Records are meant to be broken, but not necessarily at the rate Minnesota’s hurdlers are shattering them.
After already rewriting the history books twice this year, freshman Emma Spagnola set the new time in the 60-meter hurdles after finishing second in the event at the Iowa State Classic on Saturday.
And it came less than 24 hours after junior Kimberly Golding broke the record in the 60-meter hurdles preliminaries on Friday. The Jamaica native finished 0.02 seconds behind Spagnola in the Saturday finals to clinch third place in the event.
“It’s a good, friendly competition between those two,” women’s head coach Matt Bingle said. “If you are going to get beat, you might as well get beat by your teammate.”
While the 60-meter hurdles was the only program record to fall this weekend in Ames, Iowa, redshirt sophomore Erin Hawkins was knocking on the door of the 200-meter dash record.
Hawkins dropped 0.22 seconds off her career best Friday afternoon, moving into second place on the Gophers’ all-time record list. With the personal record, Hawkins won the event for her fifth individual title this year.
“I have overcome so much the last couple years with knee surgeries and not being able to practice, so I’m just excited to see it all coming together and can actually see progress,” Hawkins said.
It wasn’t only the sprinters that shone for the Gophers this weekend as redshirt senior Katie Murgic and junior Cami Gilson had top-five finishes in the pole vault.
The Gophers saw the most improvement in their mid-distance runners with eight personal records.
“We are where I wanted to be when we started the season,” Bingle said. “We needed to be in a championship environment like [Iowa State] before [the Big Ten indoor championships].”
Berkley Edwards thrives in first track action
After competing for the Gophers football team for the first time last year, Berkley Edwards got his first taste of collegiate track over the weekend.
The redshirt freshman finished third overall in the 60-meter dash Saturday.
“I think that was [Berkley’s] first race in nearly a year and a half,” men’s head coach Steve Plasencia said. “I know he loves track as well as football, so it is fun to work with him, and we know he has a big upside.”
Edwards didn’t get the opportunity to race against the Gophers’ top sprinter in the finals, as redshirt freshman Brad Neumann sat out the 60-meter dash due to a minor injury, Plasencia said.
Neumann did get an opportunity to race in the 200-meter dash Friday, finishing second in the event.
Freshman pole vaulter Glen Harold followed up his title last weekend at the Gene Glader Classic with a fourth-place finish in Iowa, a much more competitive field.
“[Glen] appears to me to be an emotionally mature kid for being a freshman,” Plasencia said. “I think he is starting to get his confidence going. He has a bright future.”
