An NCAA Trophy for the Gopher Women?

Might the University of Minnesota women bring home a trophy from this weekend's NCAA Indoor Championships?

While the question doesn’t seem to be one the Gophers themselves are spending time asking – their latest media release, HERE, says they’re hoping simply to better their program-best 12th place finish from 2006 with a top-10 result this weekend – it’s one followers of the program wouldn’t be wasting time by asking.

While by no means favorites for a top-4 finish, the #8-ranked Gophers appear within striking distance of top-4, trophy-earning territory at the Fayetteville, Arkansas meet. For the repeat Big Ten Indoor Champions to add NCAA hardware to the program’s burgeoning trophy case, though, they’ll likely require a strong meet from each and every woman on the squad, need at least one of the more favored teams to falter, and hope that in the end a team score in the low 30s can steal 4th place.

Defending champs Arizona State, ranked #2 in the country, perennial power and #1-ranked LSU, and Big Ten runners-up #3 Michigan are all vying for the NCAA's gold trophy and are unlikely to leave Arkansas without NCAA hardware of one color or another. Texas A&M’s sprint-powered, #5-ranked squad, with a hot meet, could shut the top-4 door tightly and leave the Gophers on the outside looking in even with a strong team performance.

On the other hand, if any of those favorites prove unlucky, the Gophers aren’t in a bad position to achieve a trophy-worthy finish. Minnesota stands to score 23 points, if their five individuals and distance medley relay team finish as they are seeded. Realistic improvements on some of those seedings – easier to describe on a web-site than accomplish on a track, we’ll readily admit – could push the team tally into the 30s.

And that could, could, be enough for a program-first NCAA trophy. A 28 point score clinched the 4th place trophy last year; 29 points took it home in 2006. This year, while Track and Field News, HERE, projects 4th place for Texas A&M’s with 40 points, Trackshark.Com’s prognostication, HERE, thinks the 4th place team spot could go to a team with as few as 31 points – #7-ranked Stanford by their calculations.

If there’s going to be trophy magic for the Gophers in Fayetteville, we'll go out on a limb to say it will happen something like this ...

This afternoon: Heather Dorniden and Julie Schwengler advance to the 800m finals. Schwengler, seeded #15, is an underdog for the finals, but the point she’d earn by advancing could prove vital.

This evening: Jamie Cheever advances to the Mile final … and doesn’t knock herself out doing so. The #7 seeded Cheever’s points in the Mile will be key to a high team finish, as will her freshness for the DMR later today.

Later this evening: The Gopher DMR of Gabriele Anderson, Rikita Butler, Dorniden, and Cheever finishes third. Michigan’s squad looks unbeatable, but the rest of the competition seems within reach. Bettering Stanford’s and #3 Tennessee’s DMRs in the process would help the team cause too.

Gopher Day 1 team score: 6 points.

Saturday afternoon: Liz Roehrig matches her #2 seed in the pentathlon. The four-time Big Ten champ in the event didn’t get a mark in pentathlon long jump last year, so she’s sure to be hungry for a big meet.

Gopher team score: 14 points.

Saturday over the supper-hour: Alicia Rue matches her seed in the pole vault to finish 4th. Bettering #2-ranked Kate Sultanova of #6-ranked Kansas could help in the team race against the Jayhawks.

Gopher team score: 19 points.

Saturday evening: Cheever, racing for the third time in 24 hours, places 5th in the Mile.

Gopher team score: 23 points.

Later Saturday evening: Dorniden wins the 800 meters, Schwengler earns an additional point in the event by finishing 8th. It’s a lot to ask of Dorniden, but not something the 2006 NCAA Indoor champ hasn’t already done. Geena Gall of Michigan and Alysia Johnson of California are strong runners, but Dorniden has defeated both in NCAA Championships.

Final Gopher team score: 34 points.

Again, even a hats-off team performance like the one projected above could still fall short of a trophy. Who really knows, of course, how the rich pageant that is the NCAA Championship will play out in the next two days.

With our eyes on the Gopher women, though, we’ll be eagerly watching.

NCAA Links ...

You can follow NCAA Division I action via a live web-cast HERE.

Live results will be posted HERE.

The USTFCCCA has compiled a great list of links for the D1 meet and this weekend's other NCAA Championships HERE.