Gopher Men Third, Women Sixth Heading into Final Day of Big Ten Outdoor Champs

At the conclusion of day two of the 2013 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the Gopher men are in third place and the women are in sixth.  With 35 team points, the Gophers trail Nebraska(46.5) and Wisconsin(44.5). The women's team has 24 points, Wisconsin leads with 51.

For the Gopher men,  Wally Ellenson finished third in the high jump. The freshman cleared 2.12 meters (6'11.5 ") behind Indiana’s Derek Drouin (2.24 meters, 7-04.25 ft.) and Purdue’s Geoff Davis (2.12 meters, 6-11.5 ft.). Point scorers were: Dominique Howard (fifth, 56.78 meters, 186-03 ft.) and Mark Jennings (10th, 52.31 meters, 171-07 ft.) in the discus. Bob Nicolls (seventh, 9:00.95) and Derek Storkel (eighth, 9:02.78) in the 3,000 meter steeplechase.

Micah Hegerle, who picked up Minnesota’s fourth-straight Big Ten title in the hammer throw on Friday, finished 13th in the discus. In the prelims, the 800 duo of Travis Burkstrand(1:47.56) and Harun Abda(1:49.07) both won their preliminary heats to advance to Sunday’s finals. Cameron Boy advanced in a pair of events, finishing second in his 200(20.97) heat and sixth(10.61) in the 100 prelims. Jacob Capek advanced in the 400 prelims in 47.21.  John Simons posted a time of 3:47.92 in the 1,500 to qualify for the finals. Minnesota’s 4x100 relay team also moved on after posting a time of 41.07 in the preliminaries.

For the women, senior Emily Betz took fourth in the javelin with a new personal record of 151 feet, two inches (46.08m). She now ranks ninth on Minnesota’s all-time list in the event. Junior Katie Moraczewski closed out the night with a fourth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Moraczewski also set a PR, her time of 10:14.07 ranking third all-time.

Also scoring for Minnesota on Saturday were senior Todea-Kay Willis in the long jump (seventh) and Alex Beckman in the heptathlon (eighth). Both Alex (4,916) and Amanda Beckman (4,825) turned in top-10 heptathlon point totals for Minnesota.

The Gopher 4x100-meter relay and seven individual runners qualified for Sunday finals. The 4x100 team of sophomore Jessica Waldvogel, Willis, junior Megan Geyen and senior Kylie Peterson finished in 45.64 seconds, the relay’s fastest time of the season and the eighth-fastest in school history. Minnesota will have two representatives in each of the 400m, 800m and 1,500m finals. Geyen ran the second-fastest time in school history (53.72) to finish third in the preliminary heats of the 400m. Waldvogel (55.57) finished eighth and now ranks ninth all-time.

Both junior Te’Shon Adderley (fourth) and senior Alena Brooks qualified in the 800m. Adderley’s new PR of 2:07.55 ranks seventh in Minnesota history. In the 1,500m, Katie Hill posted the best time by a Gopher this season, finishing in 4:27.43. Juniors Hill and Maggie Bolligwill both run in Sunday’s final.

Willis qualified for the 100m final with a PR of 11.73. She now ranks sixth all-time.

Through two days of competition, eight events have been scored. Thirteen events remain, and the triple jump will kick off the action on the third and final day Sunday. Results of Saturday's prelims and finals are HERE. Men's Photo gallery is HERE. Women's HERE.