Weekend Results - June 23rd - 24th

William O’Brien 10M Trail Run – William O’Brien State Park RESULTS

Foley Fun Days 5K – Foley RESULTS

Heights Hustle 5K - Columbia Heights RESULTS

Heart Beat 5K – Minneapolis RESULTS

Get Your Rear In Gear 5K – Rochester RESULTS

Circle of Life 5K – Red Wing 5K RESULTS

Circle of Life 10K - Red Wing 10K RESULTS

Summer Festival 8K – Minnetonka RESULTS

Summerfest 5K – Oakdale RESULTS

Foot Lake 4M – Willmar RESULTS

Run for the Roses 5K - Roseville RESULTS

Tanner’s Team Run 5K – Sauk Rapids RESULTS

Dan Patch 1M - Savage 1M RESULTS

Dan Patch 5K – Savage 5K RESULTS

Running Wild 7K Trail Run – Maplewood State Park RESULTS

Midnight Sun Midnight Run 5K - Duluth RESULTS

River Rat 5K – Little Falls RESULTS

Yellowstone Trail 5K – Roberts, WI 5K RESULTS

Yellowstone Trail 8M – Roberts, WI 8M RESULTS

Yellowstone Trail double-header – Roberts, WI DOUBLE-HEADER RESULTS

St. Clair Days 5K – St. Clair RESULTS

Fairfax 5K – Fairfax RESULTS

Lake Waconia Tri – Waconia RESULTS

UCare Tri-Loppet – Minneapolis RESULTS

Croixathlon – Hudson, WI RESULTS

Graniteman Triathlon – St. Cloud RESULTS

Graniteman Kids – St. Cloud RESULTS

Can-Am Games Biathlon –St. Cloud RESULTS

Can-Am Games Triathlon –St. Cloud RESULTS

My First Tri – Hudson, WI RESULTS

Black Hills 50M - Sturgis, SD 50M RESULTS

Black Hills 100K - Sturgis, SD 100K RESULTS

Black Hills 100M - Sturgis, SD 100M RESULTS

Western Statess 100M - Squaw Valley, CA RESULTS

Olympic Trials - Big Day for Minnesotans

It’s a huge day in Eugene for Minnesotans.  The women’s 3,000m Steeplechase kicks things off at 6:50 CDT.  Team USA Minnesota’s Jamie Cheever will be one of 24 athletes in one of the qualifying heats.  The former Gopher’s qualifying time of 9:52.15 gives her the 13^th best qualifying time.  The men will run at 7:25 CDT with Justin Tyner representing the state.  His 8:33.98 is the 18^th fastest qualifying time.  The Olympic Games A-standards are 9:43.0 and 8:23.1 for women and men, respectively.  So Cheever and Tyner will both need to shave roughly 10 seconds from their current times, in addition to finishing in the top-3, in order to move on to London.

At 8:05 CDT the women’s 5,000m qualifying heat will be held.  Unfortunately, there aren’t any Minnesotan’s in the field.  Similarly to the 10,000m, Team USA Minnesota’s Meghan Peyton missed qualifying for the meet by a handful of seconds.  The men will toe the line in the 5,000m at 9:00 CDT and the qualifying heats will feature two Minnesotan’s, Elliott Heath and Hassan Mead.  Heath owns the 9^th fastest qualifying time of 13:26.14, while Mead is seeded 19^th with a 13:33.42.  Mead is coming off his 11^th place finish in the 10,000m where he set a school record for the U of M, running 27:59.04.

Tonight will also be the finals for the 800m.  Only Heather Kampf is still alive, having survived the first two rounds.  As a reminder, she’ll need to run 1:59.9 or better and finish in the top-3 in order to punch her ticket to London.

I haven’t mentioned any field events yet, but it should be noted that the women’s Triple Jump and men’s High Jump teams will both be determined tonight.  Amanda Smock (formerly Thieschafer) is currently in the lead after the preliminary jumps.  It currently looks like none of the women will achieve the Olympic Games A-standard.  If that is indeed the case, only 1 athlete with the B-standard will be sent to London.  If Smock can maintain her lead, she’ll become an Olympian.  Here’s a recent article on the Melrose native. 

In the high jump, former Minnesota State – Mankato athlete, Jim Dilling is one of thirteen athletes that made it through the preliminaries.  Ten of those jumpers leapt 7-1 ¾ or 2.18m, including Dilling .  The former U.S. champ was one of three people to not have a miss in the prelims.

Finally, I’ve been meaning to provide links to Track & Field News’ form charts, which rank the top-10 athletes by position.  Here are the men's and women's charts.

After today's events, there will be two rest days before the meet resumes on Thursday, July, 28th.

Olympic Trials - 10,000m preview

Just a quick follow up to yesterday’s post regarding the 800m.  There will be 4 heats and the top-3 in each heat will advance to the semi-finals, along with the next 4 fastest times.  The women will run first, starting at 7:00 PM Central Daylight Time (5:00 PM Pacific).  Heather Kampf will be in heat 3 and Laura Januszewski will be in heat 4.  The men are scheduled to run at 7:20 PM CDT with David Pachuta in heat 1 and Harun Abda in heat 4.  To learn more about the favorites, you can read letsrun.com’s preview of the men and women.

Unlike the 800m, which has three rounds, the 10,000m is “one and done”.  The men’s finals will be run tonight at 8:45 PM CDT, followed by the women’s finals at 9:20 PM CDT.  Golden Gopher Hassan Mead qualified with the 17^th fastest time (28:12.74).  In addition to finishing in the top-3, he’ll need to run better than 27:45 to achieve the Olympic Games A-standard, if he hopes to make the team.  Down the Backstretch recently posted this article on Mead. Team USA Minnesota’s Jon Grey qualified for the meet provisionally, however, his 28:26.44 missed making the finals by just over 6 seconds.  Letsrun.com’s preview can be found HERE.

Looking at the women’s 10,000m, I figured that everyone must know Katie McGregor's story.  But her Olympic Trials story spans more than 8 years, so it’s possible that people aren’t aware of her two previous attempts.  In both 2004 and 2008, McGregor placed 4^th at the Trials, thus narrowly missing trips to Athens and Beijing.  In 2008 she was one of three runners with the A-standard for the Games.  Assuming no one else achieved the A-standard during the race, McGregor would make the team.  However, on a hot, humid night in Eugene, Amy Yoder-Begley used a vicious kick, running the last 400m in 67.6 seconds to get under the A-standard by just 1.4 seconds.

Flash forward four years and McGregor finds herself in Yoder-Begley’s shoes.  Only three runners in the field have the A-standard (Amy Hastings, Janet Cherobon-Bawcom and Lisa Uhl).  Technically, four runners have the A-standard if you include Shalane Flanagan, but she's already stated that she’s running the 10,000m as part of her training for the marathon in London.  Therefore, she’ll give up her spot if she makes the team.  That means the McGregor (or anyone else in the field) must be in the top-3 and break 31:45 tonight.  She ran 32:37.83 for the 16^th fastest qualifying time, so she has her work cut out for her.

Like Grey, mentioned above, three women with Minnesota ties (Meghan Peyton, Dani Stack, and Anne Bersagel) qualified provisionally for the meet, but did not meet the cutoff needed for the finals.

McGregor recently had articles written about her on examiner.com and twincities.com.  And you can find letsrun.com’s preview HERE as well.

Olympic Trials - 800m preview

Well, the 2012 Olympic Trials – Track & Field are officially underway with the men’s and women’s hammer throw taking place today.  Running events begin tomorrow and will include the first round of the 800m for both men and women.  Tomorrow evening will close with the 10,000m finals for both men and women.  A complete schedule of events can be found HERE.

As promised, I’ll be previewing the distance events that have Minnesotans competing in them.  Let’s start with the 800m prelims.  After everyone with either an A or B trials qualifying standard declared their intentions to enter the meet, the meet officials narrowed each field, men’s and women’s, to 32 athletes.  Those athletes declared eligible for the 800m can be found HERE.

Included on the list are four Minnesotans, Heather Kampf (formerly Dorniden), Laura Januszewski (formerly Hermanson), David Pachuta, and Harun Abda.  Kampf is a former Gopher that currently trains with Team USA Minnesota.  She currently has the 9^th fastest qualifying time of 2:00.41.  Right behind her is Januszewski with her 10^th place qualifying time, 2:01.05.  On the men’s side, current Gopher teammates, Pachuta and Abda rank 20^th and 21^st with nearly identical times, 1:46.62 and 1:46.65, respectively.

After tomorrow’s preliminary round, the field will be narrowed to 16 runners for the semi-finals, which will be run on Saturday.  From there the field will be narrowed to 8 runners for Monday's finals.  For the runners to make the Olympics, not only will they have to finish in the top-3 of their event, but they’ll also need to achieve an Olympic Games A-standard.  For the gals, that’s 1:59.9, while the guys must run 1:45.6.

As you can imagine, these athletes are receiving a lot of press lately.  I recently interviewed Kampf, as well as gophersports.com.  Inforum wrote a piece on Januszewski and Minnesota Daily covered Abda’s American dream.

Weekend Results - June 16th and 17th

Wow, lots of races last weekend!  Here's a recap of the results.

USA Half Marathon Championship - Duluth - RESULTS

Grandma’s Marathon – Duluth - RESULTS

Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon - Duluth - RESULTS

William A. Irvin 5K – Duluth - RESULTS

Manitou Days 5K – White Bear Lake - RESULTS

Dew Run 4M – Farmington - 4M RESULTS

Dew Run 1M - Farmington - 1M RESULTS

Greenway’s Gridiron Gallop 5K – Lake Nokomis - RESULTS

Spud Run 5K – Brooklyn Park - RESULTS

Father’s Day 5K – St. Paul - WILL BE HERE

Flag Day 5K – Ramsey - RESULTS

A Race Worth Winning 5K – Cleary Lake - RESULTS

Kids Against Hunger 10K – Lake Calhoun - 10K RESULTS - First place was a woman in 29:36???

Kids Against Hunger 5K – Lake Calhoun - 5K RESULTS

Notes for Cliff 5K – Fort Snelling - RESULTS - Winner ran 11:19???

Victory Run 5K – Spicer - RESULTS

We Gotta Run 5K – Bird Island - RESULTS

Spunktacular Days 5K - Avon - RESULTS

Haydaze 8K – Janesville - 8K RESULTS

Haydaze 5K – Janesville - 5K RESULTS

Lake Minnetonka Tri - Excelsior - RESULTS

Rochesterfest Sprint Triathlon – Rochester - SPRINT RESULTS

Rochesterfest Olympic Triathlon – Rochester - OLYMPIC RESULTS

Olympic Games Standards

Last week I went over the standards need to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field.  They can be found HERE.  Similar to the Trials, the Olympic Games have their own set of qualifying standards, which are even stricter.

Here’s a look at the different Olympic Games standards for men and women in the distance running events;

Men’s Olympic Games A-standards

800m – 1:45.6

1500m – 3:35.5

5000m – 13:20.0

10,000m – 27:45.0

Steeplechase – 8:23.1

Men’s Olympic Games B-standards

800m – 1:46.3

1500m – 3:38.0

5000m – 13:27.0

10,000m – 28:05.0

Steeplechase – 8:32.0

Women’s Olympic Games A-standards

800m – 1:59.9

1500m – 4:06.0

5000m – 15:20.0

10,000m – 31:45.0

Steeplechase – 9:43.0

Women’s Olympic Games B-standards

800m – 2:01.3

1500m – 4:08.9

5000m – 15:30.0

10,000m – 32:10.0

Steeplechase – 9:48.0

A complete listing of qualifying standards for all of the events can be found HERE.

As you’re probably aware, the U.S. typically has 3 athletes in each event.  That is allowed only when each of those athletes has achieved the Olympic A-standard.  It’s even possible for an athlete to finish outside of the top-3 at the Trials and still make the Olympics because they have an A-standard, while one of the runners in front of them at the Trials does not.  This scenario nearly played out at the 2008 Trials for Minnesotan Katie McGregor.  Going into the meet, she had the A-standard, along with Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan.  As the 10,000m progressed, McGregor fell into 4^th place.  To make the team, she simply needed Amy Yoder Begley to run slower than the A-standard.  However, Yoder Begley was able sneak under the standard, thus making the team instead of McGregor.

In some cases, there are events where no Olympic A-standard is achieved.  When that happens, the U.S. may enter 1 athlete, provided they have achieved the Olympic B-standard.  This may come into play this year for Minnesota triple jumper, Amanda Smock.  She has jumped 14.18m, which is above the B-standard of 14.10m, but below the A-standard of 14.30m.  Currently, no other jumpers have an A-standard.  If Smock can win the Trials, she’ll punch her ticket to London.

Next week I’ll begin previewing Minnesotan’s as they head into the Trials.

Weekend Results - June 9th and 10th

The number of websites that I have to visit in order to view race results from each weekend seems to be growing more and more.  Obviously, this can be very frustrating when you're looking for results from a particular race, but have no idea where they will be posted.  In an effort to streamline this, each week I'm going to try and provide links to all the race results I can find.  Chances are very high that I'll miss some, so feel free to let me know with an email or post a comment and I'll get it added.  With all that said, here's my first attempt at compiling such a list.

Parade Day 5K in Redwood Falls – 6/8/12

http://www.raceberryjam.com/2012/parade5k.html

Walker Methodist 10K at Lake Harriet – 6/9/12

http://www.andersonraces.com/_uls/resources/walker10krs12.pdf

Walker Methodist 5K at Lake Harriet – 6/9/12

http://www.andersonraces.com/_uls/resources/Walker5krs12.pdf

Suburban Adventure 10K in Lakeville – 6/9/12

http://www.andersonraces.com/_uls/resources/Traditions2012Final10KResults.pdf

Suburban Adventure 5K in Lakeville – 6/9/12

http://www.andersonraces.com/_uls/resources/Traditions2012Final5KResults.pdf

Malone’s 5K in Maple Grove – 6/9/12

http://www.andersonraces.com/_uls/resources/Malones20125kres_2.pdf

Minnesota Military Appreciation 10K at Fort Snelling – 6/9/12

http://www.andersonraces.com/_uls/resources/MMAF10KRS12.pdf

Minnesota Military Appreciation 5K at Fort Snelling – 6/9/12

http://www.andersonraces.com/_uls/resources/MMAF5KRS12.pdf

Family Fun Fest 5K in Waite Park – 6/9/12

http://www.mtecresults.com/race/quickResults?raceid=800&overall=yes

Sweet Beet 5K in Renville – 6/9/12

http://www.mtecresults.com/race/quickResults?raceid=801&overall=yes

Race the Rum 5K in Cambridge – 6/9/12

http://www.mtecresults.com/race/quickResults?raceid=802&overall=yes

Sour Grapes Half & Half in Brainerd – 6/9/12

http://www.mtecresults.com/race/quickResults?raceid=822&overall=yes

Lederhosenlauf 5K in St. Paul – 6/9/12

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=25628#racetop

Ribbon Run 5K in Pine Island – 6/9/12

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=25627#racetop

Liberty Triathlon in Independence – 6/9/12

http://onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=8272

Trinona Time Trial in Winona – 6/9/12

http://www.mtecresults.com/race/show/821

Trinona Kids Triathlon in Winona – 6/9/12

http://www.mtecresults.com/race/show/805

Trinona Triathlon in Winona – 6/10/12

http://www.mtecresults.com/race/show/796

Track & Field has Standards

It’s hard to believe, but the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field begin in less than two weeks.  Held at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, the meet will be split into two sessions.  The first session will run from June 21 – 25 and then, after two days off, the second session will run from June 28 – July 1.  A complete listing of the meet schedule can be found at http://tracktown12.gotracktownusa.com/olympic-trials-schedule/.

In the upcoming weeks I will be previewing events with Minnesota athletes in them.  But first I’d like to go over the qualifying standards to let everyone know what it takes to even make it to this meet and then (hopefully) onto London for the Olympic Games.  Even as an avid track & field fan, I often find myself confused when I read or hear about A-standards and B-standards – especially because the U.S. Trials has one set of standards, while the Olympic Games has another set.  So you really have to pay attention to understand what a particular athlete is trying to achieve whenever they step on the track.  

Simply put, an A-standard automatically qualifies an athlete for the Trials meet.  Therefore, athletes that have the Trials A-standard are guaranteed a spot on the starting line in Eugene.  B-standards are considered provisional and, typically, other requirements must be met.  For example, the 10,000m is likely to be limited to 24 runners.  All the athletes that met the A-standard are allowed in, along with the next fastest B-standard runners, until the 24-runner cap is met.  That’s why you may have heard about some local runners, like Team USA Minnesota’s Meghan Armstrong-Peyton (http://legstrongpro.blogspot.com/), still running meets, trying to move from a B to an A-standard in order to ensure that she’s on the starting line at the Trials.  And you may also be following 2004 Olympian Carrie Tollefson (http://www.ctollerun.com/) and her attempts at earning a B-standard in the 5,000m.

Here’s a look at the different U.S. Trials standards for men and women in the distance running events;

Men’s U.S. Trials A-standards

800m – 1:46.5

1500m – 3:39.0

5000m – 13:33.0

10,000m – 28:15.0

Steeplechase – 8:32.0

Men’s U.S. Trials B-standards

800m – 1:48.3

1500m – 3:43.0

5000m – 13:50.0

10,000m – 29:00.0

Steeplechase – 8:45.0

Women’s U.S. Trials A-standards

800m – 2:01.3

1500m – 4:12.9

5000m – 15:35.0

10,000m – 32:45.0

Steeplechase – 9:55.0

Women’s U.S. Trials B-standards

800m – 2:05.9

1500m – 4:17.0

5000m – 15:50.0

10,000m – 34:00.0

Steeplechase – 10:15.0

A complete listing of qualifying standards for all of the events can be found at http://tracktown12.gotracktownusa.com/qualifying-standards/.

Next time, I’ll go over the Olympic Game standards and some of the rules regarding what happens when athletes place in the top-3 at the U.S. Trials, but don’t have an Olympic Games A-standard. 

Talk about confusing!