Friday, February 22, 2013

Gopher Men and Women Fifth After First Day at Big Ten Champs


A school record and runner-up finish by Todea-Kay Willis highlighted the University of Minnesota women's first day of the Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Willis smashed the school long jump record on her way to the second runner-up finish of her Big Ten indoor career. Willis leaped 20 feet, 7 3/4 inches (6.29m) to finish second behind Nebraska’s Mara Griva (20-9). She passed Christin Kingsley’s Minnesota record of 20-5, set in 2009. Willis also finished second in 2011, and missed the 2012 indoor season with an injury.

Laura Docherty and Molly Kayfes ran Minnesota top-10 personal-record times to score in the 3,000 meters. Docherty finished third in 9:23.60, No. 3 in school history, while Kayfes finished sixth in 9:30.39, ninth all-time. The Gopher distance medley relay team placed fourth and now ranks eighth in Minnesota history. Katie Hill, Alena Brooks, Te’Shon Adderley and Maggie Bollig combined for a time of 11:17.94.
Katie Murgic pole vaulted to seventh. She tied her best mark of the season, clearing 12-7 1/2 (3.85m). Christina DeLakis just missed scoring in the shot put. She finished ninth with her best toss of the season, 50-2 1/2 (15.30m).

Several Gophers qualified for tomorrow’s running event finals. Before finishing second in the long jump, Willis posted a new PR in the 60-meter dash. She was the second-fastest qualifier in 7.42 seconds, and now ranks third in school history. Kylie Peterson also advanced to the 60-meter final (7.49). The Gophers advanced a handful of mid-distance runners to finals. Adderley’s 800m time of 2:07.43, sixth in school history, gives her the fifth seed for tomorrow’s final. Brooks won her heat of the 600m with the fourth-best time of the field, 1:30.61. In the mile, Becca Dyson qualified with a PR of 4:47.84.

“We had a really good day,” director of track and field/cross country Matt Bingle said. “People competed well in the pressure situation that is the Big Ten Championships. We had a lot of PRs, even with people who didn’t make finals. We’re where we’re supposed to be right now. We just need to come back tomorrow and take care of business.”

The women’s competition will resume tomorrow morning with the high jump at 11 AM CT. Twelve events remain. Minnesota women are currently in  fifth place with 24 points. Nebraska leads with 50.

For the men, Senior Nick Hutton paced Minnesota with the fastest preliminary time in the mile(4:03.37). The Gophers’ Alex Brend also advanced to the finals in the mile,  running 4:06.55. A pair of runners advanced to finals in two events--Harun Abda and Devin Crawford-Tufts. Abda, a returning two-time Big Ten champion in 2012, advanced to day two of competition in both the 400 (47.32, fourth) and the 600(1:16.81, seventh) with teammate Jacob Capek also qualifying for the final in the 400(47.54).

Crawford-Tufts posted the third fastest time in the 60 preliminaries (6.78) while also advancing with a seventh-place finish in the 200. Senior Sean King also advanced in the 60 in 6.73 that tied for the best qualifier in the event.  Cameron Boy joined Crawford-Tufts in the 200 finals with a time of 21.24. Minnesota’s final team member to advance to Saturday’s finals was Travis Burkstrand, who finished sixth in the 800 prelims.

The distance medley relay team of Burkstrand, Hutton, Kevin Bradley and Goaner Deng finished third in 9:41.20. Jack Szmanda was  fifth-place finish in the pole vault (5.22 meters, 17-01 1/2) and eighth in the heptathlon (2,892) while Oladipo Fagbemi(7.46 meters /24 ' 5.75" and Sam Kettenhofen(7.46 meters (24' 5.75") finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the long jump.  John Simons was seventh in the 3K in 7:55.93.

For the second-straight year, Minnesota is in fifth after the first day of Big Ten competition. Last season, the Gophers rallied to finish within four points of the team’s fourth-straight Big Ten title. This season, Minnesota will need to do the same as Wisconsin set the pace on the first day of competition with 39 points. Nebraska is second  at 29.666, with Indiana (27), Illinois (20.5) and Minnesota (19) rounding out the top five.

Full results of day one are HERE. Big Ten Championships Central page is HERE

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