USATF Masters Summary

Here's the wrap up from the USATF Masters Championships.  There were some glitches in the reporting of results and in WiFi coverage for people at the meet, so here is a summary of what happened in North Carolina courtesy of Tom Langenfeld: We missed one Minnesota gold medalist:  Chris Cohen of Chanhassen won the M45 400m hurdles in 63.15 on Sunday.  He earlier took third in the 110m highs in 17.14 (a Minnesota age group record) behind two hurdlers who were within a tenth of a second of the American record.  

Chris is a former Gopher defensive back but hadn’t hurdled since high school until last year.  (He wore a Gopher track uniform in the highs, so is easily identifiable in the video HERE.) He was boys track coach at Minnetonka 2000-2013, assistant at Chanhassen this past year.

By my quick count, looks like Minnesotans brought home a total of 15 individual medals – seven gold, three silver, and five bronze.

Sherwood Sagedahl accounted for a third of those.  And after winning  the pentathlon, 100m, 200m, 400m, 1500m, long jump and javelin, he ran a leg on the winning M75 non-club 4x400 relay team (5:01.88).

A little late now, but a few other notes I would have passed along from Winston-Salem if I could have:

Carl Etter – Although consistently among the national leaders in the jumps, he was competing in his first USATF national.  His winning LJ and TJ distances bettered the listed M70 Minnesota age group records.

Paul Lykken – The defending M50 javelin champion, he missed the gold this year by just 2 centimeters – three-quarters of an inch! (55.10m to 55.08m).

Jim Schoffman – He was able to run his age in the 400m again, Achilles problem notwithstanding.  Jim turned 60 last year, and ran under 60 several times during the season.  Now 61, he ran the 400m final in Winston-Salem at 60.98.

Susan Loyd – Nursing a knee problem, she still managed a fourth in the W55 400m and made the finals in both the 100 and 200m.

Tom Langenfeld – Fourteenth consecutive outdoor national HJ championship, 16^th out of the last 17 years, 22nd overall dating back to 1975.  (This year’s was the first one won on misses, however.)  Competed as a 78-year-old Sunday.  Turned 79 the next day.

Some of the Winston Salem Journal coverage of the USATF Masters on the friendships of the athletes HERE, on middle distance legend Nolan Shaheed HERE.