Happy Thanksgiving from DtB!

Gobble gobble, track and cross country fans!

It time again for us to shutter the DtB office for a few days to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. We hope each and every one of you have a pleasant holiday spending time with family and friends. We'll be back again on Monday with the latest news from the sport.

In the meantime, we want to extend our thanks to you, our loyal DtB readers, for continuing to visit our site and make the work of gathering Minnesota's track and field, cross country, and running news so rewarding.

Thanks!

The Annual Poll ... Of course, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving on DtB without the annual Thanksgiving Poll. Again, we ask you all to vote on your favorite Thanksgiving foods in the poll that you'll find on the left sidebar.

Before you vote, let us tell you what's at stake ...

#1-ranked Stuffing enters the competition hoping to win an unprecedented third straight Thanksgiving Poll title. After a heaping victory in 2007, when the side-dish earned 52% percent of the votes, Stuffing eked out a 33% to 29% win over co-runners-up Turkey and Mashed Potatoes last year. Turkey, the runner-up in 2007, finished 4th in 2008.

Thanksgiving Poll observers are calling the 2009 race too close to call, noting each of last year's top-4 finishers have a chance to be the centerpiece in this year's competition. (Gravy and Cranberries, which have never crack the top-half of the results in the poll, are expected to battle for 5th place in the six-food competition.)

Voting in the Thanksgiving poll is open until one minute before midnight, Sunday, November 29.

Armstrong, Carlson Power USA Ekiden to 5th

Team USA Minnesota's Meghan Armstrong and former Golden Gopher star Andrew Carlson propelled the USA team to a 5th-place finish at the International Chiba Ekiden in Japan on Monday.

The USA clocked 2:09:42 for the 42.195K, six runner, coed relay. Japan won with 2:05:58.

Running the second leg of the race, Armstrong clocked 16:18 for 5K, which moved the USA squad into 7th place. Carlson, running the 5th leg of the event, clocked 29:20 for 10K and handed off the relay sash to the USA anchor in 4th place.

USA Track and Field has the full story of the race HERE.

Gopher Women 10th at NCAAs

Hear Gopher women's coach Gary Wilson talk about his 10th place team here ...




From left, Stephanie Price, Kayla Wagner, Elizabeth Yetzer, Nikki Swenson, Megan Duwell, Amy Laskowske, and Heather Dorniden.

Photo by Randy Miyazaki.

NCAA D1 Championships Bullet Points

Here's the Minnesota low-down from the NCAA Division I Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana this afternoon ...

-- The University of Minnesota women placed 10th.

-- Gopher senior Megan Duwell placed 7th overall and was named an All-American.

-- Gopher junior Hassan Mead placed 16th overall and was named an All-American.

-- The Gopher men placed 24th.

-- Henry Sibley alum Chris Stublaski was the 7th-man for NCAA Men's Champions Oklahoma State.

-- Hopkins alum Mike Krisch of Georgetown was 32nd overall.

-- Winona High School alum Elliott Heath 37th overall for Stanford.


Important NCAA Links ...

-- Women's Team Results

-- Women's Individual Results

-- Men's Team Results

-- Men's Individual Results

-- Gopher women's wrap-up.

-- Gopher men's wrap-up.


Photo of Hassan Mead (#373) by Randy Miyazaki.

Women's NCAA Early Report

They're off in the women's race. After the first K, covered by the favorites Jenny Barringer of Colorado and Susan Kuijken of the Netherlands and Florida State in 3:04. The rest of the field packed in behind with the lead duo already having opened a big gap as the top two passed the mile in 5:02.

Team favorites, the University of Washington, have team leader Kendra Schaaf trying to get up to the top two only 3 seconds behind. The top duo went through 2K in 6:17, and 3K 9:38. Just past this point Barringer suddenly slowed all of a sudden and fell back. Kuijken, who runs with a "floating rib" that requires cortisone injections because it stabs her diaphram, has taken command of the individual race. Barringer continued to fall back, collapsed and fell to the ground, got up and kept going.

18 minutes into the race Illinois' Angela Bizzarri and Schaaf blew past Kuikjen. Down the homestretch Bizzarri pulled away to win in 19:46.8. Schaaf finished second and Kuijken held on for third. Barringer finished in the pack well back of the leaders with a kick down the homestretch. The University of Minnesota's Megan Duwell finished 7th to lead the women to a 10th place team finish.

"I thought I had a shot, but I wasn't sure," said Bizzarri of the individual race. "I tried to stay in touch with the leaders and see how it turned out. I'm so excited. It's unbelieveable. I really don't have words for it." Same might be said for the Villanova team who dominated the women's race, upsetting defending champion, Washington.

"I didn't feel so good," said Barringer. "Every time I tried to pick it up, I had to stop. It's a mystery. That's what we'll be doing the next several weeks, figuring out what happened."

Women's team results are available Here. Women's individual results are Here.

Read about the Gophers Here.

Early report from NCAA

At 5K Sam Chelanga, a Kenyan running for Liberty University, had a 30 second lead with a time of 14:09. Hassan Mead of MN was in the second group trailing Chelenga about 40 seconds back. Oklahoma State, running with that solid pack that got them to the NCAA's was the top team at 5K. Chelanga continued to push the pace through 6K, putting another 10 seconds on Stanford's Chris Derrick, who led that pack. Mead was in the group just behind.

U of M fans were very visible on the course in Indiana with their large flags flying in the breeze. Chelanga leads by 45 seconds at 7K. At 8K, in 22:46, Chelanga looks like he has the race wrapped up with a 39 seconds lead. Oklahoma State has similar command of the team race.

Chelanga wins in 28:41. Mead finished back in 16th in 29:51. Elliott Heath of Stanford and Winona was further back, finishing 37th in 30:20. The U of M team finished 24th in the team race with 493 points. As the post race interviews were taking place in the finish chute, Mead could be seen in the background walking with his arms around the shoulders of two of his teammates as the trio compared notes on the experience.

Chelenga won by 22 seconds. "I'm glad I finally won it," Chelenga said afterwards. "Today I just wanted to do something. I was ready."

David McNeill, an Aussie running for Northern Arizona, was a surprise runner-up in 29:06. "I went to the front from the gun," he said. "And hung on for as long as I could. I got around the last bend and I just went for it. (I knew going in that) a top three was going to be a big ask, but it just goes to show that if you believe in yourself anything can happen."

Derrick, who was third, was disappointed most in the failure of Stanford to win the team title. "We just kind of bombed," Derrick said. "It was something we really didn't expect." As for the individual race, where Derrick was also favored, he added: "I thought 14:09(for the first 5K) was suicide. Congratulations to Sam. He just ran really amazing. I tried to drop David, but he was really strong. I just didn't have anything left."

Ryan Vail, the captain and team leader for Oklahoma State, who scored 127 points for the team win, it was the first title for their school since 1954. "This has been our goal ever since we got to Oklahoma State," said Vail. "I really feel proud."

Men's team results are Here. Men's individual results are Here.

Read about the Gophers Here.

NCAA Monday ... Waiting for the Starting Gun

As we await the start of the NCAA Division I Championships -- the men get underway at 11:08 a.m. CST while the women take off at 11:58 -- we draw your attention to the official previews for the University of Minnesota teams.

Read about the Gopher women, who are seeking their 5th-straight top-12 finish at NCAAs, HERE.

Read about the Gopher men and star Hassan Mead HERE.

The meet will be web-cast, HERE, starting at 11;00 a.m. CST.

Technology Willing ... DtB will have the Minnesota news from NCAAs as soon as it happens. (Thanks for your patience with us over the weekend!)

Technical Difficulties

We've been having some technical problems with Blogger and haven't been able to provide the in-depth coverage that we had planned for this weekend's NCAA Cross Country Championships. We hope to have the problem resolved and resume complete coverage soon. Thanks for your patience.

NCAA D2 Championships Bullet Points

Until we're able to resume full coverage, here are some highlights from the Division II Championships in Evansville, Indiana:

• Morgan Place of UMD finishes 6th
• UMD women finish in 7th place
• Womens recap here
• Womens results here
• Mens recap here
• Mens results here

NCAA D3 Championships Bullet Points

Until we're able to resume full coverage, here are some highlights from the Division III Championships in Cleveland:

• Marie Borner of Bethel finishes 2nd
• Carleton's women are 11th
• Dan Greeno of Bethel is 10th
• St. Thomas men are 19th

Minnesota women's all-Americans at D3:
• Marie Borner, Bethel, 2nd
• Simone Childs-Walker, Carleton, 11th
• Laura Roach, Carleton, 25th
• Margot Branigan, Hamline, 32nd

Men's D3 all-Americans from Minnesota
• Dan Greeno, Bethel, 10th
• Dobuol Ruon, St. Olaf, 24th
• Ben Sathre, St. Thomas, 26th
• Ian Bauer, Hamline, 27th

Full results are here.

Photos are here.

FLASH: Borner Runner-Up At NCAAs

Defending champion Marie Borner of Bethel University finished second, unofficially, at this morning's NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.

Wendy Pavlus of St. Lawrence won the race.

Unofficial individual results are HERE.

The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire won the women's team title.

Carleton College finished 11th.

Unofficial team results are HERE.

Listen to Borner in her own words ...



We're having a few technical difficulties at the moment, so for full results, you can go Here. We'll be back online with a full report as soon as possible.

LIVE: NCAA Division III Championships

Down the Backstretch is on-site at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in Cleveland, Ohio this morning. Weather conditions are ideal for November racing -- 50 degrees and calm, albeit cloudy.

The women race will get underway at 10:00 am CST; the men will follow at 11:00 a.m.

We plan to post flash news immediately after each race and the file fuller reports shortly after the action is over.

Stay tuned for the NCAAs on DtB!

As We Wait ... You might enjoying remembering, HERE, just how many Minnesota women have won D3 individual titles ... seven women representing Minnesota colleges and two Minnesota high school grads representing Luther College

Yes/No's Season-Ending NCAA Tripleheader

All good things must come to an end. As the college cross country season concludes this weekend, the 2009 Yes/No competition will end as well.

But, national meets abound this weekend. Division III will be hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio on Saturday. Division II is taking place at the University of Southern Indiana the same day. And finally, Division I will be held Monday at Indiana State.

The Yes/No contest will go out with a bang - we have three separate questions this week. We will track a top area runner in each division in their respective races. Just how good are these athletes? All three won their conference and regional races and have combined to win 15 of 18 races this year.

Let us know how well these All-Americans will do at Nationals:

Yes/No D1: Since the national meet distance increased to 10k in the 1970's, the highest place a Gopher athlete has finished is 13th. Will Hassan Mead finish in the top 12 on Monday?

Yes/No D2: Will Morgan Place break her own UMD record for best place at a National Meet and finish in the top 6 on Saturday?

Yes/No D3: Will Marie Borner of Bethel University repeat as National Champion on Saturday?

Hassan Mead is coming off dominating performances at both the Big Ten Championship and the Midwest Regional Meet. Mead has achieved All-American status at his first two NCAA National Cross Country meets, finishing 43rd in 2007 and 31st in 2008.

Morgan Place is undefeated against D2 runners in 2009. She finished 7th at the 2008 NCAA National Cross Country Meet. Place has won 13 of 16 college cross country races in her career.

Marie Borner is the defending D3 National Champ in Cross Country. Borner has also won National crowns in indoor track (mile) and outdoor track (1500). Borner’s main competitor seems to be Ayla Mitchell from UW-Oshkosh. Mitchell finished 3rd to Borner in cross country last year. In 2009, Borner defeated Mitchell at the Griak meet but Mitchell was able to win the Brooks Invitational on her home course, finishing seven seconds ahead of Borner.

To play our game, type your "yes" or "no" answers into the subject line of an e-mail and send it to us at DtBFantasy [AT] gmail [DOT] com before 10:00 A.M. CST, Saturday, November 21. Please put your answer in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. Each question will be worth one point.

My D1 answer: Yes

My D2 answer: Yes

My D3 answer: No

The previous Yes/No question was: Will Morgan Place win the D2 Central Regional Cross Country meet on Saturday? The correct answer was “yes” as Place ran away from the field, winning by 19 seconds. Five contestants answered correctly.

Here are the current Yes/No leaders for the year:

Doug Cowles - 27
Chad Bjugan - 20
Ryan Aylesworth - 19
Mitch Van Bruggen - 18
Lori Anne Peterson - 18
Nate Porath - 18
Mick Hondo – 18

You can find all of DtB's contest results and leaderboards at DtB Fantasy Corner.

Good luck and thanks for playing Yes/No on DtB!

Kara Goucher Talks About "Running By Feel"

Competitor's Matt Fitzgerald talks to Kara Goucher Here.

NCAA Championship Week Links

We're hustling to get on the road to Ohio and Indiana for the NCAA Division III and I meets this weekend, so we'll quickly post day's major news links before we start the drive.

-- The U of M's Gary Wilson was named Midwest Region Women's Coach of the Year.

-- The Gopher's Hassan Mead was named the Midwest Region Athlete of the Year.

-- Carleton will enter the NCAA D3 meet as the top-ranked women's team from Minnesota at #12.

-- St. Thomas will enter the men's D3 meet as the top-ranked Minnesota men's team at #18.

MSHSL Cross Country Championships Gallery

Dennis Hahn has been chronicling track & field and distance running in Minnesota for decades. His new photo gallery on the USATF Minnesota site captures all of the spirit and emotion of the 2009 MSHSL Cross Country Championships.

Photo by Dennis Hahn.

NCAA-Bound Gophers Ranked #13 and #29

When the University of Minnesota cross country teams race at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana on Monday, they'll do so as the #13 and #29-ranked teams in the nation.

The Gopher women's team rose four spots to #13 in the newly released final poll of the 2009 season, thanks to their strong performance at the Midwest Regional in Springfield, Missouri. Only the third place finishers at the Big Ten Championships, the Gophers won big over conference runners-up Illinois at regionals to secure an automatic bid to NCAAs.

The Gopher men, who have been in and out of the national top-30 this season, are tied for #29 in the final poll. The youthful Gopher men earned an an at-large bid to the national meet after finishing 4th at the Midwest Regional.

Find the complete women's rankings HERE. The men's poll is HERE.

DtB at NCAAs ... Down the Backstretch will be on hand in Terre Haute with on-site coverage from the NCAA Championships! Join us Monday for meet highlights and comprehensive coverage of all the Minnesotans at NCAAs.

Goetzke, Wickstrom Win MDRA Grand Prix

Masters runners Kirt Goetzke and Andriette Wickstrom won the open divisions of this year's Minnesota Distance Running Association Grand Prix, which culminated at Rocky's Run earlier this month.

Wickstrom, 54, has now won the year-long racing circuit twice. She was the Grand Prix champion in 2005.

Goetzke's Grand Prix win is his first ever. He was the runner-up to Kirk Walztoni in 2008.

Nate Beaudin was the runner-up in men's open competition, while Scott Ramberg finished third. Leila McGrath was the second-place open female; Eileen Moran finished third.

The MDRA Grand Prix was contested over 13 races from January through November. Runners are judge on their ten best results during the year.

Complete results of the Grand Prix -- including age-group winners -- can be found HERE.

Registration for the 2010 MDRA Grand Prix is already underway HERE.

Gopher Harriers Headed Back to NCAAs

Once again, a full complement of Gopher harriers will race at the NCAA Championships.

On Saturday, the #17-ranked University of Minnesota women's team earned an automatic spot on the NCAA starting line in Terre Haute, Indiana thanks to an emphatic 60 to 86 victory over Illinois at the Midwest Regional meet in Springfield, Missouri.

On Sunday night, the Gopher men earned an at-large invitation to nationals after finishing fourth in the Midwest. The men will make their 12th trip to NCAAs in the last 14 years. The women will attend "the big dance" for the 10th time in 13 years.

In addition, Golden Gopher junior Hassan Mead defended his Midwest Regional title running 30:22 for the 10K course.

Women Reaching Their Peak? ... The Gopher women won their third-straight Midwest Regional crown by running their best team race of the season. Megan Duwell led the squad with a runner-up finish to Illinois' Angela Bizzarri.

Behind Duwell, the Gophers put five runners in the top-20 -- Amy Laskowske was 9th, Heather Dorniden was 14th, Stephanie Price was 19th, and Kayla Wagner was 20th. No other team put four runners in the top-20.

"I didn't think we ran very well at the Big Ten meet in terms of being a pack," Gopher coach Gary Wilson told media after Regionals, "and we kind of faded at the end and I take blame for that."

"But today they all came together and did a great job." he said. "We had seven of the top 25. It was a great win for us. We just hadn't put it together all year, so today they did. Everyone was a fighter today and had a great group energy."

Nikki Swenson finished 21st for Minnesota; Elizabeth Yetzer was 25th.

The strong race has Wilson and his squad eager for the NCAA Championships and the possibility of improving upon the program's best-ever 9th-place finish there.

"I thought at the beginning of the year we could be a top-eight team," Wilson revealed, "which would be our best finish ever, and now we're ranked 17th and maybe we can be, we still have a shot at that."

"The kids' goal was to be in the top eight, but there are awfully good teams around up and down the line," he continued. "They key at the big dance is to just get in, keep your composure and not try to be a hero. Just run and see what happens."

Duwell is confident the team focus on the late-season will reap dividends at NCAAs.

"This season we really wanted to improve as the year went on and peak at the right time," the senior all-American said. "This win will give us a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum going into nationals."

A Seat at the Table ... After finishing 4th at the Midwest Regional on Saturday, the Gopher men were left to celebrate Hassan Mead's title defense and wait impatiently until Sunday night to learn whether they'd make the NCAA championships as an at-large selection.

The #29-ranked Gophers hoped their Midwest finish behind #2 Oklahoma State, #18 Oklahoma, and #27 Iowa State would be result enough to put them in the 31-team NCAA field and extend their season one more week.

The Gophers scored 125 points at the meet, trailing Oklahoma State's 50, Oklahoma's 71, and Iowa State's 109.

Scoring behind Mead were Matt Barrett who finished 15th overall, Ben Blankenship who was 28th, Pieter Gagnon 38th, and Mike McFarland 51st . Derek Storkel finished 66th and Paul Hilsen was 117th.

"We are certainly a bubble team. All we can do is wait and hope," Gopher coach Steve Plasencia offered post meet.

When the NCAA field was announced on Sunday evening, however, Minnesota was among the 13 at-large selections for the meet, where the team finished 15th last year and eighth in 2007.

Find complete Midwest Regional results HERE (women) and HERE (men.)

Find complete NCAA Championship field information HERE.