The Men’s Team

The 2006 U of M men’s track and field team, coached for the eleventh year by Phil Lundin, looks to recapture its Big Ten outdoor championship form of three years ago. Leading this year’s Gopher men’s unit has been senior thrower, Karl Erickson.

A 23-year-old from Zumbro Falls, Minn., Erickson has accomplished a lot during his four-plus years with the Gophers. Recently, the four-time All-American earned himself Big Ten Track & Field Athlete of the Week honors in both of the team’s first two weeks outdoor competitions.

The Gopher men begin outdoors after an indoor season in which they finished second (behind Wisconsin) in the Big Ten and featured three runners at nationals., senior runner Trent Riter and All-American high jumper Kevin Netzer will set the pace through the remainder of the Gophers’ spring schedule.

While this year’s team may lack a superb distance runner, Erickson and company should help lead Lundin’s 2006 Gophers toward a strong finish.

This 2006 team will not have distance runners the caliber of former standouts Adam Steele and Mitch Potter — first and third place finishers in the 2003 NCAA nationals 400-meter, respectively. However, this team does have a quality runner in Riter. Steele —though graduated — has remained present, serving as a volunteer coach to the team. So, Riter (a team captain from Shoreview, Minn.) and the rest of the U runners can perhaps benefit from some of Steele’s superior competitive running knowledge.

Riter competed twice at the NCAA nationals in the 800-meters and will enter late April with hopes to improve on what is already the third-best 800m time in school history: 1 minute and 48.2 seconds.

Netzer, also a team captain, will look to topple his career-best jump of 7 feet, _ inches this spring. A senior athlete from Rib Lake, Wisc., Netzer played a key role in Minnesota’s second place Big Ten indoor finish. His jump of 7 feet, _ inches placed first among his conference competitors. The accomplishment marked the third time Netzer’s been able to achieve a Big Ten high jumping crown.

Minnesota’s next competition is April 26 though 28 in Des Moines, IA, home of the 96th annual Drake Relays. A competition featuring many of the nations’ top teams, and big crowds (last year’s Drake Relays attendance of 5,100 marked its 40th consecutive sellout) should be tell of Minnesota’s 2006 outdoor season success.

The Women’s Team

The Gophers women track and field squad looks primed for its outdoor schedule. Led by head coach Gary Wilson, the Minnesota women look to have a successful spring as they attempt to expound on the record-breaking, national-ranking indoor success they achieved during winter competition.

During Minnesota’s ’05-‘06 indoor season, which ended with the NCAA nationals March 11 and 12 in Fayetteville, Ark., one of Wilson’s Golden Gopher athletes earned herself an NCAA national title, another young U woman broke her own Minnesota pentathlon record, and a special foursome of Gophers set new precedents with a special distance relay effort.

Wilson’s women earned the highest national ranking in the University’s program history for their indoor season; 12th. Of Wilson’s talented group of women, a particular freshman athlete has risen above and beyond the competition.

Rosemount native Heather Dorniden earned a NCAA national title by running the 800-meter dash in 2 minutes and 5.64 seconds. The outstanding achievement marked Minnesota’s first national record time. Dorniden, who took part in a record-breaking U of M relay team as well, was named Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year.

Another young female talent who flourished at nationals was Minnesota sophomore Liz Roehrig. A native of Chilton, Wisc., Roehrig turned in a pentathlon effort at the NCAAs that placed sixth there, but broke her own U of M record by 116 points. She earned a total of 4,115 points, with the bulk of her points coming from a high jump effort of 5 feet, 9 _ inches.

The other big feat for Minnesota at nationals was a distance medley relay finish of 11 minutes, 7.27 seconds. Dorniden, Jamie Cheever, Kadian Douglas and Emily Brown accomplished this time in earning All-American honors and becoming only the second Minnesota relay team to do so.

With these record-breaking efforts, expect Wilson’s Gopher women to have a lot of success in its spring season schedule. The U women prepare for the Drake Relays Apr. 27-29 and will be eying the outdoor nationals in Sacramento, Calif. this June.