Five Gopher women and four men have punched their tickets to the meet after last weekend's NCAA Midwest Regional -- including regional champions Alicia Rue and Hassan Mead.
The Gopher women finished 6th in the meet as a team; the Gopher men were 7th. The top five individuals in the meet qualfying automatically for the NCAA Championships.
Gopher Women ... Rue led the Gopher women this weekend with a 14-1 3/4 victory in the pole vault. The clearance established a new Midwest Regional record -- bettering Rue's own 13-11 3/4 from a year ago.
Also putting their names on the NCAA startlists via the meet were Heather Dorniden, runner-up in the 800m in 2:06.09; Elizabeth Yetzer, runner-up in the 1500m in 4:24.20.
Also competing at nationals will be 10,000m meter runner Amy Laskowske and hepthathlete Liz Roehrig. In those events, athletes qualify for national based on a nation-wide, performance-based qualifying standards.
Roehrig earned the right to compete in the NCAA high jump as well, by virtue of a 3rd place finish at regionals with 5-11 1/4.
Gopher Men ... Mead won the 5000m title by taking the lead with 300 meters to go then holding off New Mexico’s Jacob Kirwa for the win in 14:02.25. The regional title is Mead's first. Teammate Chris Rombough was in the lead pack with 800m to go, but ended up 12th in 14:14.33.
Also punching tickets for Fayetteville were Matt Fisher, who finished 3rd in the high jump at 7-1; Aaron Studt, who was the shot put runner-up with 60-03 1/4; and Ben Blankenship, who was the surprise runner-up in the 1500m with 3:45.37.
Gopher Decathlete R.J. McGinnis has also qualified for the meet.
Full results of the meet can be found HERE.
Links to video highlights of the meet are HERE.
Hermanson Wins ... North Dakota State's Laura Hermanson, a Burnsville High School graduate, won the Midwest Regional 800m title in a battle of Minnesota-bred stars. The Olympic Trials finalist edged Gopher Heather Dorniden, the meet record-holder in the event, with a 2:05.60 performance.
Perham native Brittany Gigstead of NDSU also qualified for nationals, finishing 5th in 2:07.78.
You can watch the race HERE.
Garrett Heath Qualifies ... Stanford's Garrett Heath qualified for the the NCAA Championships with a
Younger brother and teammate Elliott Heath finished in the heartbreak position in the West Regional 5000m -- finishing a non-qualifying 6th in 14:01.47.
Results for the other regional meets can be found here: East * MidEast * West.
What about R.J. McGinnis in the decathlon?
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention a 3rd native Minnesotan qualifying for nationals in the 800...Brittany Gigstead of Perham, MN also qualified running for NDSU.
ReplyDeleteLike the previous poster mentioned, I thought I read that R.J. McGinnis of the Gophers qualified as well in the decathlon for nationals.
Do you guys do any fact checking at all? Heath was THIRD, behind Centrowitz and Rupp.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the omissions and errors. I do regret them.
ReplyDeleteMcGinnis is indeed in the decathlon field, as the U of M noted in the pre-regional media release.
I just flat missed Gigstead's great race. Is she the next great "Minnesota" half-miler, I wonder?
Finally, I've got Garrett Heath's place corrected.
With apologies ...
-- Charlie
Chris Rombough qualified in the 5k with an at-large selection as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso,
ReplyDeleteMolly Lehman of Duke and Hopkins fame makes it in the 1500 and Eliot Heath get the expected "at large" bid in the 5k with the 9th fastest seed.
And, I see Nikki Swenson's in the meet in the 800 ... and Hannah Grinaker in the 10,000.
ReplyDelete-- Charlie