Gopher Women Second, Men Sixth at NCAA DI Midwest Region Meet

Gopher women finished second and the men sixth at the NCAA DI Midwest Region Meet on Friday in Iowa.  Host Iowa State won the women's team race with 39 points, Minnesota scored 59. The top two teams in the Region earned automatic qualifying berths for the NCAA Championships. In the men's race Oklahoma State won with 45 points to 57 for runner-up Tulsa with Minnesota tied for fifth with Kansas, as each had 157 points(Kansas wins the tie breaker, which, according to NCAA rules is the team that has the majority of the winning places--i.e. If Kansas number one man is 12 and Minnesota's is 18, Kansas wins the place. Kansas won four of the five "races" between the teams' top five runners).

Junior Molly Kayfes ran a career-best 20:20.9 to finish second in the women's individual race. Minnesota had three finishers in the top ten and four Gopher women ran season-best times for 6K. Maggie Bollig, a senior,  improved by over 20 seconds to finish eighth in 20:35.4.  Senior Laura Docherty was ninth in a season-best 20:37.3. Redshirt sophomore Becca Dyson (20:58.3) was 19th and senior Katie Moraczewski (21:06.2) finished 23nd. Redshirt sophomore Liz Berkholtz was 34th in 21:21.9, and senior Kelli Budd shaved 5.1 seconds off her season-best in a time of 21:26.5.  

Senior Andrew Larsen led the men in 18th place in 30:51.6, followed by seniors Derek Storkel(23/31:02.7) and John Simons(31/31:10.2), sophomore Adam Zutz(42/31:19.2), junior Marcus Paulson(43/31:19.6).  Sophomore Christian Skaret was 87th in 32:16.9 and sophomore Alex Brend in 89th in 32:19.6.

“Overall, I was very pleased with our performance today. Our team was competitive, and I was happy to see the guys fight to the finish,” Minnesota men’s director of track & field and cross country Steve Plasencia said. “I thought our seniors put us in a good position, and I was very proud of the way they competed today.”

Results are HERE. 

Of the 62 teams(31 each for men and women) who qualified for the NCAA Championships in Indiana, Former U of M coach Gary Wilson notes on his Facebook page: "There are 31 women's) teams going to the Big Dance and three of those teams are coached by our U of Minnesota alums. Sarah Hopkins-Minnesota; Andrea Grove McDonough-Iowa State; Beth Alford-Sullivan- Penn State. Way to go women. Very proud of you!!!!"

List of qualifying teams is HERE.