"85% There"

Going into last weekend's meet, Matt Bingle, coach of the Minnesota Gopher women, felt the Meyo Invitational in South
Bend, Indiana would give him a good sense of the progress his team was making for the Big Ten indoor meet.

His judgement afterward?

"Things went pretty well down there!" Bingle told DtB via e-mail. "We feel that we are about 85% there right now! Down at Notre Dame we got some great performances and some good performances. We still have some women that need to continue to improve and step up a little more!"

Among the great performances, we're willing to guess, was Heather Dorniden's 2:04.33 800 meter victory over Big Ten rivals Geena Gall and Nicole Edwards of defending indoor champs Michigan. Dorniden's NCAA automatic qualifying time is the fastest 800m mark in the country this season. Jamie Cheever was sixth in the event for the Gophers clocking 2:06.34, a provisional qualifying time.

The Gopher's had already gotten the meet off to a fine start in Friday competition with Liz Alabi winning the 20-pound weight throw and improving her NCAA provisional standing with her 62-6 toss. Also, the distance medley of Gabriele Anderson, Kadian Douglas, Heather Dorniden and Emily Brown clocked an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 11:14.83 to place second.

Strong Saturday performances included Emily Brown's provisional qualifying, runner-up finish in the mile in 4:46.18; a 3rd-4th-8th finish in the shot from Alabi (50-0 1/2), Liz Podomonick (49-7 1/4), and Kari Schmidt (47-5); and a 2nd-6th-10th placing in the pole vault from Andrea Smith (12-7 ½), Laura Massey (12-1 1/2), and Alicia Rue (11-7 ¾).

The Gopher women look to add to their "Percent There" number this weekend at the Iowa State Classic.