Golden Gopher Cross Country This Week:

Men
Pre-NCAA Meet
Saturday, Oct. 13 Terre Haute, Ind.

Jim Drews Invitational
Saturday, Oct. 13 West Salem, Wis.

Golden Gopher Watch List Oct. 13, 2007
Minnesota Travels to Pre-NCAA Meet- The Minnesota men’s and women’s cross country teams will travel to Terre Haute, Ind., to compete in Saturday’s (Oct. 13) Pre-NCAA Meet. Both the Gopher squads will be running in the White Race, with the men starting at 10:40 a.m. followed by the women at 11:20 a.m.
Gophers to Send Athletes to Drews/Neubauer as Well - The Golden Gophers will also send athletes to compete on Saturday in a pair of meets hosted by Wisconsin-LaCrosse - the Jim Drews Invitational for the men and the Tori Neubauer Invitational for the women.
Gopher Women Spend Second Week at No. 4 - The Minnesota women jumped up to a school-record No. 4 national ranking on Oct. 4 and maintained its lofty national ranking this week.
Gopher Men Ranked No. 24 - The Gopher men are ranked No. 24 in this week’s USTFCCCA National Poll. Minnesota is one of three Big Ten teams in the poll this week.
Women Win Griak, Rombough and Mead Star For the Men - The Minnesota women captured their third Griak Invitational team title with 97 points. Chris Rombough and Hassan Mead led the men to a fourth-place finish with individual placing of third and sixth, respectively, in the individual race.


Minnesota Competes in Two Meets This Weekend
The Minnesota men’s cross country team will send a complete team to compete in the Pre-NCAA Meet in Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday. A number of individuals will head to West Salem, Wis., on Saturday to compete in the Jim Drews Invitational, hosted by Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

Not Your Average Run in the Park
The Pre-NCAA field is loaded with talent as 26 nationally ranked teams will travel to the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course for the chance to run on the course that will host the NCAA Championships in November. The field is split into two races, the Blue Race and the White Race. Minnesota will compete in the White Race along with a dozen other nationally ranked teams, including No. 3 Colorado, Nov. 5 Stanford and No. 7 Notre Dame. The White Race also has 13 ranked teams in its field, led by No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 4 Iona, No. 6 Oklahoma State and No. 8 Alabama.

Most of the Big Ten Will Be There
Eight of the Big Ten teams will be competing in the Pre-NCAA Meet this weekend. The Gophers will see Illinois and Michigan in the White Race, while Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin will run in the Blue Race. The only teams not entered in the team portion of the meet are Penn State and Purdue.

Familiar Faces for Forest
Gopher transfer Forest Tahdooahnippah will compete against his old Stanford team in the race this weekend. Tahdooahnippah graduated from Stanford and helped the Cardinal to a fourth-place NCAA finish a year ago. He is attending law school at Minnesota and using his final year of cross country/track eligibility competing for the Golden Gophers.

Golden Gophers Ranked No. 24
The Gopher men are ranked No. 24 in this week’s USTFCCCA National Poll. Minnesota is one of three Big Ten Conference teams listed in the rankings with Wisconsin at No. 2 and Michigan at No. 18.

Rombough and Mead Shine at the Griak
Minnesota finished fourth in the Roy Griak Inviational’s Gold Race at the Les Bolstad Course in Falcon Heights, Minn., on Sept. 29. The Golden Gophers enjoyed impressive outings from their top two runners, Chris Rombough and Hassan Mead, but didn’t have the team depth to move up in the standings.

Rombough posted a third-place finish in a time of 24:29.9, marking the highest a Gopher individual has ever placed at the prestigious Griak Invitational. Previously, the highest a Gopher finished was sixth by Andrew Carlson in 2004. Mead, a true freshman, matched Carlson’s finish of sixth, running his first collegiate Griak in a clocking of 24:32.3.

The Gophers’ third and fourth runners posted solid finishes as well with Forrest Tahdooahnippah crossing the finish line in 24:56.4 for 19th place and Matt Barrett in 25:01.6 for 22nd place. The Gophers dropped in the team results due to sophomore Mike Torchia, Minnesota’s No. 5 finisher in the BYU meet earlier this season, missing the meet with a leg injury.

“I was very pleased with how our top four runners competed today,” said Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia. “We would have been in a great position to contend for the team title had Torchia been able to go today.”

With Torchia out, Minnesota scored Ben Kampf’s 57th-place finish in the team score. Kampf posted a time of 25:43.2.

Northern Arizona used a 1-2 individual finish to power the Lumberjacks to the team title with 84 points, edging Arizona State’s runner-up tally of 88. Junior All-American Lopez Lmong captured medalist honors with a winning time of 24:04.2. Freshman teammate David McNeill was second in 24:26.5.

Rombough Named Big Ten Runner of the Week After BYU Victory
Defending Big Ten champion Chris Rombough kicked off his junior season in impressive style capturing medalist honors at the BYU Autumn Classic on Sept. 8, and was named the Big Ten Runner of the Week (Sept. 11). Rombough, a Fremont, Wis., native, covered the 4-mile course in a time of 19 minutes, 16.5 seconds to lead the Golden Gophers to the Classic team title. The weekly honor is Rombough’s second of his career.

Minnesota Coaching Staff
Golden Gopher head coach Steve Plasencia is in his 12th season leading the Minnesota program. Plasencia as guided the Gophers to NCAA Championships berths in nine of his 11 years with his alma mater. Volunteer assistant coach Brad Wick is in his third year with the Gophers.