Gophers Keep Winning

Just when the Gophers got done rearranging their trophy case to make room for the women's Big Ten Indoor trophy they earned last weekend, three Minnesota individuals delivered more hardware to the University.

Jumper Derek Gearman, thrower Liz Alabi, and women's coach Matt Bingle were honored by the Big Ten for their performances.

Gearman was named Big Ten Men's Field Athlete of the Championships. He helped the Gophers to a second-place team finish by scoring in three events. Gearman was second in the high jump at 7-1 3/4, third in the long jump at 24-7 1/4, and fifth in the triple jump with 50-6 1/4. He has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in all three events.

Alabi was named Women's Field Athlete of the Year. At Big Tens she was crowned champion in both the shot put and the weight throw. Alabi threw 52-10 3/4 in the shot and 69-0 3/4 in the weight, setting career bests in both events. She has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in both events.

Bingle, in his first year as the women's head coach, was named Coach of the Year for guiding his squad to its first-ever Big Ten Indoor Championship. Minnesota scored 121.5 total points, soundly defeating second-place Michigan with 108.5 points.

Another Minnesotan Makes World Cross Team

USA Track and Field officially announced the members of the USA team competing at the IAAF World Championships Cross Country Championships later this month ... and another Minnesotan is on the squad!

Former Minnesota State - Mankato star Marty Rosendahl (pictured), who is currently based in Michigan with the Hansons-Brooks program, made the senior men's 12K team. Rosendahl finished 16th at the USA Cross Country Championships in Boulder in February and earned a place on the 8-runner senior men's squad after other athletes declined spots.

Minnesotan's joining Rosendahl include senior men's teammates Andrew Carlson and Matt Gabrielson, both of Team USA Minnesota, senior women's 8kers Katie McGregor, also of Team USA Minnesota, and Cack Ferrell, and USA junior men's 8k champion Elliott Heath.

World Cross will be contested March 24 in Mombasa, Kenya.

Collegiate Athletes of the Week

Leading up to its indoor championship this weekend at St. Olaf, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference named their Athletes of the Week.

In the field, Macalester's Susan Brown earend her second weekly honor. She tripled jumped 38-4 at the Pre-MIAC meet at Carleton. Brown is currently the third best triple jumper in Division III. She also won the high jump at Pre-MIAC with a 5-4 1/4 mark. For men, St. John's Erik Diley earned honors for winning both the long jump (21-11 1/2) and triple jump in (45-3 3/4) at The Qualifier meet at St. Olaf. Both were season-best performances for Diley.

On the track, Concordia-Moorhead's Heather Schuster (pictured) earned conference props for running 2:16.51 in the 800 at the Dakota Duals, an NCAA Division III provisional mark. Schuster's time ranks first in the MIAC by nearly 5 seconds. Also noted for performance on the oval -- or the straightaway, at least -- was Gustavus Adolphus College's Tyler Geyen who won the the 55 hurdles at the Pre-MIAC meet. Geyen's time if 7.85 ranks him first in the MIAC.

Photo courtesy of Concordia College.

Goucher's DNS, Heath's DNF Explained

We were curious about two out-of-the-results performances this weekend by some Minnesota natives who had been running very well of late. And, now we have the answers.

Kara Gocuher was a surprise DNS -- did not start -- in the 3000 meters at the USA Indoor Championships. Her agent Dan Lilot informed us yesterday that Goucher became ill just before leaving for the meet in Boston and was unable to make the trip. Shalane Flanagan, who finished one place ahead of Goucher at the USA Cross Country Championships earlier this month won the USA 3000 in 8:56.74.

At the Mountain Pacific Indoor Championships in Seattle, Stanford's Garrett Heath was a DNF -- did not finish -- in the 3000 meters. After his sub-4 mile on February 10 he told us he hoped to run a fast 3000 in Seattle. Instead, it appears, things got a little chaotic.

"I didn’t end up finishing the MPSF 3k," Heath explained via e-mail. "I felt good for most of it, but had to make a bit of a move to go to the lead in the middle of it to keep the pace honest so that our other guys had a chance of qualifying for NCAAs. Originally, I had planned on finishing and trying to run fast, but it turned into more of a rabbit effort in the end."

Oregon's Galen Rupp won the event in 7:54.19.

Stanford's DMR team, where Heath is the 1200 meter leg, is currently ranked #1 on the NCAA performance list at 9:33.16. The Winona native's 3:59.60 mile ranks him #4 in that event, while a 8:01.96 3000 mark from early in the season ranks him #29.

The NCAA Indoor Meet gets under way in less than two weeks, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

National Champion Shani Marks: "Winning is a nice bonus at the end."

Not to be lost amidst all the weekend's Big Ten hoopla is Shani Marks victory in the triple jump at the USA Indoor Championships. The University of Minnesota and Apple Valley High School grad jumped 44-6 earn a companion win to her 2006 USA Outdoor title.

Marks, who competes unattached, edged defending champ Tiombe Hurd who hopped, stepped, and jumped 43-11 1/4. Marks' winning leap was just short of her indoor PR of 44-9 1/2 set at the USA Indoor meet in 2005.

"I felt relaxed and I had fun," Marks said. "The jump was good for where I am at right now in my training. My goal is never to win, it's just to jump better every time. Winning is a nice bonus at the end."

Photo courtesy of the U of M.

Gopher Big Ten Link-O-Rama

Our gathering of stories about the Big Ten Indoor Championships and Minnesota's champion women and runner-up men ...

-- Gophersports.com coverage of women's victory.

-- The Big Ten's wrap-up of the women's championships.

-- Gophersports.com coverage of the Gopher men.

-- The Big Ten's wrap-up of the men's meet.

The Goph-O-Meter ... Minnesota at Big Tens

As Big Ten results roll in, we'll keep you posted on the Gophers' progress ...

Women's 4 x 400: Gophers 5th ... Final Women's Team Scores: Minnesota 121.5, Michigan 108.5, Illinois 107

Women's 5000: Yetzer 8th, Michigan 1st ... Minn 117.5, Mich 103.5, Ill 99 ... Gopher Women 2007 Big Ten Indoor Champions!

Men's 4 x 4: Gophers win! ... Final Men's Team Score: Wisconsin 120, Minnesota 93, Michigan 89

Men's 5000: Vega 7th ...

Women's HJ: Gophers 3rd(t), 6th ... Minn 116.5, Ill 99, Mich 93.5

Men's 200: Buzard 4th ...

Women's 200: Illinois 2nd, 8th .... Minn 108, Mich 92, Illinois 91

Women's TJ: Michigan 4th, Illinois 1st, 6th ... Minn 108, Mich 92, Ill 82

Women's 600m: Dorniden 2nd, Michigan 1-6-8 ... Minn 108, Mich 87

Women's 60m Hurdles: Michigan wins ... Minn 100, Mich 73

Women's 800: Gophers 2-3-4! Michigan 1st ... Minn 100, Mich 63

Women's 60m: Douglas 8th, Michigan 4th, Illinois 2nd, 3rd, 5th ... Minn 81, Mich 52, Ill 51, PSU 48

Women's 400: Michigan 8th, Penn State 2nd & 4th ... Minn 80, Mich 47, Penn State 43

Women's Mile: Brown 2nd, Dorniden 6th, Michigan 1st ... Minn 80, Michigan 46

Men's 600: Langkau 2nd, Badgers 3rd, 5th ... Wisc 105, Minn 71, Ohio State 55

Men's 60H: Gopher & Badger & OSU-free event

Men's 800: Storvick 2nd

Men's 60: Kabia 3rd, Badger 2nd ... Gophers in second place.

Men's 400: Buzard wins in 46.64!

Men's Teams: Wisc 82, Ohio State 51, Minnesota 39

Men's Heptathlon: Badgers 1st, 4th, 7th

Men's Mile: Rombough 6th ... Badgers 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th

Men's High Jump: Gearman 2nd, Badgers 3rd, 6th ...

Men's Weight Throw: Studt 3rd ... Teams: Wisc 35, OSU 32, Indiana 31, Minn 28.

Women's Weight Throw: Alabi wins ... Gophers lead Michigan and Purdue 59-36.

Find live women's results here; find men's here.

Ekiden Squad Second at Yokohama

USA Track and Field reports that the USA team finished second at the Yokohama International Women's Ekiden today. Defending champions Russia won the marathon-length event in 2:14:48 with the USA clocking 2:16:04. The host Japanese were a fast-closing third in 2:16:07.

The runner-up finish is the best-ever for the USA at Yokohama.

Team USA Minnesota's Katie McGregor and Carrie Tollefson were members of the all-star USA team which also included Deena Kastor, Jen Rhines, Amy Rudolph, and Elva Dryer. Tollefson ran her 6K leg, the third of the event, in 19:30. McGregor clocked 32:59 for the fifth-leg 10K, defeating 2004 Olympic Marathon silver medalist Catherine Ndereba of Kenya in the process.

Results from the race web-site are here, though a reading knowledge of Japanese is helpful.

Update: Story and results from the IAAF.

And More: Story from Running USA Wire.

Photo courtesy of Team USA Minnesota. From left: Kastor, Tollefson, McGregor, Rudolph, Rhines, alternate Jenny Crain and Dryer.

Big Ten Indoor: Women Lead, Men a Close 6th

The Gopher women lead the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Champaign, Illinois with 59 first-day points. Favorite Michigan is second with 36 points. Victories by Liz Alabi (shot) and Liz Roehrig (heptathlon) paced Minnesota.

Two names to watch closely as results get posted on Sunday are Gopher star Heather Dorniden in the mile and 600 meters and Michigan speedster Tiffany Ofili in the 60 dash and 60 hurdles. Two events to scrutinize are the 600 and 800 where Gophers and Wolverines pack both fields. Overall, the Gophers have seven remaining finalists ranked in the top-4 on the seasonal performance lists and seven more ranked 5th-8th; the Wolverines have eight and six, respectively.

At the men's meet in Bloomington, Indiana, the Gophers sit 6th, but are only 13 points behind defending champs Wisconsin. The Badgers have eleven second-day athletes seeded in the top-4 and another six ranked 5th-8th ; the Gopher's will need to close the gap -- and hold all the other bunched contenders off -- with only seven top-4 seeds and four 5th-8th guys.

“We got solid performances from our veterans, guys who we knew would perform well,” coach Phil Lundin said. “We needed a few more pleasant surprises from guy stepping up. It was an okay day for us. Tomorrow we’ll try to make up some ground.”

It should be a wild day of track and field!

The Short-Cut: Weekend Results Feb. 23-25

Enough going on for ya? Our links to the weekend's important results ...

Friday:
Ole Open: Women
Update: April Phillips 63-1 1/2, Tami Klenke 7.51, Mary Schletty 36-8 1/2

Pre-MIAC Meet (Carleton): Men / Women
Update: Josh Otto 22.97, Tyler Geyen 7.85, Josh Sorenson 15-9 3/4 Alex Wise 15-3 3/4

Update: Kaela Schramm 7.43 & 8.50, Susan Brown 38-4 & 5-4 1/4, Ashley Luehmann 43-8, Amanda Weinmann 43-0 1/4 & 51-6 1/2, Janna Castellano 11-7 3/4, Shanna Dawson 11-1 3/4

North Central Conference Championships: Men & Women
Update: Kali Erlandson 5-8, Jim Dilling 23-7, Katelin Rains 18-5 3/4; Short Day 1 Story

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference: Men & Women
Update: Bemidji's Joe Remitz and Moorhead's Jennifer Hensel Feild Athletes of the Year.

Saturday:
The Qualifier (St. Olaf): Men
Update: Lynden Reder 65-8 1/4, Matt Schroeder 15-11, Brian Sames 2:30.52, Erik Diley 45-3 3/4

North Central Conference Championships: Men & Women
Update: Men: 4 x 4 --USD 3:21.36, Mankato 3:22.25 ... Teams: USD 223.5, Mankato 222!
Update: Women: Mankato runners-up to USD, Rains sets NCC standard at 13-5 3/4

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference: Men & Women
Big Ten Indoor Championships: Men Performance Lists
Update: Schnaible 2nd, Gearman 3rd; Gopher men a close 6th after Day 1.

Big Ten Indoor Championships: Women Startlists
Update: Roehrig wins Multi, Alabi, Podomonick 1-2 in shot; Gopher women lead.

USA Indoor Championships: Men & Women
Update: Graham 3rd, Watson 5th; Goucher DNS.

Sunday:
Big Ten Indoor Championships: Men
Update: Gopher men second, Buzard, 4 x 400 winners.

Big Ten Indoor Championships: Women
Update: Gophers are Big Ten Champs! Alabi wins weight throw too!

USA Indoor Championships: Men & Women
Update: Shani Marks wins TJ at 44-6; Ryan Kleimenhagen 8th in 4:13.56

Two Good Reads: Scott Jurek Q/A, Beth Alford-Sullivan Story

I found the two links below via Alison Wade's fine Elite Running blog. I enjoyed them, so I thought you all might too ....

-- A feature story on Beth Alford-Sullivan, the Hopkins High and U of M graduate who leads Penn State's men's and women's track and field programs. She'll be travleing between the Big Ten men's and women's meets this weekend in Indiana and Illinois to watch her teams compete.

-- An interview with Scott Jurek, arguably the world's top ultra-marathoner. (The media's fascination with Dean Karnazes notwithstanding.) Jurek, a Duluth native, is the seven-time winner of the Western States 100 mile.

Jurek's got an interesting web-site of his own, here.

USA Indoor: "He doesn't get a 13 second head start"

The good news for former Stillwater star Sean Graham is that he's the #2 seed in the 3000 meters at the USA Indoor Championships this weekend. The bad news? #1 seed Matt Tegenkamp's 7:40 is quite a bit faster than Graham's 7:53.

"Yeah, 7:40 is no joke," Graham admitted to DtB via e-mail. "A thirteen second deficit in any race is a hell of a lot. But that's what makes track exciting, you never know what can happen on any day, and as far as I have been told, he doesn't get a 13 second head start."

Graham, his former Stillwater teammate Luke Watson, also in the 3000, Duluth native Kara Goucher in the women's 3000, Team USA Minnesota miler Ryan Kleimenhagen, and USA Outdoor triple jump champion Shani Marks all compete in this weekend's championship in Boston.

Graham, who trains with the Oregon Track Club in Eugene, is confident that he can improve on the 7:53 he clocked two weeks ago at the University of Washington and make a race of the 3000.

"The 7:53 is an indoor PR for me, I ran 7:46 last Summer outdoors," he noted. "I definitely feel I have room to run faster considering how I felt in Seattle. I am really looking forward to this weekend to not have to think about pacing and pressing alone at the end, but just racing hard and fast."

Graham also looks forward to racing with Watson, his old teammate with the Ponies.

"It is pretty cool to bump into each other at different races throughout the season," Graham said. "It does make things a little easier, though, to see a familiar face that you have known for so long."

"Would I have guessed back in high school that Luke and I would be competing against each other, him for Adidas me for Nike, in 10 years, probably not," the William and Mary alum said. "But with the coaching that I have had -- I'd say the best in the US in their respective fields, Scott Christensen high school, Andrew Gerard collegiate, Frank Gagliano post-collegiate, and Luke would most likely same the same about his coaching -- I am not surprised that we will be lining up again this weekend. Its awesome, who else in the country gets to do that?"

USA Indoor competition gets underway Saturday morning and concludes Sunday afternoon. ESPN2 will cover the meet from 3-5 p.m. on Sunday.

NCC Indoor Championships this Weekend

The University of South Dakota is hosting the NCC Indoor Championships on Friday and Saturday at the DakotaDome in Vermillion. The event will serve as one of the final indoor championships for the Division II conference which will cease to exist following the 2007-08 season.

Despite the departure of North Dakota State University, Northern Colorado and South Dakota State University, the remaining NCC member schools feature some of the top track and field talent in Division II. It will all be on display this weekend. A live video webcast is available on the USD website.

2006 Minnesota Runners of the Year

For years Jack Moran compiled the best road race performances in Minnesota and published the results on his website, as well as in an annual yearbook. When Jack retired as state record keeper following the 2005 season, it was unclear if anyone would continue the annual rankings.

Due to popular demand, masters runner Mike Setter stepped up to the plate and worked with new state record keeper Barb Leininger to compile the 2006 results. One added feature is the ability to view all of the qualifying performances for a particular age group.

Leininger reports that she and Setter plan to continue the process this year and provide updates on the standings during the 2007 season. You can send questions and comments you might have to Leininger at tcmbarb@comcast.net.

Yokohama Ekiden Preview

Victah Sailer has posted an in-depth preview of this Sunday's Yokohama Women's Ekiden at LetsRun.com. The all-star U.S. team, featuring Katie McGregor and Carrie Tollefson faces serious competition from the Russian and Kenyan squads.

McGregor acknowledges the strong field in a press release from Team USA Minnesota, but notes that the U.S. women have fancy plans for their trip to Japan. "Other countries are also forming great teams because they know we have a good one," said McGregor. "We have a goal of getting the American record and the course record too."

McGregor is slated for a 10K leg, while Tollefson will cover 6K.

Photo courtesy of Team USA Minnesota.

Gopher Teams Ready for Big Ten Meets

I have a non-track, non-running friend who asked me the other day, "So when does track start?" Were I a less patient fellow, I might have replied, "Dude, are you kidding, it's Big Ten Indoor weekend already! The season's half-over."

Indeed, the Gopher's are sending two strong squads to Champaign, Illinois (women) and Bloomington, Indiana (men) for the conference championships this weekend. The #13-ranked Gopher women, Big Ten champs outdoors last year and third under-cover, hope to top #2-ranked Michigan for the indoor title this year. The Gopher men, runners-up in in 2006 and in three of the last four seasons, hope to break #2-ranked Wisconsin's 6-year hold on the Big Ten Indoor title.

Women's coach Matt Bingle, who described his team Big Ten readiness "85% there" after the Notre Dame meet in early February, is pleased with the status of the team he takes to Illinois this weekend.

"I think we are close to being a 100%," Bingle said via e-mail, "but we do have a little bit sickness going through the team. So it will be interesting to see if that affects us."

Despite the high stakes, Bingle added that keeping the team loose is a priority this week.

"I think that the team needs to have fun and be loose, I think we all perform better when we are that way," he said. "They need to have fun competing!! This week we are resting and trying to enjoy being in the week! It is the easiest week of practice! As coaches we are taking a laid back approach to it and just going with the flow of the team! We are all just trying to enjoy the whole Big Ten Meet!"

Key events for the Gopher women are the 600, 800, pole vault, throws, and pentathlon. Liz Roehrig is the two-time defending champ in the pentathlon. Heather Dorniden is the defending champ at 800, but faces nemesis Geena Gall of Michigan in a duel with important team implications.

The Gopher SIDs, have produced a nice tip-sheet for the meet that you can find here. The Big Ten performance lists are found here.

At the men's meet, the key to success will be having the Gopher's balanced team score well across the events and, perhaps, to have the team's young distance stars take a bite out of Wisconsin's regular dominance of the sweaty events. Since we looked at the Gopher men last week, the team has improved its standing on the conference performance lists -- Aaron Buzard now leads the 200 and 400 meter lists, Adam Schnaible now leads the 20-pound weight list, and Ibrahim Kabia is now the #2 ranked 60 meter man.

Minnesota's men's tip sheet can be found here.

Competition at both venues begins Saturday morning and concludes Sunday afternoon.

Collegiate Athletes of the Week

In our weekly round-up of Minnesota's small college Athletes of the Week, some familiar names have again risen to the top ...

In the the North Central Conference MSU-Mankato's Katelin Rains and Jim Dilling earned Athlete of the Week distinction for the 4th and 6th time this season, respectively. Rains (pictured) vaulted 13-6 1/2 last weekend, to set the U of M fieldhouse record and the NCAA Division II all-time record. Also honored were half-milers Liz Palkie of the University of Minnesota - Duluth and Pat Lehmann of Mankato.

In the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, St. Mary's thrower Amanda Weinmann earned her conference's weekly notice for the 4th time. Macalester jumper Kaela Schramm earned mention for the 3rd time, while St. John's distance runner Chris Erichsen was honored for the first time this season.

Erichsen clocked an NCAA automatic qualifying time in the 5000 meters over the weekend. I'm compelled to quote the last sentence of the MIAC blurb describing Erichsen's effort: "The time of 14:31.32 currently ranks him fourth in NCAA Division III and surpasses the previous Saint John's record of 14:39.1 set by Charlie Mahler in 1985."

In the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, Winona State hurdler Jessica Devine was the lone Minnesotan named Athlete of the Week. Devine clocked a school record 8.28 in the 55m hurdles at the UW-L Dual in her hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Photo courtesy of MSU - Mankato.

Brandon Gleason Update

The condition of Brandon Gleason, the Hamline University distance star who was struck by an SUV while on a training run last week, is improving according to his coach Paul Schmaedeke.

"He had a skin graft Wednesday of last week over the compound fracture site on the tibia," Schmaedeke told DtB. "They checked progress of the graft [Monday] and were very pleased with what they saw. They said the graft has taken a 100%. I am guessing this is big in helping prevent infection."

Both of Gleason's legs were run over by both a front and rear wheel of the SUV. Only his right tibia was broken, however. The extent of ligament damage to the left knee was initially unclear.

"They also checked his knee late last week," Schmaedeke said. "They found a torn MCL but the ACLs were only stretched. Good news again, no additional surgery should be needed.

Schmaedeke expects Gleason (pictured) to be released from the hospital sometime this week and to return to classes by February 26th.

Photo courtesy of Hamline University.

Kabia, Schnaible Named Big Ten Athletes of the Week

Gophers Ibrahim Kabia and Adam Schnaible were named Big Ten Track and Field Athletes of the Week for their performances at the Snowshoe Open last Friday.

Kabia, a Brooklyn Center native, broke the school and the fieldhouse records in the 60 meter dash with his 6.66 second performance. The mark provisionally qualified Kabia for the NCAA Indoor Championships and is the second-fastest time run in the Big Ten this season.

Schnaible recorded the best weight throw mark in the Big Ten this year with a distance of 67 feet, 3 1/4 inches, bettering his previous NCAA provisional qualifying distance of 65-4 1/4. The Burnsville native also marked a season-best in the shot put with a 56-10 3/4 throw. Schnaible holds the school record in the weight throw with a toss of 69-8 1/4 from last season.

Meeting to Determine Cross Country Circuit

USATF Minnesota Women's LDR Chair Cindy Brochman recently announced in an e-mail that a meeting will be held to determine the 2007 USATF MN Cross Country Circuit. All interested parties should attend:
Thursday, February 22, 5:30 pm
Joe Sensor's, 494 & France, Bloomington

For more information, contact Brochman at: usssa_membership@msn.com