Friday, March 05, 2010

Friday Morning News Round-Up ...

We've still got a desk-full of news items that we haven't had a chance to get to this week, so we'll bundle them up in a little news package this morning ...

Heath Joins Leer at World Indoor ... Garrett Heath will be joining fellow Minnesotan Will Leer on the USA team for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar next weekend. Heath, a Winona native, was named to the USA squad yesterday after his 5th-place finish at last weekend's USA Indoor Championships.

Leer, a Minnetonka native, made the squad by virtue of his runner-up finish at USA Indoors. The top two finishers in each event earned spots on the World team, provided they had a qualifying mark for the meet and wanted to attend.

Twin Cities Marathon Half Full ... Twin Cities in Motion, the organizers of the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, announced this week that their marathon field is more than half full. Capacity for the October 3 race is 11,200 runners.

Grandma's Marathon reports on its web-site that 5600 runners have entered the June 19 event. Grandma's Marathon's capacity is 9500 runners.

Gopher Men Ranked #12 ... By virtue of some of the team's Big Ten Indoor-winning performances, the University of Minnesota men's track team rose to #12 in this week's NCAA poll. The Gophers had been ranked #17 nationally, going into last week's Big Ten Championships.

The Gopher women, the 4th-place finishers at Big Tens, are ranked #32 this week, down three slots form a week ago.

Studt, Plasencia Earn Honors ... The Big Ten Conference honored Gopher thrower Aaron Studt and Gopher coach Steve Plasencia this week.

Studt (pictured, below) was named the Field Event Athlete of the Meet. The defending Big Ten Indoor shot put champ won both the shot and weight throw last weekend with come-from-behind final round throws.

Plasencia was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year for the second year in a row after the Gophers defended their team title in a romp.


Photo by Becky Miller/Gopher Track Shots.

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