Gopher Track This Week:

Tommie Twilight
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Hosted by St. Thomas
St. Paul, Minn.

Meet of the Unsaintly
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Hosted by Hamline
St. Paul, Minn.

Gophers Compete in Two Local Meets This Week
The Minnesota women’s track & field team will compete in two local meets in St. Paul this week as final tune-ups for the upcoming Big Ten Conference Championships. The Golden Gophers will send athletes to the St. Thomas Tommie Twilight on Wednesday, May 5, and Hamline Meet of the Unsaintly on Friday, May 7.

800 Meters the Big Race at the Tommie Twilight
The 800-meter run will be a highlight of the Tommie Twilight for the Gophers. A number of Minnesota’s top middle distance crew, including Nikki Swenson and Gabriele Anderson, are entered in the event on Wednesday.

Field Events Solid at Both Meets
Between the two meets, most of the Gophers’ field event athletes will see action.

Thomas Leads Gophers at Musco Twilight
Golden Gopher sophomore Adrienne Thomas won the long jump and was a member of the winning 4x400-meter relay to pace the Minnesota women’s track & field team to victories in 10 events at the Musco Twilight Meet in Iowa City, Iowa.
    Thomas enjoyed personal bests in two individual events, one a field event and the other on the track. She won the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 4 1/4 inches, tying for the seventh-best effort in school history. Thomas added a second-place showing in the 100-meters with a time of 11.81, good for the eighth-fastest time on the Gophers’ top-10 list. To top off the meet, she led off the Gophers’ 4x400-meter relay that captured the win with a meet record and its season-best time of 3:42.99.
    Kylie Peterson, Kelly Stalpes and Rikita Butler were double champions as well, each tallying a victory in an individual event and on a relay.
    Peterson won the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.58 seconds, the third-best time in Minnesota history. She ran a personal-best, but wind-aided time of 11.47 in the prelim. Peterson, along with Chimerem Okoroji, Chioma Omeoga and Todea-Kay Willis, won the 4x100-meter relay in a season-best time of 45.65 seconds.
    Stalpes lowered her career-best time in capturing the title in the 400-meter hurdles. She posted a time of 59.60 seconds, the fifth-best time in Gopher history.
    Butler sprinted to the title in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.99 seconds. Butler and Stalpes, along with Alena Brooks and Thomas, were members of the champion 4x400-meter relay.
    Minnesota won four other titles in the field events. Jessica Cagle won the discus with a throw of 164-7, while DeAnne Hahn added another title in the throws by winning the hammer with an effort of 182-6. Alicia Rue placed first in the pole vault, battling the wind to clear a height of 13-1 1/2. Kelsey Joson won the triple jump with a distance of 37-4 1/2.
    The Gophers recorded six additional runner-up finishes: Willis in the long jump (19-1 1/2), Becca Pilkerton in the pole vault (12-3 1/2), Jamie Dittmar in the 800 meters (2:09.87), Nikki Tzanakis in the discus (162-3), Kathryn Ritter in the 1,500 meters (4:29.00) and Emily Betz in the javelin (136-5).

Duwell Breaks Her Own 5K Record at Sun Angel
Senior Megan Duwell broke her own Minnesota school record in the 5,000-meter run at the Sun Angel Classic on April 10. Duwell placed second overall, the first collegian, clocking a time of 16 minutes, 4.55 seconds, over three seconds faster than her previous record time. Duwell’s time currently ranks 13th in the country.

Alena Brooks Earns Two Silver Medals in Caribbean Games
Minnesota freshman Alena Brooks captured two silver medals representing her homeland of Trinidad & Tobago in the 2010 Carifta Games in George Town, Cayman Islands on April 2-3. Brooks ran a time of 2 minutes, 8.97 seconds to finish second in the 800-meter run. She also anchored the 4x400-meter relay (3:37.32) to a gold medal, making up ground on her leg and nearly catching champion Jamaica at the tape. Brooks also competed in the 400-meter dash, finishing fourth in a time of 54.83 seconds.

Gabe Anderson Granted Sixth Season of Outdoor Track Eligibility
Track/cross country standout Gabriele Anderson was honored with the Richard “Pinky” McNamara Student-Athlete Achievement Award at the recent U of M Scholar-Athlete Awards Ceremony. The award is given to a student-athlete who has inspired all by making an extraordinary effort to succeed despite difficult circumstances, persevering during a time of tremendous adversity and/or overcoming a great challenge.
    After helping the Gopher cross country team to back-to-back Big Ten titles, Anderson embarked on her senior track season in 2009 with high expectations. She ran a runner-up finish in the mile helping the Gophers win another Big Ten indoor track team title. Then in April, she was diagnosed with adenoid cystic caranoma (a cancer of the neck). With an uncertain future and knowing of her battle ahead, Anderson decided to run one more race before treatment five days ahead of her. She responded by running a career-best time, the seventh-fastest time in school history, in the 1,500-meter run. Anderson underwent surgery and treatment while her team wore “Gabe” patches on their uniforms. She made a successful petition to the NCAA for a sixth season and will complete her Minnesota track career this outdoor season.

The Golden Gopher Coaching Staff
Matt Bingle is in his fourth season as the Golden Gophers head women’s track & field coach and his eighth overall coaching in the Minnesota program. Bingle is a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year honoree. Bingle heads an extremely experienced coaching staff that includes assistants Gary Wilson (25th season, third as an assistant coach after 21 years as head coach) and Lynne Anderson (30th season).