Edina Alum Gits 3rd in NCAA 10,000; Dorniden, Radocaj Advance to Finals

Stanford University's Alex Gits, a 2007 Edina High School graduate, finished 3rd in last night's 10,000 meter final at the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in Des Moines. Gits (pictured) clocked 33:49.73 to finish behind winner Lisa Koll of Iowa State, the collegiate record-holder, who clocked 32:44.95 and runner-up Danette Doetzel of Providence who ran 33:44.23.

Gits' performance helped put Stanford into an early lead in the women's team scoring with 11 points. There's a bit of video footage of Gits, HERE, in the highlight package Flotrack produced for the second day of competition at NCAAs.

Fellow Stanford Cardinal Garrett Heath of Winona qualified for the finals of the 1500m with a 3:42.21, second place finish in his prelim.

Gopher Action ... University of Minnesota sophomore decathlete R. J McGinnis finished 16th in the decathlon. McGinnis scored 7,019 points in the two-day competition with marks of: 11.59 for the 100m, 22-1 1/2. for the long jump, 44-3 1/2 for the shot put, 6-0 1/2 for the high jump, and 51.89 for the 400m on Day 1. On Day 2 McGinnis ran 15.25 for the 110m hurdles, threw 117-1 in the discus, cleared 13-9 1/4 in the pole vault, threw 195-0 in the javelin, and ran 4:45.96 in the event-ending 1500m.

Teammate Aaron Studt, competing in yesterday's shot put prelims, did not land a legal throw in the competition.

Golden Gopher women's stars Ruby Radocaj and Heather Dorniden advanced to finals in their respective events. Radocaj needed only one throw -- a launch of 179-6 -- to automatically qualify for Saturday's javelin final. Radocaj will enter that competition as the #2 qualifier from prelims.

Half-mile star Heather Dorniden advanced to finals in the 800m less dramatically than she did a day ago for the semi-finals. Dorniden finished an automatic-qualifying 3rd in her semi-final in 2:04.32. In the prelims on Wednesday, she finish 4th and had to wait out three more prelims before she eventually advanced on time.

Dorniden's competition for a second NCAA title got a little less difficult with the withdrawal of defending champ Alysia Johnson of California from the semis with an injury. In the final, Dorniden will face Zoe Buckman of Oregon, the fastest semi-finalist at 2:03.64, Geena Gall of Michigan, Becky Horn of Western Michigan, 2008 NCAA indoor champ Latavia Thomas of LSU. Anna Layman of Washington State, Carlee Clark-Platt of Brigham Young, and Phoebe Wright of Tennessee.

Gopher senior Liz Podominick also competed yesterday, but her 48-8 3/4 in the shot put did not advance to her to finals.

Live results for the remaining two days of competition at the NCAA Championship can be found HERE.

Photo by Gene Niemi.