If you ask any of the Gopher's men's team or staff about the Big Ten meet, they will tell you that they had something to prove. Prove it they did with senior Ben Blankenship leading the way. "We belong," said Blankenship, who finished third in the individual race, a little more than a second out of first. What the Minnesota men felt they had to prove was that they were among the elite in the Big Ten and the nation. Their effort at Big Tens put them third in the conference and they moved back into the top 25 in the coaches national poll, ranking 24th. They remain fourth in the Midwest Regional rankings behind Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Tulsa.
The Minnesota team was disappointed in their performances in both the Griak Invitational and the Pre-Nationals meet, said Blankenship, believing that they were better than what they displayed at those events. The difference between those meets and Big Tens, Blankenship said, was strategy. Ben blamed himself for the Pre-Nats results because, he said, his own early fast pace pulled along teammates Mike Torchia and Pieter Gagnon, causing both to go too fast with their results suffering as a consequence.
"What we did at Pre-Nats," said Blankenship. "Cast an ugly shadow, but it ended up working in our favor in two ways. It got people motivated. It was like a thorn in people's sides. And it showed us what happens when you don't run your own race."
Everybody got caught up in the moment and went out too fast, then had to recover or couldn't recover fully to get back into the race, Blankenship said. "Griak and Pre-Nats gave us the opportunity to test the waters," he said. "We certainly did that and it didn't work out so well. We knew we were better than that. So we had something to prove to ourselves."
On prior form, Big Tens was Wisconsin's race to lose with Indiana a strong second. Thus, realisitically the best the Gophers could hope for was a third place finish, yet they came within 26 point of Indiana in part, Blankenship says, because both Indiana and Wisconsin ran conservatively, feeling each other out for most of the first half of the race. "Guys tend to run with a little more caution," said Blankenship. "The top women tend to go out and spread things out, but it seems more with the men we'll sit back and wait for something to happen."
This allowed the Gophers to relax, settle in and stay close to the front of the huge front pack that formed. "Ohio State, Penn State, they all had their guys up there," said Blankenship. Somewhere around 6K, Blankenship decided that it was time to make a move. "Vince McNally from Penn State, I think it was, was leading," he said. "I was really feeling good. I was thinking there's around 2K to go. I was trying to figure out where the mile to go mark would be because I'm pretty confident of my ability to finish and I figured I probably had the best mile finish, so I made a break, tried to shake things up a bit.
"I think (coach Steve) Plas(encia)was just as surprised as I was. I looked over at him and he had sort of a blank look on his face as I went by. Nowhere in my visualization of how the race was going to go had I pictured this, but I thought it was the right thing to do." Big Ten 10K champ on the track Mohammed Ahmed eventually covered the move and then threw in some surges of his own.
"I thought I was cruising," said Blankenship. "But Mohammed really took off, it seemed like he threw in a 60 second quarter there. I wasn't surprised because he did the same thing to (teammate Chris) Rombo(Rombough) last year in the Big Ten 10K, so I had to decide to go with his surges or just sit back a little and see what happened."
For a brief time, Blankenship was in "no man's land," alone some meters behind Ahmed and in front of the chase pack. Soon Indiana's Andrew Bayer(who finished second) and Andrew Poore(who faded to 18th); Wisconsin's Landon Peacock(who won)and Elliot Krause(fifth place finisher) caught Blankenship and the running version of the cycling "peleton" went after Ahmed, who looked to have the race in hand until he started climbing the final hill on the final straigtaway to the finish.
"He'd(Ahmend) looked really smooth before then, but just got ugly," said Blankenship. "I think it was a struggle for all of us at that point, but he seemed to be coming apart."
Bayer and Peacock whipped past Ahmed with Blankenship in their wake. The duo dueled it out to the finish with Peacock edging past Bayer near the line and Blankenship closing strong in the final steps. "I don't know if there was anything I could have done differently that might have changed the outcome," Blankenship said. Behind him, fellow senior Torchia finished 14th, sophomore 17th, sophomore Kevin Lachowitzer was 30th and frosh Andrew Larsen came in 37th.
"A pretty good day for the Gophers," said Blankenship. "I really want to point out Keven Lachowitzer. He's had a somewhat tough career. He's had a few injuries." But he came through in the clutch, Blankenship noted, as did the rest of the team. Now it's on to the next challenge, the Midwest Regional meet in less than two weeks. There looms number one ranked Oklahoma State and eighth ranked Oklahoma, the favorites to go one, two.
"Realistically, it's Oklahoma State's race to lose, just like it was for Wisconsin at Big Tens," said Blankenship. "We've gone back and forth with Oklahoma in the past." This puts Minnesota in the position of having to upset Oklahoma to be confident of advancing to the NCAA Championships or finishing an impressive third or fourth and sweating out the selection committee's decision of who to invite to the "Big Show."
"We haven't run our best yet," says Blankenship. He notes that his extended track season this summer--he ran the NACAC Championships in Alabama in July, then took six weeks off to recover, coming into cross country season fearing he was "out of shape," but instead discovering that the rest may have been a "blessing in disguise," as he's more refreshed and ready to go as the season's big meets approach. It has been the trademark of Plasencia's teams at the U that they have peaked at the right time. They all hope that tradition will continue.
Blankenship at the front of the pack at the Big Ten Championships. Photo by Sean Hartnett
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