Gearman Named Athlete of the Year, Championship

Gopher senior Derek Gearman was named the Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year, by the Big Ten today. Gearman was also recognized as the Big Ten Field Event Athlete of the Outdoor Championships.

Gearman (pictured) posted two runner-up finishes in scoring a team-high 21 points at last weekend’s Big Ten Championships in State College, Pennsylvania, where the Gopher men finished as the runner-up team.

The Lennox, South Dakota native finished second in the long jump with a career-best leap of 25-6. Competing at the same time in the high jump, Gearman cleared 7-0 1/4 to capture second place in that event too. Gearman added a fourth-place showing in the triple jump with a season-best jump of 51-0 1/4 and ran a leg of the Gophers’ 4th place 4x100-meter relay.

Gearman and five Golden Gopher teammates were named to All-Big Ten honor squads. Big Ten hammer champion Adam Schnaible earned first-team honors, while Gearman, Aaron Buzard, Jason Erickson, Sayfe Jassim and Walter Langkau were named to the second team. Buzard finished second in the 400-meter dash and joined Erckson, Jassim and Langkau in the runner-up 4x400-meter relay.

Gopher Women Honored ... Three Golden Gopher women – Liz Alabi, Heather Dorniden and Alicia Rue – were honored as All-Big Ten Second Team. The trio earned honors by capturing runner-up finishes at last weekend’s championships. Alabi finished second-place in the hammer with a school-record effort of 199-8 and in the shot put with a throw of 51-1 3/4.

Dorniden was runner-up in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:05.81. Rue, a true freshman, cleared a career-best height of 13-3 1/2 to place second in her first Big Ten outdoor meet.

The Gopher women finished 4th in the championships as a team.

Also ... You can find some great photos from Big Tens and other Gopher meets this season at Rebecca Miller's Gopher Track Shots web-site.

Photo courtesy of the U of M.