Big Ten Athlete of the Week (and some video)

RJ McGinnis was named the Big Ten Athlete of the Week after his decathlon at the 100th Drake Relays this weekend. His score of 7,626 ranks 4th in the NCAA , 3rd on the Minnesota All-Time List and 10th in the world!

The Big Ten award is the programs 9th of the year!!!

Here are some video highlights from last week...

Brock's 17'1

Drake Relays Champions: 4x1600-Meter Relay



Tyler's 58'2

Drake Relays Champion: Studt's 61'6

Resident Viking

For anyone interested in an update on our resident Minnesota Viking hanging around the track... Robison threw 64' at the Macalester Twilight meet Wednesday. Not bad after just a hand-full of practices. The mark automatically qualifies him for the USA Track and Field Championship in Oregon and currently ranks 30th in the world.

The Star Tribune did a write up about Brian last week... you can check it out HERE.

Here is his 64' at Macalester:

Drake ...so far.

Here are some highlights from Drake:

... 4x1600 relay team with a gutsy win! Blankenship closed the anchor in 4:01-low to lean out Stanford's Eliott Heath. The Gophers average 4:07's for the win. Team was Mead, Richardson, Rombough and Blankenship.

...Studt takes another Drake title with his 61'6 for his second title in as many years. Kleinhuizen finishing a great week with his 54'11. (Hit 58' on Wednesday at MAC to go with a PR in the discus AND hammer).

... Brock Spandl going big in gusty conditions with his 17'1 vault. (might be an outdoor PR?)

4x800 up is up tonight! Hopefully the thunder storms stay away...

Sunny Saint Paul

We lucked out and had a beautiful night over at St. Thomas Friday night. With the good weather came some nice performances.

Some major higlights: Ibes having a nice night in the 100/200 with a 10.54 and 21.83, the 110mH guys all hitting big PR's led by Silovich in 14.30, then Duling in 14.49 and RJ in 14.59. Also, down at St. Mary's, the hammer guys had a nice day with Bastian going 196' and Studt going 191'.

Other notables: Joe Plencner 16'11 in vault, Paul Hoplin 201' in javelin, Micah Hegerle 176' in hammer, Kevin Bradley 47.82 in the 400-meter, Fisher hitting 7'0, Demer going 23' in LJ, Ray going 47'4 in triple and Kleinhuizen with another 55+ shot put.

Get to Know Em'

Matt Fisher

Get to Know Em'

Joey Plencner

Skol Vikings

Kare 11's Randy Shaver was out at the track to do a story on Brian Robison making his comeback to track and field... you can see the story HERE.

Joey and Garrett

The boys had a fine showing down in Kansas! Both had numerous PR's in the individual events and completed the two-day event with total score PR's. Joey took the overall title with his 6,807, while Wankel was 4th with 6,551.

Studt and Decathlon Updates

Aaron Studt was named 'Big Ten Athlete of the Week' for the second time in 2009. His 61'11 at the Sun Angel Classic is good enough for 6th in the NCAA and 1st in the Big Ten.

Joey Schweke and Garrett Wankel are off to a good start in the Kansas Relays decathlon. Joey leads after Day 1 with five 'Dec' PR's. Both have started off the second day strong with solid performances in the hurdles and discus. Joey remains 1st after 7 events and Garrett has moved into 4th.

Sunny Arizona

What are the chances you get rained on in the desert? You wouldn't think it would be very likely, right?

Although we hit 'Minnesota spring-like' conditions at ASU during the Sun Angel Classic, we came away with some solid performances. On Friday, the throwers got it started with Andy Bastian and Trey Davis both punching their ticket to the NCAA Regional Championship. Bastian had a season best of 188'9 in the hammer and Davis had a lifetime best of 172' in the discus at Mesa. Jerry Netland also hit a PR as the discus guys were at the Mesa Classic down the road from ASU.

Saturday, we woke up to a cold and rainy morning but the Gophers hit some additional NCAA Regional marks as the day went on. Ben Blankenship took the meet title in the 1500-meter in 3:45.73, while the youngster Andy Richardson also hit the regional mark with his 3:46.95. Aaron Studt kept it going later in the evening with his season opener in the shot put. His 61'11 was also good enough for an NCAA regional.

We'll stay in the area this weekend with St. Thomas on Friday night, and a few heading to Carleton on Saturday.

Another new Gopher!

We are excited to announce the addition of another future Gopher!

Kenny Schofield: Cotton High School, Cotton MN.

Kenny (6'7) is the 2007 Minnesota State Champion in the triple jump. In 2008, he qualified for the State Championship Meet in 4 events (the triple jump, long jump, high jump and the 4x100-meter relay) while finishing runner-up in the triple. Kenny is the top returning triple jumper in both classes.

Big Ten Athlete of the Week

Matt Fisher was named Big Ten Athlete of the Week after his monster jump of 7-4.5. The jump is currently ranked 1st in the NCAA and 7th in the world. (yea... the WORLD).

Some More Future Gophers!

The Gopher Track and Field/Cross Country programs are excited to announce some additional commitments for the 2009/2010 recruiting class! In no particular order...

Drew Paradis: Jefferson High School, Alexandria, MN

Drew was the 5th place finisher at the 2008 Minnesota State Cross Country Meet with a time of 15:51. He was 6th at the NXN heartland regional, which qualified him individually for the NXN national meet in Portland, Oregon. He finished 102nd in the meet with a time of 16:27. On the track at Alexandria, he has run 9:36 for 3200 meters and 4:27 for 1600 meters.

Cameron Boy: Jordan High School, Jordan, MN

Cameron (6'4) is the returning Class 'A' State Champion at 200-meters with a personal best at the Minnesota State Track and Field Championships of 22.00 FAT (+.09w).

Steve Sulkin- York High School- Elmhurst, Illinois

Steve was the NXN Midwest Regional champion, and placed 14th at the NXN national finals. He then qualified for the Footlocker National championship, where he finished 23rd in a time of 15:58. He was the runner-up at the state cross country meet, covering the 3-mile course in 14:19. He has also run 9:12 for 3200 meters, earning him 3rd place at the 2008 Illinois state track meet.

7-4.5

Matt Fisher hit a massive jump of 7-4.5 this weekend down at Auburn to lead the Gophers in the early goings of the outdoor season. The mark currently ranks 1st in the NCAA and 3rd on the all-time list. We'll get a video posted this week.

Also, check out the Big Ten article about Aaron Studt: HERE