Spring Break - ASU

With the weather as great as its been here in Minnesota, the last thing I've wanted to do is sit at the computer and write on the blog! That said, here are some delayed updates and highlights from our spring trip to ASU.

We had a great week in Tempe. The weather was perfect. We got some good training in from Wednesday-Friday... with a solid meet on Saturday. Our flight didn't leave until a little later on Sunday, so we were able to get some work in before our departure, even on our last day.

As far as the meet:

Micah Hegerle had an outstanding opening meet. Micah broke the freshman record in the hammer throw with his 192'10 throw. The previous record was 181'-something by yours truly. Hopefully Micah will continue to wipe me from the record book! He then went on to his a 171' throw in the discus. A great start.

David Pachuta opened up his outdoor season strong with a 1:50.52 win in the 800m. Travis Burkstrand also put down a solid 3:51.32. Ben Peterson knocked out another 17'+ day in the pole vault.

With all the training during the week the results weren't eye popping, but the the time was well spent.

We're off to Arizona again this weekend, this time to University of Arizona for the Jim Click Shootout.

Pachuta's 800m:

Peterson's Vault:

Micah's Hammer:

Ibes at Worlds!

Ibes qualified for, and competed at the IAAF World Indoor Championships. Congrats Ibes... the program is very proud of you!

Here is more about Ibes on gophersports.com

http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle.dbmlSPSID=38682&SPID=3305&DB_OEM_ID=8400&ATCLID=204907118.

Some Updates

Sorry for the delay in posts. Here are some highlights since I last posted...

The team qualified a DMR, 3 Heps (RJ,and Brock) Blankenship in the Mile, Rombough in the 3k, Fisher in the high jump and Studt in the shot put and weight throw.

The guys competed this weekend and did great, placing 8th as a team. The top eight Americans in the field earn All-American status, and all our guys made it. Our 9 All-Americans ties for the most by any team in the NCAA Championship. NCAA Champs Florida and runners-up Oregon both also had 9 athletes earn All-American.

Pretty good company.

The DMR took third (I'll post video when available). Blankenship led it off - passed to Stroman and then to Harun. Rombough ran the anchor, and with a few laps to go rolled his ankle pretty bad on the rail... it was quite swollen after the race, and there was question as to his ability to race the 3k the next night. That said, Rombough ran down several people in the final 200-meters to move into third in the final meters.

Studt earned his first All-American in the weight, matching his lifetime best at 69-7. He also earned All-American in the shot, placing 6th. He was one of only two athletes to earn All-American in both throwing event (Jason Lewis from ASU, 7th in shot and 6th in weight throw).

The Multi-eventers all earned All-American status with their performance in the hepathlon. RJ finished 6th, Brock was 9th and Jack was 10th (and also the top freshman in the NCAA). They had the unique experience of being part of a world record performance in the hepathlon... Oregon's Ashton Eaton broke the world record with his score of 6,499.

Fisher earned his first All-American honor by making the first two heights with no misses. His jump of 7'.25 tied for 9th.

Great job guys. Now onto spring break down in Tempe, Az.

Big Ten Network

The Big Ten Network will air their coverage of the 2010 Big Ten Championship meet tonight at 8pm!

Big Ten Awards - Congrats!

Aaron Studt - 'Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships'

and

Steve Plasencia - 'Coach of the Year'

Big Ten Champs!

What a special weekend for the program. The guys stepped up huge and put together an incredible meet. Check http://www.gophersports.com/ for pretty solid coverage of the meet (pictures, results, etc). As you probably know already - the team won the Big Ten team title going away... we put down 160.50 points. Ohio State was second with 112.50.

Individual Big Ten Champs include Aaron Studt in both weight and shot put, Ben Peterson in pole vault, Harun Abda in the 600m, Ben Blankenship in the mile and RJ McGinnis in the heptathlon.

--Ben Peterson won the vault on his final attempt.

--Aaron Studt won both the shot and weight on his final attempts.

--RJ trailed going into the final event.

--Blankenship took the lead with 200m to go.

GAMERS!

--Harun on the other hand just kicked the hell out of everyone. SO BORING! :)

There were too many outstanding performance to mention! I will put up video of the individual Big Ten Champions as they become available. Here are a few...

MILE:


SHOT:


600m:

GO TIME!

Alumni Event

Come for dinner and to catch up with friends after the first day of the Big Ten Indoor Men’s Track & Field Meet. Tours of TCF Bank Stadium will be available!

Alumni, parents of team members, spouses, kids, – ALL are welcome!

Where: Mariucci Arena Club Room

When: Saturday, February 27th: 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Cost is $10 per person – kids 12 and under are free! You may pay in cash or check when you arrive.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, February 24th to rmckess@umn.edu

*Indicate in your RSVP if you would like to go on the tour of TCF Bank Stadium.

Big Ten Week!

We are all set for the Big Ten Championship on our home track this weekend. A few tickets are still available at gophersports.com.

Here are a couple video highlights from the Snowshoe last Friday: Brock Spandl PR'd in the vault (17'3) and Studt had a nice toss in the weight (68+).

GO GOPHERS!!!

Big Weekend

We had a lot of athletes compete this weekend and had some really good results. This is good timing as we are nearing the Big Ten Championships in 2 weeks on our home track.

Several distance runners traveled to Seattle for a big meet at the University of Washington - the Husky Classic. Chris Rombough broke the school record (previously held by Hassan) with his time of 7:54.57.

Ben Blankenship also ran quite well with a big PR of 7:59.49 - good enough for third on the all-time list behind Chris and Hassan. Several others had solid showings including Mike Torchia and Matt Barrett in the 5k.

The brunt of the team headed south to Ames for the Iowa State Classic. The meet consisted of a reported 91 teams.

Aaron Studt had a monster weekend with his 69-7 in the weight and 62-9 in the shot put. Aaron won the shot and was runner-up in the weight, but was the top collegiate thrower. Kleinhuizen also had a big weekend - tossing PR's in both weight and shot put.

Andy Richardson also got a win - his in the mile with a 4:05.29 Paul Hilsen also ran a PR in that event going 4:08.12

A few freshman in their Gopher debut had good showings with Cameron Boy running 21.86 in the 200-meter ... and Oladipo Fagbemi jumping 48-9 in the triple. A slew of 800-meter guys ran 1:51. including Joe McFarland, Harun Abda and David Pachuta.

The vaulters had another solid showing... Ben Peterson over 17'2... Brock over 16'7 and Plencner/Szmanda over 16'2. Brock also added a few 23' jumps in the long jump comp.

If I left anyone out I'm sorry... we had a lot of people competing!

Overall it was a great weekend. I will get some videos posted soon...

Posts might slow a bit...

I will do my best to keep some posts going... but I'm currently at the hospital with my wife and our newborn son! They are both at a 'nursing' class - and then we'll be packing up and heading home this afternoon. I thought I'd get a quick post up while they are away. Kilen David Reder was born Sunday at 6:13pm - 8lbs-6oz and 19.5 inches. Both mom and baby are doing great.

Although I wasn't able to make it down to Iowa State - I thought I would get some highlights up:

-The multi-event group went crazy - all hitting PR's and NCAA marks. RJ McGinnis hit the NCAA Auto mark and just barely missed the school record. Joey Schweke and Brock Spandl both hit big PR's and the NCAA provo mark. This right on the heals of RS-Freshman Jack Szmanda hitting his provo mark last week (earning Big Ten athlete of the week in the process). What a group!

-Matt Fisher threw his jersey on for the first time this year and hit a solid provo jump of 2.19 (7-2+).

-The weight guys threw quite well in my absence (should I take a hint?) All hit PR's or were very close. Studt moved his NCAA mark up a bit...

-The miler group of Richardson and Hilen put down some solid times...

-Chris Rombough opened up his season with a nice win in the 3,000-meters - 8:04.71 was also a NCAA provo mark

-Kevin Bradley is getting it going with his 48.88 in the 400-meter.

I'll see if I can get some video up later this week. Not a lot of down-time as you can imagine!!!

Better go pack like I said I would :)

Congrats to Jack!

RS - Freshman Jack Szmanda took down the freshman record and also an NCAA provisional mark in the heptathlon this past weekend at the Jack Johnson Classic. More about it here on gophersports.com.

Jack Johnson

Thanks to Flotrack.com for coming up to cover the Jack Johnson Classic. Here is a highlight video they put together. There are also interviews here:

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

I'll get some clips from the meet up soon...

Harun continues to impress...

We had several bright spots in our second meet of the indoor season, the Minnesota Open. One of the brightest continues to be the young career of Harun Abda. Harun was the 2009 Minnesota Class AA State Champion in the 800m, and has found a nice distance for himself in the 600m race. Although red-shirting, Harun's time of 1:18.43 would be 5th on the all-time list. Video below:

NEXT UP: The team will compete at home again this weekend at the Jack Johnson. Other teams include NDSU, Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, South Florida and Manitoba.

The meet will include an alumni reunion put on by the "M-Club" and a live band during the competition. Should be a fun weekend, so be sure to come by and support the Gophers! If you are an alum, come by and enjoy some food and beverage with other former-tracksters!

In other alumni news: Antonio Vega is the US Half-Marathon Champion. More info and video interview on down-the-backstretch.

Northwest Open Highlights

First off, sorry for the delayed post... I normally try to get something up earlier in the week, but for whatever reason this week got away from me.

We opened up with a very limited group this past Saturday at home for the Northwest Open.

Here are some highlights:

-Harun Abda turning some heads in his first college race (UNAT) in a 1:19+ 600-meter.

-Some guys returning from injury for nice performances... Ben Peterson hitting a provo in pole vault (17') Matt Fisher in high jump (6'10+) and Joe Plencner in his first day vaulting in a long time (15'7).

-Weight guys looking good... Micah Hegerle just missing a provo in his first official meet as a Gopher (63'8) the mark was 9-centimeters short of provo, but good enough for a new freshman record. Aaron Studt with his best opener ever, hitting a provo (64'+). Transfer redshirt Andy Norman with a 2-foot PR in his opener (57').

-Stroman and Shelendich both opening up well in their 800-meter (1:52+).

-Joey Schweke hitting some nice PR's in the hurdles and high jump (6'8+).

-Addison Demer opening up with a 7.00m+ long jump.

600-Meter:

800-Meter:

Ben Peterson: 17'