Short-Cut: Results' Links for April 9-12

Here's where to find Minnesotans competing this holiday weekend ...

Thursday:
Meet of Saints: Results

Friday:
Mesa Classic: Results
Lee Krough Invitational: Heat Sheets * Results

Saturday:
Sun Angel Classic: Gopher Men's Preview * Women's Preview * Results
Blugold Invitational: Results
Emporia State Invite: Results

Sunday & Monday:
St. John's Multis: Results

Tollefson to Return to Action in Boston

Team USA Minnesota's Carrie Tollefson will open her 2009 racing campaign at the inaugural Boston Athletic Association Invitational Mile on April 19, BAA officials announced yesterday.

The race will be held in conjunction with the 113th running of the Boston Marathon, which takes place the next day.

Tollefson (pictured), a 2004 Olympian and the Olympic Trials champion at 1500m that year, will face a loaded field that includes Olympic 10,000m bronze-medalist Shalane Flanagan, 2008 steeplechase Olympian and reigning USA Indoor 1500m champ Anna Willard, 2008 1500m Olympian Erin Donohue, and 2006 USA Outdoor 1500m runner-up Lindsey Gallo.

Also competing will be Amy Mortimer, Michelle Sikes, and Marina Muncan.

Tollefson returns to action after two frustrating seasons of competition. After losing nearly all of her 2007 season to an abdominal injury, the Villanova alum had to scramble last spring for an Olympic Trials 1500m qualifying mark.

At the Trials, the 13-time MSHSL state champion and five-time NCAA champion did not advance beyond the semi-finals.

The Boston race will follow a three-loop course starting and finishing on Boylston street. The event includes a men's invitational race -- headlined by three-time U.S. Indoor 1500m champion Rob Myers, two-time Irish Olympian Alistair Cragg, and Adam Goucher -- as well as high school races open to top Boston area preps.

Photo by Victor Sailer/Photo Run.

... and even more Gophers, here in the Yes/No post!

The University of Minnesota men's track team will continue the warm weather portion of their outdoor schedule this weekend in Arizona. The Gophers are coming off a great indoor campaign where they won Big Tens and finished 14th at Nationals. Led by NCAA indoor shot put runner-up Aaron Studt, the team will try to build on their early successes with another strong meet.

Yes/No will follow Studt to the desert and see if he can continue his hot streak:

Yes/No: Will Aaron Studt surpass 62 feet (18.89m) in the shot put at the Sun Angel Track Classic on Saturday?

Note: Aaron Studt is a junior at the U of M. He was an indoor Big Ten Champion and all-American in the shot put this year. Studt was in 5th place going into his last throw at indoor NCAA's -- he then unleashed this monster throw, sailing 63-6 1/4, a career-best, and nabbed 2nd place. Studt threw 62-11 1/4 to win Big Tens. The Big Ten recently featured Studt in an article on their website. Heat sheets for the Sun Angel Classic show Studt matched up with indoor national champion Ryan Whiting, and are posted HERE.

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 10:00 p.m. CDT Saturday, April 11th. Please put your answer in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. We will continue to offer a bonus for participants making their debut in Yes/No - a correct answer will be worth two points for any first-time players.

My Answer: No.

Last week’s question was another tough one as only 3 contestants answered correctly with "no" when asked the question "Will Katie McGregor break 15:50 at the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday?" The race remains tight as 11 contestants are within 2 points of the leader - Kyle Serreyn.

You can find the full leaderboard HERE.

Good luck and thanks for playing Yes/No on DtB!

Gophers, Gophers, and more ... Gophers!

There's lots of news coming from the University of Minnesota campus today, so let's get right to it all ...

Fisher Named Athlete of the Week ... U of M junior Matt Fisher, the Big Ten indoor high jump champion, earned Big Ten Field Athlete of the Week honors for his 7-4 1/2 clearance at the Auburn Tiger Classic last weekend.

He is now the #3 Gopher high jumper all-time.

Roehrig Named Athlete of the Week ... Gopher women's multi-event maestro Liz Roehrig earned Big Ten Field Event Athlete of the Week honors, too, for breaking her own Gopher heptathlon record with a 5787 tally at the Jim Click Shootout in Arizona last week.

The score automatically qualified the fifth-year senior for the NCAA Championships.

Gopher Women Ranked #12 ... The Golden Gopher women's track and field team notched a #12 ranking in the first USTFCCCA national outdoor track poll released yesterday. The Gopher men, despite being the Big Ten champs indoors, were not ranked.

Penn State (#5) and Michigan (#10) are ranked ahead of the Gopher women. Only the Purdue (#23) is ranked for men from the conference. Texas A & M tops both the men's and women's polls.

Find the full rankings HERE.

Gopher Women Re-Load ... The Gopher women's program announced the seventeen -- yes, seventeen! -- women that compose its 2009 recruiting class yesterday. Included in the group are:

-- Alena Brooks (Diego Martin, Trinidad) a 55.11 400 meter runner and a 2:12.23 half-miler.

-- Jessica Cagle (Grand Rapids, Minn.) the all-class State Meet record-holder in the discus with a throw of 162-4.

-- Bianca Dougan (Tortola, British Virgin Islands) a 56.10 quarter-miler with a 400-meter hurdle PR of 1:02.76.

-- Melissa Flucke (Ashwaubenon, Wis.) the defending Wisconsin Division I state champion in the pole vault with a career-best of 12-1.

-- Cassy Opitz (Eden Prairie, Minn.) the defending MSHSL Class AA cross country and 3200 meter champion.

Find the full listing HERE.

Concordia Teams Still Feeling Floods

It’s been a while since the Concordia College track and field teams have run a meet.

As their MIAC rivals have gotten their outdoor seasons underway either in sunny climes or in the chilly Midwest in the recent weeks, the Cobbers, who of course make their homes in soggy Moorhead, have been forced to scrap three outdoor meets this season.

The Cobbers appeared set to finally open their season today in Fargo, but the North Dakota State’s Bison Open was cancelled late Monday as Moorhead’s sister city recovers from recent flooding and prepares for a second crest of the Red River later this month.

When flood waters approached what turned out to be a record crest earlier this month, the Concordia thinclads actually shut down their season completely. Forced from campus due to the rising waters, Cobber coaches Marv Roeske and Garrick Larson encouraged their teams to put sport aside and pitch in with the city’s sandbagging effort.

As Larson wrote to the teams in an e-mail during the height of the flood: “ … practice will continue to be sandbagging until further notice."

While things are more normal at Concordia now – the campus is open, classes have been back in session since Monday, and track practices are back on schedule – the community still braces for that second crest. The latest flood forecast released this morning has lowered the predicted height of a second flood crest later this month.

The flood hit especially hard for the dozen or so Cobber athletes who hale from Fargo-Moorhead originally. They campus was threatened but so too were their family homes.

Kristin Slette, for example, an all-MIAC quarter-miler from Moorhead, sandbagged her parents’ house with the help of Cobber teammates.

“Our house has to be sandbagged all the way around because we live on a ‘peninsula,’ so the river comes at us from 3 directions making us an island when the river hits about 36 feet,” Slette a junior Biology major explained. “Thus, the next three days we worked on making a four-foot dike all the way around our house"

“Honestly, we wouldn’t have been able to get it done as fast as we did without all the help from my teammates,” she continued. “Everyday I would get a ton of phone calls or text messages from my teammates asking for directions to my house because they wanted to come help sandbag."

Photo: The Slette home during the flood.

After finishing work at her folks’ house, Slette and her teammates spent time helping sandbag other Moorhead homes. Then the authorities predicted an even higher flood crest.

“Once again I was bombarded with calls from my teammates asking if we needed help,” Slette said. “We just finished the top layer on the dike as the river completely covered the road making it impossible to walk down our street. My friends and I ended up having to be canoed back to the road from my house! By the next day it was impossible to get to our house without a boat with a powerful motor because the current was so strong.

In the end, Slette and her parents moved the family’s most valuable possessions to the top floor of the house and evacuated. At roughly the same time, Slette learned they she needed to clear valuables out of her own apartment due to flood fears. Ultimately, she rendezvoused with her family and spent a night with relatives in Detroit Lakes.

Fearing they’ed erred in abandoning the house, however, Slette, her father, her brother, and friends returned home the following day to find four feet of water in the basement. He father and mother stayed with the house after that, maintaining the pumps.

“Training wise, I only ran one day the week that we spent sandbagging because, first of all, helping out not only my family but the rest of the community seemed more important to me than making sure I got every one of my workouts in,” Slette said.

“Also, believe it or not, I was way more exhausted after having sandbagged day after day, than I have ever been during a regular week during track."

And who knows, once Slette and the Cobbers finally get to race in an outdoor meet, they may find that sandbagging will pay dividends on the track.

Lehmkuhle Won't Run at Boston After All

Team USA Minnesota's Jason Lehmkuhle won't be on the starting line for the 113th running of the Boston Marathon on April 20 after all.

Lehmkuhle (pictured) had committed to the race last fall and was announced as part of Boston's elite field in mid-February, just as he was reconsidering his fitness for the race.

"I was really excited about going back there," Lehmkuhle told DtB. "I injured my achilles in late December, and although it wasn't serious, my training in January and the first part of February had to be scaled back."

Lehmkuhle pulled out of the USA Half Marathon Championships in January but ran a PR 44:09 for 8th-place at the USA 15K Championships in March, his 2009 debut.

" ... I looked at how many weeks I had left and how little actual 'marathon' training I had done, and I decided that there just wasn't enough time for me to be ready to run at a high level," the 5th-place finisher at the 2007 Olympic Marathon Trials said. "Boston is not a course I think you want to go into 80 percent prepared. I made the decision to pull out and focus on some other spring races."

Lehmkuhle, who raced in Washington, DC at the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile last weekend, plans to race the Lilac Bloomsday 12K in Spokane, Washington on May 3 and the USA 25k Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 9.

Photo by Victor Sailer/Photo Run.

Carlson 4th at Great Ireland Run

Last week, after his PR 28:25 at the Stanford, 10,000 meters, Andrew Carlson joked about racing against former world record-holder Paul Tergat at the Great Ireland Run.

A web-site headline had billed the former Golden Gopher as a challenger to the Kenyan great at the race, and Carlson (pictured) thought that was kind of funny. (You can find the interview video HERE.)

Turns out the joke was on him.

As the leaders reached the homestretch of the 10K event yesterday, which drew some 10,000 runners to Dublin, there was Carlson, part of a four-man pack -- Tergat included -- kicking for the victory.

Portugal's Rui Pedro Silva won the race in 28:45. Tergat was second in 28:46; Carlson was 4th, a second behind Ireland's Martin Fagan, in 28:48.

There's a brief re-cap of the race and top results HERE.

Other Minnesotans on the Roads ... It was a busy Sunday for the state's elite long distance runners. At the Carlsbad 5000 in California, Team USA Minnesota's Katie McGregor finished 4th in the women's race with a 15:58 clocking for 5K. In men's competition, teammate Matt Gabrielson was 13th in 14:35.

Carlsbad results are HERE.

Competing at the Cherry Blossom 10M in Washington, DC, Team USA Minnesota's Jason Lehmkuhle was 15th overall -- but the #2 American -- in 48:04. Teammate Michelle Lilienthal was 21st in 57:25.

Kristen Nicolini Lehmkuhle did not compete in the race as planned, due a foot injury.

Cherry Blossom results are HERE.

Vega Officially 2nd ... The mystery surrounding Antonio Vega's finishing place at last week's ING Georgia Half Marathon has been resolved. The Team USA Minnesotan finished 2nd with his 1:06:00 performance.

Official results are posted HERE.

Photo courtesy of McMillan Elite.

Short-Cut: Results for April 3-5

Boy, lots and lots going on this weekend ...

The Upper Midwest outdoor season opens, the Gophers compete at Auburn, and Minnesota's professional distance runners compete in Ireland, Washington, DC, and Southern California.

Find results for all of that action -- and a heptathlon in Arizona! -- below ...

Friday:
Jim Click Shootout Multis: Results * Story
Update: Roehrig wins with school record 5587.
Auburn Invitational: Results
UW-River Falls Multis: Results
Wartburg Invitational: Results
Augustana Invitational: Results

Saturday:
Auburn Invitational: Results
Hamline Invitational: Results
Wartburg Invitational: Results
UW-River Falls Invitational: Results

Sunday:
Great Ireland Run: Results
Cherry Blossom 10 Mile: Results
Carlsbad 5000: Results

Two Team USA Minnesota runners will be trading Minnesota’s inclement weather for the runner-friendly climes of Southern California this weekend to tackle the “World’s Fastest 5K."

Katie McGregor and Matt Gabrielson will run the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday against an elite international field. The “World’s Fastest” label is accurate as this race has produced 16 world records in it’s history. The domestic competition will be fierce as Anthony Famiglietti, Bobby Curtis, Shannon Rowbury and Christin Wurth-Thomas are all planning to race. The international competition will be named today HERE.

This week, our question will focus on long-distance ace Katie McGregor as she moves down in distance to run a 5K …

Yes/No: Will Katie McGregor break 15:50 at the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday

Note: Katie McGregor owns a 5000 P.R. of 15:22 and has been a national champion at 10,000 meters on the track and at 10K on the road. More information on Katie McGregor running Carlsbad can be found at the Team USA-Minn website and Carlsbad 5000 website.

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 2:00 p.m. CDT Sunday, April 5th. Please put your answer in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. We will continue to offer a bonus for participants making their debut in Yes/No - a correct answer will be worth two points for any first-time players.

My Answer: Yes

Last week’s question came down to the wire as Garrett Heath nipped his brother by a mere .32 seconds. Only 3 contestants answered correctly with "no" when asked the question "Will Elliot Heath beat older brother Garrett in the Stanford Invite 5000?" Kyle Serreyn remains in 1st place by a single point.

You can find the full leaderboard HERE.

Good luck and thanks for playing Yes/No on DtB.

Get in Gear Changes Starting Times

Get in Gear race officials have announced that the event's 10K and inaugural Half Marathon races will start together rather than a half hour apart as originally planned.

Officials released the following amended schedule for their April 25th event:

-- The 2K with the Fit for Fun participants will start at 8:00 a.m.

-- The 10K and Half Marathon will start at 9:00 a.m. -- with the 10K elite wave starting at 8:56 a.m.

-- The 5K will start at 9:20 a.m.

"Once we finalized the course for the half marathon, we realized it made sense logistically to start the 10k and half marathon at the same time rather than 30 minutes apart," Get in Gear executive director Paulette Odenthal said. "This will be the first year for the half marathon and I think it is going to be real successful. We're certainly pleased with the response and are confident it will fill prior to race day."

Half Marathon participants will follow the same Mississippi River Road course as the 10K until the 5.5-mile mark where they will continue on an out-and-back portion on the St. Paul side of the river to complete the 13.1 mile distance.

All races start and finish in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis.

Race officials expect the Half Marathon to to reach its 1000 participant limit in the next two weeks. Registration for the event's signature 10K is currently 10 percent ahead of last year pace.

Find compete information on the Get in Gear races HERE.

First-Ever National Running Day Announced

People celebrate foolishness on April 1st.

On June 3rd, the plan is to celebrate running.

Twin Cities Marathon, Inc. officials announced today that they, in conjunction with running organizations and events from across the country, will celebrate the first-ever National Running Day on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. The day is set aside to "promote running as a healthy, easy, and accessible form of exercise."

Other organizations involved in the effort include, USA Track and Field, Running USA, the New York Road Runners, and event organizers from across the country.

“Everyone can run. That’s the message of this day,” New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg said in a media release. “As an industry, we know first-hand how great running is. Millions of Americans have discovered that running is an easy way to feel better, look better, and live better."

Locally, recognition of the day includes official state and city proclamations from Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announcing June 3 as Minnesota Running Day.

TCM and partners Marathon Sports of Minneapolis, Running Room of St. Paul, and the Minneapolis and St. Paul Parks and Recreations Boards, will host free, fun-runs that day, led by Team USA Minnesota runners.

Learn more about National Running Day, HERE, on the the day's official web-site.

Read TCM's news release on National Running Day HERE.

Gopher Teams Heading South Again

Those lucky rodents!

While the rest of us are left to "grin and bare" the latest return of winter to Minnesota, the Gopher track and field teams are once again off to sunnier climes.

The men's and women's teams will both compete at the Tiger Classic in Auburn, Alabama on Saturday. In addition, Gopher heptathlete Liz Roehrig will compete Thursday and Friday in her signature event at the Jim Click Shootout, hosted by the University of Arizona.

The U of M sports information folks have put together comprehensive previews for the meets HERE (men) and HERE (women).

Also ... The Minnesota Daily ran a track story yesterday, HERE, and the Big Ten recently profiled Aaron Studt, the reigning conference indoor shot put champion, HERE.

Star-Trib: Another Runner Attacked in St. Paul

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported today that a second female runner was assaulted near Lake Phalen.

According to the story, HERE, on Monday a woman running along the lake was knocked to the ground, hit repeatedly in the face, and had her clothing grabbed at before the lone assailant fled at the approach of witnesses.

The incident may be part of a series of assaults around lake Phalen, according to the Paul Walsh story. On March 11, a woman jogging around the lake was assaulted by two men who struck her in the head, pushed her to the ground, kicked her, and stole her iPod.

Other assaults have been reported in the area in recent months.

Vega Wins Georgia Half (or Not) in 1:06:00

If you're confused about what place Antonio Vega took in Sunday's ING Georgia Half Marathon, well, you're not alone.

The Golden Gopher alum himself, who knows he clocked 1:06:00 for the 13.1 mile event on a windy, 40-degree Atlanta day, is waiting to learn whether he was the race's runner-up or champion. Vega initially thought he finished second to Kenyan Patrick Cheruiyot, whom early reports had winning in 1:05:18.

The Running USA Wire, HERE, reported Cheruiyot the winner on Sunday night, although complete results apparently weren't yet available.

When complete results from the race finally appeared on the race's web-site, HERE, during the day Monday, however, Vega was listed as the champion.

Team USA Minnesota president Pat Goodwin told Down the Backstretch that she is trying to get to the bottom of the issue of whether a timing mistake vaulted Vega one spot too high in the results or if, perhaps, Cheruiyot was disqualified.

When Vega and Goodwin know the full story, we'll let DtB readers know, too.

PRs Abound at Stanford Invite

The main buzz from the weekend centers on Garrett and Elliott Heath both running 13:42 for 5000 meters at Friday night's Stanford Invitational. Thanks to the good folks at Flotrack, you can watch the race itself and then hear what Garrett and Elliott have to say about the results.

We've also included the post-race interview with former Golden Gopher and Team USA Minnesotan Andrew Carlson who finished 4th in the Stanford 10,000m in a PR 28:25.86.


The Stanford 5000m:




Garrett & Elliott Heath Interview:




Andrew Carlson Interview:




There's lots more Flotrack footage from Stanford HERE.

Find full results of the meet HERE.

Short-Cut: Results' Links for March 27-29

Here's what we're keeping an eye on ...

Friday:
Stanford Invitational: Live Results
Update: Garrett Heath runs 13:42.27 ... Elliott Heath runs 13:42.59.

Saturday:
MDRA Seven Mile: Results

Sunday:
ING Georgia Half Marathon: Results

Vega to Race ING Georgia Half Marathon

In a return to a race distance that has treated him well, Team USA Minnesota's Antonio Vega will compete in Sunday's third annual ING Georgia Half Marathon.

Vega (pictured), the former University of Minnesota all-American, made his debut in the distance last July at the New York City Half Marathon, where he ran 1:04:26 for 11th place against a world-class field.

In January, he finished seventh at the USA Half Marathon Championships in Houston, clocking a PR 1:02:55.

Most recently, Vega finished 20th at the USA 15K Championships in mid-March with a 44:45 clocking. Prior to that he was a USA team member and fourth place finisher at the NACAC Cross Country Championships. He earned his way into that race thanks to a 15th-place finish at the USA Cross Country Championships in February.

The ING Georgia Half Marathon, has been a regular stop for Team USA Minnesotans in its three years of existence. In 2007, Team USA's Chris Lundstrom was the runner-up in the race, running 1:06:17. Last year, Lundstrom was 6th in 1:09:44.

Photo by Victor Sailer/Photo Run., courtesy of Team USA Minnesota.

Outdoor track is underway and top-notch distance runners from around the country know the best venue to chase a fast time: Stanford University. Minnesotans like Oklahoma State’s John Stublaski, Georgetown’s T.C. Lumbar and Gopher alum Andrew Carlson will all compete there on Friday.

Two other runners won’t have to travel as far -- Stanford’s own all-American brothers Garrett and Elliott Heath will bring their sub-14 minute 5k P.R.’s to the home track and compete against each other in the fastest section of the 5000 meters.

So, we ask you ...

Yes/No: Will Elliott Heath beat older brother Garrett in the Stanford Invite 5000m?

Note: Garrett Heath is an 8-time All-American at Stanford and ran on their 2006 National Champion Distance Medley squad. The elder Heath is a senior with lifetime bests of 13:56.40 for 5k and 3:39.96 for 1500. Elliott Heath is sophomore coming off a 3rd place finish at NCAA indoors in the 3000. Elliott’s 5k P.R. is 13:59.12.

Both attended Winona Senior High School with Garrett dominating his era with multiple state titles each in the 1600m, 3200m, Cross Country and Nordic Skiing. Elliott is the all-time state record holder in the 2 mile by virtue of his stunning 8:46.12 in 2007.

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 10:00 p.m. Friday, March 27. Please put your answer in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. We will continue to offer a bonus for participants making their debut in Yes/No - a correct answer will be worth two points for any first-time players.

My Answer: Yes.

Last week 10 contestants answered correctly with "yes" when asked the question “Will the combined total of men breaking 25:00 and women breaking 30:00 at the Human Race 8K on Sunday be 13 or more?” Kyle Serreyn has taken over as the sole leader in the Yes/No contest. There are 4 contestants hot on his heels in second place.

You can find the full leaderboard HERE.

Good luck and thanks for playing Yes/No on DtB.

Yetzer, Schmidt Earn Big Ten Honors

Gopher tracksters Elizabeth Yetzer and Kari Schmidt earned the initial Big Ten Big Ten Athlete of the Week awards of the 2009 outdoor season, the school announced.

Yetzer, a sophomore from Lakeville, won both the 800 meters and 1,500 meters at the University of South Florida’s Bulls Invitational to capture Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week honors. She clocked 4:25.35 in the 1500m, an NCAA Midwest Region qualifying time. Yetzer ran 2:10.77 to win the 800 meters.

Schmidt, a senior from Lindstrom, was named the Big Ten Field Event Athlete of the Week. She won the Bull's Invite hammer throw with a toss of 173-4, a personal best and the ninth-best throw in school history. Schmidt also placed second in the shot put with a throw of 47-11.

The awards are the first career weekly Conference honors for both Gopher athletes.

USA Masters Indoor Report: Weddle Wins, Early Miss Trips Langenfeld

Tom Langenfeld, USATF-Minnesota's Masters Track and Field Chair, just sent us a report on the Minnesotans, himself included, in action at the USA Masters Indoor Championships in Landover, Maryland last weekend.

Here's some of what Langenfeld offered about his Minnesota teammates:

"It was Thom Weddle’s weekend — first in the M70 3000m (Friday), second in the Mile (Saturday) and second or third in the 800 on Sunday. (He’s listed second in the posted 800 results, but an Internet report has him third.)

"Jim Schoffman took sixth in the M55 400 and eighth in the 800, both very tough fields. He also moved down into a younger age group to run legs on the Mass Velocity TC medal-winning M40-49 4X40 and 4X800 relay teams.

"Mike Moser was the oldest competitor in the M55 pentathlon by four years and ran into a loaded field. He finished fifth there, but contributed to medal-winning performances in the M50-59 ad-hoc, non-club 4X400 and 4X800 relays."


Tom Langenfeld himself, as we previewed HERE, got the battle he expected in the M70 high jump. The 73-year-old who has won 29 USA Masters high jump titles in his career finished second to 70-year-old Emil Pawlik in the event in Landover.

Both cleared 4-7, but Pawlik won on misses.

"We both got over the winning height -- 4-7 -- on first attempts and missed all three at 4-9," Langenfeld explained. "But I had one careless miss at a lower height. That cost me a chance to get him in a jump-off (in the faint hope that he might finally succumb to exhaustion after already winning the pentathlon with a world-record performance on Friday, and winning the long jump and high hurdles and finishing second in the 60m on Saturday)."

Going into the meet, Langenfeld had been unbeaten in the high jump in his last fourteen consecutive USA Master Championships -- indoors and outdoors. The USA Master Hall of Famer is already looking forward to this summer's USA Masters Outdoor Championships in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for a rematch with Pawlik.

Langenfeld has won high jump titles in eight consecutive USA Masters Outdoor meets, as well as 10 of the last eleven.