Rombough 17th; Gopher Men 15th at NCAAs

Golden Gopher senior Chris Rombough finished 17th at the NCAA Championships today, becoming the Gopher's first-ever three-time All-American in cross country. Rombough was the top Minnesotan, finishing in 29:54.

Hear our exclusive interview with Rombough below ...



“I’m proud of Chris,” Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia said in a media release. “He’s a strong runner who loves cross country. He kept pounding away, moving up through the field. We are going to miss him.”

Hassan Mead of Minnesota placed 31st in 30:06 and Winona High School alum Garrett Heath of Stanford placed 33rd in 30:08. Both were named all-American.

“Hassan fought back but he didn’t have a good day,” Plasencia said.

The University of Minnesota men finished 15th in the team standings with 385 points.

Behind Rombough and Mead, Ben Blankenship finished 100th, Matt Barrett was 160th, Mike McFarland was 171st, Ben Puhl was 214th, and Mike Torchia was 231st.

“Overall we had a mediocre performance today," Plasencia said of the team performance. "We didn’t have a lot of zip. I’m thinking that running on that very difficult course at the regional meet may have taken a lot out of us. We didn’t start the race well and that left too much to make up. I guess it says something, though, when we aren’t necessarily pleased with a 15th-place finish at the NCAAs. We had higher hopes, higher expectations, but we just didn’t have the depth to pull it off.”

Hear our interview with Plasencia below ...



The pre-race favorite Oregon Ducks won the team title, led by individual champion Galen Rupp. Stanford, powered by Garrett Heath and his younger brother Elliott, who finished 112th, placed 3rd in the meet.

Find full team results HERE, individual results HERE.