Friday, April 15, 2011

Gophers, Ex-Gophers Strong at Mt. SAC

University of Minnesota sophomore Stephanie Price finished 5th in the Mt. SAC Relays Invitational Elite 10,000 meters on Thursday night in Walnut, California, part of a contingent of Gophers and former Gophers excelling the the meet.

Autism 5K

Price clocked a time of 34:02.15 in her debut 10,000m. Her time ranks #4 in Golden Gopher history. Redshirt freshman Katie Moraczewski ran the #8 time in school history in the steeplechase, placing 13th in the Open A 3,000-meter steeplechase in a time of 10:52.56.

Two former Gophers won Mt. SAC Relays titles on Thursday. Emily Brown won the Olympic Development Invitational Elite 10,000 meters in a time of 33:16.44. Jamie Cheever captured the title in the Olympic Development Elite 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:02.18.

Gopher Men ... Minnesota senior Mike Torchia placed ninth in the Mt. SAC Relays Olympic Development Invitational 10,000m run. Torchia clocked a personal-best time of 29 minutes, 13.20 seconds, just two seconds shy of breaking into the Gopher top-10 list in the event.

Pieter Gagnon finished second in the Olympic Development Elite 10,000 meters with a time of 29:24.11

In multi-event competition, Jack Szmanda moved up six places on the second day of competition, to finish in eighth-place in the Mt. SAC Relays decathlon. Szmanda posted a a career-high score of 7,286 points.

He opened the day with a time of 15.12 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles, then tossed the javelin a distance of 138-8. Szmanda made up a lot of points by clearing 15-9 in the pole vault. He finished with a throw of 153-11 in the discus and a time of 4:39.07 in the 1,500 meters.

The Gophers also had three decathletes competing in the California Invitational Decathlon, contested at the same site as the Mt. SAC Relays decathlon. Brock Spandl, competing in his first career decathlon, was edged by one point for the title with 7,384 points.

Spandl’s score ranks sixth in Gopher history. He ran a time of 14.83 in the 110-meter high hurdles to start the second day. Spandl’s effort in the pole vault was sandwiched between a throw of 122-3 in the discus and 162-0 in the javelin. He ended the competition running a time of 4:57.32 in the 1,500 meters.

Joey Schwecke finished third with 7,096 points with marks of 15.92 in the 110m hurdles, 137-5 in the discus, 13-5 1/4 in the pole vault, 156-6 in the javelin and 5:00.31 in the 1,500 meters. Kenny Schofield slipped to 14th with 6,278 points after failing to make a height in the pole vault. Schofield’s other performances were 15.93 in the 100m hurdles, 120-3 in the discus, 145-3 in the javelin and 4:37.79 in the 1,500 meters.

2 comments:

Paolo Gianni said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paolo Gianni said...

Both Team USA women, Emily Brown and Jamie Cheever, also qualified for the Olympic Trails in their respective events with sub "A standard" times! Congrats!