Yes/No: Rombough versus Mead at U of M

During this cold stretch in Minnesota, an indoor track is worth its weight in gold.  The University of Minnesota put theirs to good use in January with back-to-back weekends of meets at the Fieldhouse.  Last week, the Gophers dusted off their track spikes and hosted the Northwest Open.  They are following that up with the second meet of the year—the Jack Johnson Invitational.

The Team USA Minnesota crew has been in the news lately since so many of their athletes ran well in Houston last week for the Olympic Marathon Trials.  But this group has achieved success at shorter races as well—A trio of runners will open up their 2012 track campaign at Jack Johnson.

The three Team USA Minnesota runners are all former Gophers.  Heather Kampf will compete in the mile, while Jamie Cheever and Chris Rombough will run the 3000 meters.  A former teammate of Rombough, current Gopher Hassan Mead, will also contest the 3000 meters.

This week we'll keep an eye on two of the best 3000 meter athletes ever to run at the University of Minnesota (#2 and #3 to be precise) as they compete against each other in a rust-buster.  The first Yes/No question of 2012 is...

Yes/No: Will Chris Rombough and/or Hassan Mead break 8:10 in the 3000 meters at the Jack Johnson Invitational?

Chris Rombough has a personal best of 7:54:57 in the indoor 3000 from 2010.  He is currently training for the USA Cross Country Championships on February 11th.

Hassan Mead is an All-American and Big Ten Conference Champion many, many times over.  He has run 7:56:15 for 3000 meters and is the Gopher school record holder in the indoor 5000 meters (Rombough is second on that list).

Rombough and Mead are both competing in their first track races of the year.

To play our game, simply type "yes" or "no" into the subject line of an e-mail and send it to us at DtBFantasy [AT] gmail [DOT] com before 1:00 P.M. CDT, Saturday, January 21st. Please put your answers in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. 

My answer: Yes

Last week's Pick 10 game kicked off the 2012 season of fantasy contests on Down the Backstretch.  It was a close competition with twelve players finishing within five points of each other.  The Marathon Olympic Trials winners were Craig Yotter and Jon Lambert with 40 points.

For all the results, please visit DtB Fantasy Corner, HERE.