Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Sunday, February 25, 2018

MIAC Indoor Track Championships: St. Thomas Men Win 34th Consecutive Team Title, Women their 19th

MIAC Indoor Track Championships Men's Results HERE; Women HERE
Photos HERE
Men's Recap HERE Women HERE

Gopher Women Win Big 10 Title

Indoor Track: Gopher Women Win Big 10 Title
Big 10 Results HERE
Photos HERE
Women's Recap HERE
Men finish 9th
Men's Recap HERE

MSU Men Win NSIC Indoor Track Championship; U Mary Triumph in the Women's

MSU Men Win their 7th straight Indoor Track Title. Results HERE. Women's Results HERE
Day 1 Photos HERE; Day 2 HERE
Women's Recap HERE. Lexi Zeis Wins Mile, 3K , and 5K.
Men's HERE

Saturday, February 24, 2018

CNN feature on Gabe Gruenwald

                                                 CNN feature on Gabe Grunewald HERE

Thursday, February 22, 2018

USATF Masters Exhibition Events


From Sherwood Sagedahl
Joy Upshaw, master athlete & USATF representative, coordinated the promotion
of 200M Exhibition runs by M75 and up and W65 and up at the USATF Indoor Meet in 
Albuquerque this past weekend.   

Joy contacted a number of masters t&f athletes, including me, who she thought could run a competitive 200M in their repective age group.   Joy said the purpose was to promote masters t&f.    Hopefully, she said this would encourage more t&f athletes to get involved with masters t&f events.

If you think this is newsworthy go to the USATF site and you will find the results for the 200M Exhibition runs for M75 and W65.  Bob Lida, age 81 and Kathy Bergen, 78, won their race.  They had spectacular times for their age.  The response from the crowd and athletes was great.  I finished 4th with a time of 32.04, which was better than my time of 32.36 earned at  the 2017 USATF Masters Indoor Meet in Albuquerque.  Happy with my time.  As you probably know NBC Sports Channel covered the meet, but they didn't carry these two races, but they are on the usatf.tv site.

If you go to masterstrack.com you will find a group photo.  I believe there are other sites with info on the meet and, maybe, photos.  I read that at least four elite Minnesotans t&f athletes ran in this meet.

Not trying to promote myself, but trying to promote masters t&f.  


Sunday, February 18, 2018

USATF Indoor Track Championships

USATF Indoor Track Championship Results HERE

Ben Blankenship 2nd 1500 in 3:35.02
Garrett Heath 6th in 3K in 8:01.04
Harun Abda 6th in the 80 in 1:47.99
Maddie Van Beek 7th in the 3K in 9:35.02

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Kaitlyn Long and Eric Holst Selected as USATF MN January 2018 Athletes of the Month

January 2018 Athletes of the Month

2/15/2018

The start of 2018 brings with it the start of the indoor track & field season, and also gives us a chance to recognize some of the best field athletes around the state and country - including Kaitlyn Long from the University of Minnesota and Eric Holst from the University of St. Thomas, two of Minnesota’s best weight throwers.

Kaitlyn Long, originally from Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, is a senior competing for the Golden Gophers and has her 2018 season off to a great start. At the 2018 Border Battle meet on January 13th, Long tossed the, at the time, 2nd best weight throw in the NCAA (currently 4th best) at 22.74m (74' 7.25") to crush the Gophers’ previous weight throw school record of 21.05m (69' 0.75") held by Liz Alabi from 2007. This performance earned Long her first B1G Indoor Field Athlete of the Week award, as well as USATF Minnesota’s January Athlete of the Month award.

Long joined the Gophers this season after three years at Winona State University where she was a two-time NCAA Division II indoor national champion in the weight throw.

Eric Holst, a junior at the University of St. Thomas, originally from Lanesboro, Minnesota, has been on fire this indoor season racking up two MIAC Athlete of the Week honors in a row in the month of January. First, Holst threw a career best 59' 5" weight throw on January 12th at the UST Opener. At the time, that ranked him #5 in Division III and #3 all-time at St. Thomas. Then, the following week at the UST Invite on January 19th, Holst moved up to #2 in Division III with a 61' 4.75" toss, nearly two feet farther than his throw the weekend before, earning him USATF Minnesota’s January Athlete of the Month honors. That throw is the 2nd best in St. Thomas school history, and just 18 inches off his now-coach Pat Ahern’s 1993 school record.

Holst has come a long way at St. Thomas from his freshman year best of 42' 5", which was the 9th best weight throw on the St. Thomas team at the time, to now be ranked in the top 5 consistently in all of Division III. He found his stride last spring starting with his breakout performance at the MIAC Outdoor meet in the hammer throw where he threw 177' 11", earning him 2nd place in the conference and top-35 in NCAA Division III.


Honorable Mention Worthy Performances in January

Men:
  • Tyler Jermann, and Iowa State alumni and current Team USA Minnesota athlete, placed 7th at the Houston Marathon in a PR of 2:16:39, qualifying him for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Team Trials.
  • Kevin Lewis, an Iowa native and also a Team USA Minnesota athlete, placed 38th at the Houston Half Marathon in a time of 1:05:02.
  • Jonathan Webb, current University of Minnesota Golden Gopher, swept the sprint event with a win in the 60m dash and the 200m dash at the Border Battle on January 13th in times of 6.80 and 21.86, respectively.
  • Ryan Lockard, another current University of Minnesota Golden Gopher, won the high jump in a meet record 2.17 meters (7-01.5 ft.) at the Border Battle meet. 
Women:
  • Kelly Boeler, a native of Hutchinson, Minnesota and current Twin Cities Track Club athlete, placed 13th at the Houston Marathon in a PR of 2:43:50, qualifying her for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Team Trials.
  • Ayesha Champagnie, a current University of Minnesota Golden Gopher, had a career best long jump of 6.56m (21-06.25 ft.) at the 2018 Border Battle.
  • Karlie Place, another current University of Minnesota Golden Gopher, won the pole vault at the Jack Johnson Classic in 4.28m (14-00.50 ft.), which was at the time the best mark in the Big Ten and the 3rd best pole vault of all-time at the U of M. 
We welcome your nominations!
To nominate an athlete for USATF Minnesota’s Athlete of the Month award, please send a detailed email about his/her performance to maxwell.kuzara@gmail.com with the subject line “Athlete of the Month Nomination”.

Fans can follow along with USATF Minnesota on FacebookTwitter, and online at www.minnesota.usatf.org.

Maxwell Kuzara
Athlete of the Month Committee Chair
USA Track & Field Minnesota
e-mail

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Monday, February 12, 2018

NCAA DI Women's Team Rankings
HERE

Top Ten Marks of the Week
HERE

Jon Grey RIP

Remembrance of  Jon Grey HERE

It’s been less than 10hrs since I spoke with Jon’s mom & then called those closest to him. I still can’t make sense of this tragic ending but I do know how much people loved him. At 29, there was so much living to have & still so much running to be done.

Sunday, February 11, 2018