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The Minnesota Golden Gophers track and field teams competed in the NCAA West Preliminaries this past weekend in Sacramento, California. Thirty-three Gophers qualified to compete in the West Prelims, but only nine qualified through the event and have earned a spot at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas from June 5-8.
Six members of the women’s team and three members of the men’s team will make the trip to Texas. On the women’s side the Gophers will send three time defending Big Ten hammer throw champion Temi Ogurinde to Texas. She finished in second place in the prelims with a throw of 64.46 meters. Both Hasz sisters will be advancing to the NCAA Championships. Megan finished 11th in the 10,000 meter run in 33:52.47, and Bethany finished fourth in her heat of the 5,000-meters in a time of 15:47.72.
Freshman Amira Young will make the trip to Texas by qualifying in the 100-meters. She ran a career best time of 11.37 seconds and tied the Gophers school record. She finished in 11th place. Redshirt junior Rachel Show also ran a career best time of 57.47 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles to improve upon her school record. She finished in 12th place to earn the final qualifying spot. The final Gopher woman to qualify was Tess Keyzers in the shot put. The redshirt freshman threw a Minnesota record throw of 17.27 meters to finish in fifth place.
On the men’s side the three Gopher qualifiers were led by Obsa Ali. Redshirt senior Ali won his second consecutive Big Ten Championship in the 3000-meter steeplechase earlier this month, and then won his second consecutive West Prelims title this past weekend with a time of 8:34.16. He will go for his second consecutive NCAA Championship in June. Right behind Ali was redshirt sophomore Alec Basten who came in second with a time of 8:34.50.
The final Gopher male qualifier was Kieran McKeag. McKeag earned his second consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships with a seventh place finish in the hammer throw with a throw of 66.20 meters.
Good luck to the nine Gophers who advanced to the NCAA Championships meet!