University of Minnesota Women's Cross Country

Track Intrasquad!

2009-12-09T12:01:00.000-08:00

The Gopher Men's and Women's Track teams will have their annual intrasquad meet this Friday, December 11th, beginning at 3:30pm at the Field House. The meet will feature mainly the sprints, jumps and throwing events! It is a great way for all of our athletes to gauge where they are coming out of a long fall of training and get the rust off for the real indoor meets beginning in January!

Mark your calendar's now for the 2010 Gopher Indoor home meet schedule:

NORTHWEST OPEN Saturday January 9th

MINNESOTA OPEN Saturday January 16th

JACK JOHNSON CLASSIC Friday January 22nd and Saturday January 23rd

PARENT'S DAY OPEN Saturday February 20th

Gopher's 10th at NCAA's!!

2009-11-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

We just returned from the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute,
Indiana where the gophers placed 10th in the country!  The team was ranked 13th
entering the meet and improved on the ranking to make it 5 straight years with a
top 12 team finish. Only one other team in the country, fellow Big Ten power
Illinois, has finished in the top 12 for the past five years (they finished 12th
on Monday).


Coach Wilson talks to flotrack about the streak:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235833-the-2009-ncaa-d1-cross-country-championships/214715-minnesota-coach-gary-wilson-continuing-the-streak-at-the-2009-ncaa-xc-championships)www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235833-the-2009-ncaa-d1-cross-country-championships/214715-minnesota-coach-gary-wilson-continuing-the-streak-at-the-2009-ncaa-xc-championships

Senior All-American Megan Duwell had a historical day for Minnesota finishing
7th, the highest any gopher has finished in school history! Megan also broke her
own school record running 20:06 for 6k.


Megan talks about her race and the team:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235833-the-2009-ncaa-d1-cross-country-championships/214711-megan-duwell-minnesota-7th-2009-ncaa-xc-championships)www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235833-the-2009-ncaa-d1-cross-country-championships/214711-megan-duwell-minnesota-7th-2009-ncaa-xc-championships

Minnesota was the highest finishing Big Ten school followed by Illinois in 12th,
Penn State 14th, Michigan State 26th, Michigan 27th, Ohio State 29th and Indiana
31st.



The team is now on a much deserved break and will have two weeks to rest and
relax before training begins for indoor track!

Gary Wilson Named Midwest Coach of the Year!

2009-11-18T14:46:00.001-08:00

For the third straight year, Gary Wilson was named Midwest Region Coach of the Year! The honor is voted on by all of the schools in the region.

CONGRATULATIONS WILS :)

Gopher Women Earn Midwest Region Three-Peat!

2009-11-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

The Gopher Women's Cross Country team re-wrote the Minnesota record books three times today at the Midwest Regional Cross Country Meet.

First, the team won its third straight Midwest Region Title, upsetting higher ranked Illinois who had bested the gophers twice this season, and Iowa State who beat the gophers at the Roy Griak Invitational earlier in the year. This gives the women an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships one week from Monday! It is the Gophers 5th straight NCAA appearance!!

Secondly, ALL SEVEN of Minnesota's runners finished in the top 25 and were names All-Region by the coaches association! It is the first time in school history that all seven runners have acheived this honor in the same season. The four seniors in the group each earned the third honor of their careers! Proving how rare that kind of team depth is, Minnesota is one of only two teams in the country today to accomplish that feat.

Finally, Gopher Senior All-American Megan Duwell broke Minnesota's 6k school record running the course in 20:14, breaking the existing school record by 5 seconds. Duwell came through the 5k in 16:50 and kept pressing to a 2nd place finish!

Video Preview of Big Tens!

2009-10-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

GOPHERS HEAD TO BIG TENS!!

2009-10-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

The gophers depart tomorrow for the Big Ten Championships to be held on the campus of Penn State University! Minnesota is the two time defending Big Ten Team Champions and will be in search of title number three this weekend.

It is never easy in the Big Ten as evidenced by a 1 point win in 2007 and a 4 point win in 2008, but the Gophers go in with a strong chance for the three-pete. Challenging Minnesota will be 4 other NCAA ranked opponents in Illinois, Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa.

The gophers will bring the most experienced squad to the meet with seven of nine returners from last years Big Ten Team! The two new additions are much improved Sophomore Stephanie Price from Mankato, Minnesota and freshman Kayla Wagner from Baldwin, WI. Both these athletes add to an extremely deep team that looks to "attack with a pack!"

Split Squads head to Pre-NCAA's and Tori Neubauer!

2009-10-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Gopher CC runners will split the squad and send the top 12 athletes to the Pre-NCAA meet in Terre Haute, Indiana and the rest of the team will travel to LaCrosse, Wisconsin to compete in the Tori Neubauer Invitational!

The top 12 at a Glance:
Megan Duwell, senior c0-captain and 2008 CC All-American has been the Gophers #1 runner in every meet this season, including a win at the Roy Griak Invitational! Duwell has twice been named the Big Ten Runner of the week.
Elizabeth Yetzer, senior co-captain and 2009 outdoor track NCAA individual qualifier in the 1500 has been a solid #2-3 runner for the gophers this 2009 CC season!
Amy Laskowske, senior and 2009 10k All-American for the Gophers was named second team All-Big Ten in CC last year and has come into this season ready to roll and continue her success!
Nikki Swenson, junior co-captain and 2009 outdoor NCAA qualifier in the 800m has vastly improved on the cross country course this fall and has been in the top 5 for the gophers in every race!
Kayla Wagner, true freshman has had an immediate impact for the Gophers this fall! She has been in the top 7 in the line-up all fall and continues to improve with every race!
Heather Dorniden, senior co-captain who is the most decorated female track athlete in Minnesota history earning 9 All-American honors over her great career. An 800m runner by nature Dorniden has stepped up in cross country and has been a two time All-Region performer on the grass!
Jamie Cheever, senior co-captain struggled with illness at the Roy Griak, but is a returning All-American and was the gophers number 2 and 3 runner in the first two meets of the year!
Stephanie Price, sophomore breaks onto the scene this year as a solid top 9 performer for the Gophers. Price improved drastically last year and went from running 5:08 in high school to 4:52 as a freshman at Minnesota!
Mallory Van Ness, senior 2008 All-Region CC performer for the gophers who adds great depth and experience to the gopher squad!
Kelly Wilson, junior c0-captain is making her first Pre-NCAA . Wilson has worked her way up the food chain from a walk on 11:35 high school 3200m runner to a contributor at the DI level. Wilson competed in the Big Ten 10k last spring and placed 10th in her first Big Ten competition!
Katie Dyson, junior makes her first pre-NCAA meet in her career! Dyson has steadily improved every season as a Gopher, coming into her own this year to make the top group!
Claire Rindo, red-shirt freshmen makes the top 12 after sitting all last year with injury. Healthy and ready to learn, Rindo has a bright future with this squad when she gets a solid year of injury free running and racing under her belt!

Tori Neubauer
"In order to grow and improve as a runner, you need to RACE!" This has been the moto of long time distance head coach Gary Wilson. To make this a reality, we split squads and take the rest of the team to the Tori Neubauer Invitational in La Crosse, WI. Coach Hesser will travel with the team as they get invaluable experience for the following years. In the top 12 this year are three athletes who raced at the Neubauer meet last year, further solidifying the programs philosophy that "There are a lot of diamonds in the rough, you just have to take the time to look for them!"
There will be A LOT of young Gophers gaining experience in LaCrosse so they will be prepared down the road to continue the Championship tradition of the Minnesota GOLDEN GOPHERS!!!

GOPHERS RANKED #8 in the NCAA!

2009-10-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

After a successful weekend at South Dakota State University that saw the Gopher Women go 2-4-5-6-7-8-10-12 the Gopher's rose to number 8 in the NCAA. The women are still the top ranked Big Ten school followed by #16 Penn State, #18 Illinois, #23 Michigan, #24 Michigan State, #28 Wisconsin and #29Iowa.

Megan Duwell was once again the Gopher's #1 runner and has earned TWO Big Ten Runner of the week accolades this season!

Rising to prominence in the Gopher's line up is true freshman Kayla Wagner from Baldwin, WI! Kayla has been in the top 7 for each of her first 4 meets as a Gopher and was our #4 runner at SDSU. In a senior laden group it is exciting to see a freshman come into the mix and gain valuable experience for the next four years of what looks to be a GREAT career!

GOPHERS HOST ROY GRIAK INVITE!

2009-09-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday September 26th the University of Minnesota will host the 24th Annual Roy Griak Invitational! The meet begins at 9:00am with the DIII Maroon Women's Race and will continue throughout the day! In total there will be 11 races, including the NEW Goldies Kids fun run at 1:25!

The Gopher Men take to the course at 12:05 and look to win their first Roy Griak Invitational. The women will follow at 12:55 and look to make it 3 in a row for the team title!

Come and join the action and watch over 4,000 runners compete at all levels. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students.

MEGAN DUWELL BIG TEN ATHLETE OF THE WEEK!

2009-09-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to senior co-captain and 2008 cross country All-American Megan Duwell who was names Big Ten Runner of the week for her win at the Oz Memorial! AWESOME job Megs :)

TCF BANK STADIUM!

2009-09-16T09:33:00.001-07:00

After running the Oz on Friday night, many of us got the wonderful opportunity to attend the first football game at TCF Bank Stadium! It was an AMAZING day for Gopher Athletics as fans came in droves to spend all day on campus tailgating, hanging out with friends, walking around campus and soaking in the Gopher spirit! We had a blast at the sell out game where the Gophers won 20-13!

Enjoy a few clips from the stadium during game time!

2009 OZ Memorial!

2009-09-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

What a fun weekend for Gopher Athletics! We started off the weekend in style at the 10th Annual Oz Memorial Invitational on Friday September 11th. The Gopher Women won the meet with a near perfect 17 points! 5 of the gopher's top 6 performers were over 20 seconds faster than they were last year at this time with top honors going to Soph. Stephanie Price who was 62 seconds faster than her freshman Oz effort!

Here are the Gopher Individual Results:

Results - Women
1 Duwell, Megan Minnesota 21:13.24
2 Yetzer, Elizabeth Minnesota 22:06.38
3 Cheever, Jamie Minnesota 22:10.27
5 Swenson, Nikki Minnesota 22:18.49
6 Laskowske, Amy Minnesota 22:21.47
7 Price, Stephanie Unattached, 22:27.29
8 Wagner, Kayla Minnesota 22:40.38
10 Dorniden, Heather Minnesota 23:01.18
11 Van Ness, Mallory Minnesota 23:06.41
12 Wilson, Kelly Minnesota 23:11.94
13 Mason, Meghan Unattached, 23:13.54
14 Rindo, Claire Minnesota 23:23.84
15 Dyson, Katie Unattached, 23:27.28
17 Drake, Rachel Unattached, 23:34.54
18 Moraczewski, Katie Unattached, 23:42.37
20 Talajkowski, Annie Unattached, 23:56.95
23 Edmonds, Jaclyn Unattached, 24:05.34
24 Dittmar, Jamie Minnesota 24:08.46
27 Orcutt, Paige Unattached, 24:21.49
28 Docherty, Laura Unattached, 24:23.80
30 Koch, Laura Minnesota 24:34.53
33 Miller, Emma Minnesota 24:40.54
34 Light, Taylor Unattached, 24:47.07
35 Ritter, Kathryn Minnesota 24:49.56
36 Smith, Megan Minnesota 24:55.43
38 Meagher, Amanda Unattached, 24:57.39
44 Budd, Kelli Unattached, 25:11.52
45 Volz, Michelle Unattached, 25:15.08
50 Lewein, Jenna Minnesota 25:29.35
51 Gusmer, Becca Minnesota 25:31.48
54 Larson, Mikaya Minnesota 25:35.33
56 Helmers, Tari Minnesota 25:39.17
58 Brunn, Heather Minnesota 25:45.92
63 Cederstrom, Kendall Minnesota 26:12.68
64 Fowler, Emily Unattached, 26:14.28
65 Hemmerich, Celia Minnesota 26:21.12
68 LeBreck, Danielle Unattached, 26:37.55
74 Muscala, Marie Unattached, 27:27.85

Reults from the Intrasquad!

2009-09-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we ran the Intrasquad on our home course. We split our team into three teams and have a 5k time trial! It is a fun race to see where people are coming out of summer training and they have fun competing against one another for some exciting prizes! Coach Hesser's maroon team won the meet and we had some GREAT early season performances!

Minnesota Maroon 3-4-5-8-14-(15)-(22) 34
Minnesota Gold 1-7-10-12-13-(17)-(19) 43
Minnesota Black 2-6-9-11-16-(18)-(20) 45

1. Megan Duwell (Gold) 17:41.63
2. Jamie Cheever (Black) 18:33.22
3. Heather Dorniden (Maroon) 18:41.35
4. Amy Laskowske (Maroon) 18:42.91
5. Stephanie Price (Maroon) 18:46.66
6. Elizabeth Yetzer (Black) 18:48.83
7. Mallory Van Ness (Gold) 18:52.78
8. Nikki Swenson (Maroon) 18:53.88
9. Kayla Wagner (Black) 18:54.37
10. Kelly Wilson (Gold) 19:09.83
11. Katie Dyson (Black) 19:27.36
12. Claire Rindo (Gold) 19:40.74
13. Rachel Drake (Gold) 20:00.30
14. Jamie Dittmar (Maroon) 20:05.82
15. Katie Moraczewski (Maroon) 20:09.27
16. Jaci Edmonds (Black) 20:10.98
17. Taylor Light (Gold) 20:12.70
18. Emma Miller (Black) 20:17.43
19. Kelli Budd (Gold) 20:40.12
20. Megan Smith (Black) 20:41.21
21. Annie Talajkowski (Black) 20:41.69
22. Paige Orcutt (Maroon) 20:44.14
23. Michelle Volz (Gold) 20:45.31
24. Kathryn Ritter (Maroon) 20:53.08
25. Laura Docherty (Black) 20:59.51
26. Jenna Lewein (Maroon) 21:02.98
27. Laura Koch (Black) 21:06.43
28. Becca Gusmer (Gold) 21:12.53
29. Amanda Meagher (Black) 21:18.17
30. Heather Brunn (Maroon) 21:20.61
31. Mikaya Larson (Black) 21:31.18
32. Danielle LeBreck (Gold) 21:31.44
33. Tari Helmers (Gold) 21:48.51
34. Kendall Cederstrom (Maroon) 21:52.20
35. Celia Hemmerich (Black) 22:10.74
36. Emily Fowler (Gold) 22:27.18
37. Marie Muscala (Gold) 23:34.04

Videos on Gophersports!

2009-09-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Our Sports Information Director just edited a lot of video footage from Ely and has posted it on the Women's Cross Country page of Gopher Sports. Click the following link and then look for the video camera icons to watch the videos!!

www.gophersports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=3297&DB_OEM_ID=8400

ENJOY :)

Back from the North Woods!

2009-09-04T09:39:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

We just returned from a WONDERFUL training trip in Ely, MN! The team really came together and bonded over the week and we came back with a great mix of new enthusiasm and senior leadership. The team has big goals for another awesome season on and off the course. Enjoy a few video clips from the week that will give you an idea of the team, coaches and captains "in their element".

Ely, the upperclassmen, coaches and team according to the freshmen:

On their freshmen classmates:
"I LOVE THEM!! I really feel like we all get along great. Nobody seems to compare themselves to anyone and everyone seems so comfortable being themselves. I really think we are going to grow stronger together through our four years."
-Laura Docherty, St. Paul, MN

"I LOVE THEM! It is so nice to finally have other people who have the same goals, hopes and habits as me."
-Missa Varpness, Montevideo, MN

"It's freaky how everyone is so similar but so unique. We instantly clicked and I couldn't have asked for better teammates to share these next four years with."
-Michelle Volz, Lakeville, MN

On the overall Ely experience:
"We do so much more than run here! I thought it would be a lot more running and training, but it's very balanced. It's so much fun here!!"
-Kayla Wagner, Baldwin, WI

"The food was soooooo good! I was not expecting delicious food!"
-Rachel Drake, White Bear Lake, MN

"I really didn't know what to expect but I thought everyone would be so competitive and it turned out that everyone works hard together and is so supportive and they really want you to succeed!"
-Michelle Volz, Lakeville, MN

On the upperclassmen:
"They were all very welcoming and made camp a great experience. I learned that even though the seem so experienced now, they were once in the same boat as us. Also, they put XC into perspective with the rest of life-IT'S FUN!"
-Kelli Budd, Omaha, NE

"They are real people and not too good to talk to you!"
-Rachel Drake, White Bear Lake, MN

"They are all incredibly nice and extremely willing to help out!"
-Annie Talajkowski, White Fish Bay, WI

On the coaches:
"I think both of them are great coaches and I really trust both of them! Both are very nice and easy to talk to. I'm really looking forward to having them as my coaches for the next four years."
-Maggie Bollig, Middleton, WI

"Coach Wilson and Coach Hesser are such loving and caring people who genuinely care about all of us. They are super great people as well as great coaches :)"
-Kayla Wagner, Baldwin, WI

"Very uplifting and positive. Unlike some other coaches, they understand that we are just freshmen and have a lot of things to work on before we can jump to the next step!"
-Kelli Budd, Omaha, NE

"They are the most perfect coaches in the world. I feel like Wilson knows what I am thinking more than I do, and they truly care about each athlete as an individual. I can't imagine running for anyone else!"
-Michelle Volz, Lakeville, MN

Thanks for checking in on the University of Minnesota Women's Cross Country team! Check back in on Monday for news and results from this weekends Intrasquad meet :)

Gopher CC Leaves for ELY!

2009-08-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

As is the annual tradition, the Gopher women's cross country team is arriving on campus today and will depart for the north woods of Ely, Minnesota tomorrow for their training trip. The team stays at Camp Voyageur at the entry to the Boundary Waters for 5 days of great training, team bonding, goal setting, great food, relaxation and lots of fun!!

We will keep you posted throughout the trip with pictures and interviews of coaches and athletes as they embark on the 2009 Cross Country Season :)

2009-08-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

New Way to Follow Gopher Women's CC/Track!

2009-08-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the University of Minnesota Women's Track & Field and Cross Country Blog! Our goal is to update this site on a weekly basis with athlete and coach interviews, pictures, videos and much more information on the team. Please check back weekly for new updates on Gopher Women's Track and CC :)

Thanks for your interest in our program and GO GOPHERS!

Matt Bingle, Head Track Coach
Gary Wilson, Head Cross Country/Asst. Track Coach
Lynne Anderson, Asst. Track Coach-Throws
Sarah Hesser, Volunteer Asst. Distance Coach