking the seventh top-12 team finish in program history and just the fourth top-10 finish for the Gophers women at the NCAA national cross country meet, dating back to 1983. Minnesota's previous best finish saw the Gophers come in ninth in the team standings in 2005. At the 2019 championships, the Gophers were 28th.
"I knew we had a great team as this is group we've been building with and toward, and I knew that what we did at the Big Ten meet at the end of January was just the tip of the iceberg of what we would be capable of six weeks later," Gopher women's cross country head coach Sarah Hopkins said. "We had a great Big Ten indoor meet on the track and gained some momentum and built some good mojo. Everybody was feeling pretty confident, but we also hadn't touched grass in six weeks coming into today. I was cautiously optimistic, but I didn't really know how we were going to respond when we haven't been able to prepare in the way we normally would prepare for a big championship style cross country race."
The Gophers entered the meet ranked No. 11 in the nation in the latest USTFCCCA Cross Country National Coaches' Poll, and Minnesota's distance corps scored 33 points in four different events at the Big Ten Indoor Track & Field Championships on the way to the team crown, including winning the 3,000 meters and the distance medley relay. Most recently, Hasz represented the Gopher women's distance squad at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships where she finished as national runner-up in the 5,000 meters.
Less than 72 hours after her NCAA runner-up finish on the track, Hasz was back in action leading the Gophers to their fifth-place team finish with a time of 20:25.2 for the six-kilometer course at the Oklahoma State Cross Country Course. Her eighth-place individual finish is the second-highest NCAA showing by a Gopher behind only Megan Duwell, who placed seventh at the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Along with Hasz, who placed 49th in 2018 and 70th in 2017 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, Gophers Abby Kohut-Jackson (45th), Anastasia Korzenowski (59th), and Jaycie Thomsen (70th) also recorded career-high NCAA finishes for the Maroon & Gold. Megan Hasz (114th) rounded out Minnesota's scoring finishes while Tate Sweeney and Bit Klecker made their NCAA cross country debuts and completed the Gopher line-up.
"As the team results were coming in, they initially had us as seventh and we were thrilled," Hopkins continued. "After the race, we were all standing there talking and we were super pumped about being seventh. All of a sudden, the results updated on our phones. We looked up at the big results board we were standing right in front of, and it showed us as fifth there, too. It was great because we were all together. Certainly that is a moment I will never forget – lots of happy tears. It was just a magical day. They executed exactly what we talked about. They were tough. They were gritty. They didn't give up on themselves."
With her eighth-place finish, Hasz has earned her first cross country All-America nod of her career, adding to a long list of accolades she has collected this season: Big Ten cross country champion, All-Big Ten First Team in cross country, Big Ten champion for 3,000 meters, Big Ten indoor track & field team champions, NCAA runner-up for 5,000 meters, First Team All-America for 5,000 meters, and NCAA Elite 90 Award winner for indoor track & field.
"We took a big risk with Bethany doing two races in one weekend," Hopkins said. "Cross country has always been her go-to and her favorite. I knew she didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize today, but I also knew the NCAA 5K field was such that she could win and obviously she came within an eyelash of winning [in finishing as runner-up]. You can't pass up those opportunities. Thankfully our track & field team did what they did the weekend of the Big Ten indoor meet and we didn't have to over-race her that weekend. That made me feel a lot better about giving this a shot.
"She was running right in the top 20, which is exactly where we wanted to be. We knew it was going to come down to whoever was feeling good on the day. She was just a machine. With the team and with Bethany, it's amazing what confidence does, when you start to feel like you belong. The challenge for today was to go into the national meet and prove that you belong."
Gopher Results at NCAA Championships
8th (6th) - Bethany Hasz, 20:25.2
45th (37th) - Abby Kohut-Jackson, 21:01.9
59th (48th) - Anastasia Korzenowski, 21:09.0
70th (57th) - Jaycie Thomsen, 21:17.1
114th (91st) - Megan Hasz, 21:37.7
202nd (167th) - Tate Sweeney, 22:28.8
237th (200th) - Bit Klecker, 23:03.5
###
Minnesota scored 239 points to finish fifth in the country, marking the seventh top-12 team finish in program history and just the fourth top-10 finish for the Gophers women at the NCAA national cross country meet, dating back to 1983. Minnesota's previous best finish saw the Gophers come in ninth in the team standings in 2005. At the 2019 championships, the Gophers were 28th.
"I knew we had a great team as this is group we've been building with and toward, and I knew that what we did at the Big Ten meet at the end of January was just the tip of the iceberg of what we would be capable of six weeks later," Gopher women's cross country head coach Sarah Hopkins said. "We had a great Big Ten indoor meet on the track and gained some momentum and built some good mojo. Everybody was feeling pretty confident, but we also hadn't touched grass in six weeks coming into today. I was cautiously optimistic, but I didn't really know how we were going to respond when we haven't been able to prepare in the way we normally would prepare for a big championship style cross country race."
The Gophers entered the meet ranked No. 11 in the nation in the latest USTFCCCA Cross Country National Coaches' Poll, and Minnesota's distance corps scored 33 points in four different events at the Big Ten Indoor Track & Field Championships on the way to the team crown, including winning the 3,000 meters and the distance medley relay. Most recently, Hasz represented the Gopher women's distance squad at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships where she finished as national runner-up in the 5,000 meters.
Less than 72 hours after her NCAA runner-up finish on the track, Hasz was back in action leading the Gophers to their fifth-place team finish with a time of 20:25.2 for the six-kilometer course at the Oklahoma State Cross Country Course. Her eighth-place individual finish is the second-highest NCAA showing by a Gopher behind only Megan Duwell, who placed seventh at the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Along with Hasz, who placed 49th in 2018 and 70th in 2017 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, Gophers Abby Kohut-Jackson (45th), Anastasia Korzenowski (59th), and Jaycie Thomsen (70th) also recorded career-high NCAA finishes for the Maroon & Gold. Megan Hasz (114th) rounded out Minnesota's scoring finishes while Tate Sweeney and Bit Klecker made their NCAA cross country debuts and completed the Gopher line-up.
"As the team results were coming in, they initially had us as seventh and we were thrilled," Hopkins continued. "After the race, we were all standing there talking and we were super pumped about being seventh. All of a sudden, the results updated on our phones. We looked up at the big results board we were standing right in front of, and it showed us as fifth there, too. It was great because we were all together. Certainly that is a moment I will never forget – lots of happy tears. It was just a magical day. They executed exactly what we talked about. They were tough. They were gritty. They didn't give up on themselves."
With her eighth-place finish, Hasz has earned her first cross country All-America nod of her career, adding to a long list of accolades she has collected this season: Big Ten cross country champion, All-Big Ten First Team in cross country, Big Ten champion for 3,000 meters, Big Ten indoor track & field team champions, NCAA runner-up for 5,000 meters, First Team All-America for 5,000 meters, and NCAA Elite 90 Award winner for indoor track & field.
"We took a big risk with Bethany doing two races in one weekend," Hopkins said. "Cross country has always been her go-to and her favorite. I knew she didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize today, but I also knew the NCAA 5K field was such that she could win and obviously she came within an eyelash of winning [in finishing as runner-up]. You can't pass up those opportunities. Thankfully our track & field team did what they did the weekend of the Big Ten indoor meet and we didn't have to over-race her that weekend. That made me feel a lot better about giving this a shot.
"She was running right in the top 20, which is exactly where we wanted to be. We knew it was going to come down to whoever was feeling good on the day. She was just a machine. With the team and with Bethany, it's amazing what confidence does, when you start to feel like you belong. The challenge for today was to go into the national meet and prove that you belong."
Gopher Results at NCAA Championships
8th (6th) - Bethany Hasz, 20:25.2
45th (37th) - Abby Kohut-Jackson, 21:01.9
59th (48th) - Anastasia Korzenowski, 21:09.0
70th (57th) - Jaycie Thomsen, 21:17.1
114th (91st) - Megan Hasz, 21:37.7
202nd (167th) - Tate Sweeney, 22:28.8
237th (200th) - Bit Klecker, 23:03.5
###
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