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 :)