By: Tyler Gieseke

Blue and pink chalk covered the young girl’s hands as she stood ready to make prints on the sidewalk. Her volunteer caregiver — a University of Minnesota student — spread the chalk for her.

Shouts and laughter filled the air as children in bright white jerseys played soccer nearby. Inside, some of their parents took a computer class taught by University students.

University students volunteer at Andersen United Community School as part of a Spanish service-learning course, teaching Spanish-speaking community members and providing child care.

To gain recognition for the service work of its students, faculty and staff, the University will reapply within a year to keep its “community engagement” classification for 2015. The designation, offered by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, was created in 2006.

Andrew Furco, University associate vice president for public

engagement, said he’s confident the University will retain its classification.

As an example of preparation for the application process, Furco pointed to the University’s 2007 revamp of tenure guidelines to emphasize public engagement.

The University was among the first institutions — and one of only six research universities — to receive the classification, Furco said.

Now, 311 colleges and universities nationwide have it, said John Saltmarsh, who co-directs the New England Resource Center for Higher Education, one of the foundation’s partner organizations. He said he expects more will apply this year.

“There are a number of campuses that see themselves not only as, say, a research university but also a community-engaged campus,” Saltmarsh said.

Traditional classifications, like research university or liberal arts college, for example, didn’t allow schools to show that, he said.

All institutions that received the classification in 2006 and 2008 will need to reapply and pay a $300 fee to keep their title.

The application is not an easy process, Saltmarsh said.

To qualify, institutions must show that community service is a priority, he said. For example, campuses may have leadership positions committed to community engagement.

The University strives to integrate public engagement into its trifecta mission of research, teaching and outreach, Furco said. One way it does so is through offering service-learning courses.

The University had 73 service-learning courses in spring 2013, according to the University’s Community Service-Learning Center.

Making a difference

For students, service-learning classes provide a unique opportunity to learn by giving back.

Biology freshman Alissa Wigen, who volunteers as a child caregiver through the Spanish service-learning class, said she thinks service is an integral part of the University community.

The class helps her get out in the community and make a difference, she said.

Known as “Miss Alissa” by the children she cares for, Wigen said she most enjoys connecting with the kids when she volunteers.

“It’s going to be really sad when I have to leave,” she said.

While Wigen watches children outside, global studies and environmental science junior Alexandra Mitchell teaches computer skills to Spanish-speaking adults.

Some of her students haven’t used a keyboard or a mouse before, she said, adding that each class begins with a typing lesson.

Like Wigen, Mitchell said the best part of her job is getting to know and help individuals. She said she wants to continue to volunteer after the class ends.

University students are an essential part of the Andersen United Community School’s programs, said Irene Pizana, Latino outreach worker for Andersen Community Education.

“It’s a huge impact,” she said. “We are able to provide those programs because [of] their help.”

By: Meghan Holden

Before the identities of the Boston bombers were released, Nora Ali was thinking one thing: “I hope they’re not Muslim.”

More than two weeks after two men with alleged ties to radical Islam bombed the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260 people, Ali and other Muslims nationwide have found themselves in a post-9/11-type situation — defending their religion again.

“Everyone in the [Muslim] community shudders because we worry, ‘Is this going to be another attack on our community?’” said Ali, a biochemistry senior at the University of Minnesota.

The FBI reported a 1,600 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2001, to about 500 incidents. Since then, reports of violence against Muslims have gone down, but levels remain higher than before 9/11.

Muslim Students Association member Amer Sassila said discrimination against Muslims isn’t as bad as it was right after 9/11, but he’s still frustrated with public perception of Muslims after the Boston bombings.

“I wasn’t the one who did this,” Sassila said. “You’ve got two goons doing it out of the 1.5 billion [Muslims] in the world.”

Sassila said he teaches fellow University students about Islam, which helps break down stereotypes. Despite these misconceptions, Sassila said Islam calls its followers to “do good.”

“We’re not here to cause any trouble,” he said. “We’re here to make peace.”

Sassila said after 9/11, it wasn’t easy to be associated with Islam.

“I was afraid to show it because I felt like the whole world was against me,” he said.

More than half of polled Muslim-Americans said it’s become more difficult to be a Muslim in the U.S. since 9/11 in a 2011 Pew Research survey.

Although Ali said she has never felt personally discriminated against, she often sees anti-Muslim posts on the Internet.

“It can really bring you down when you know there are people like that out there,” Ali said.

Ali said the University community is generally “Minnesota nice” to her and other Muslim students, but she always wonders if her classmates are the ones posting anti-Muslim comments online.

These negative comments can be frustrating to read because Muslims don’t teach terrorism, Ali said.

“For someone to think that they can bomb an entire community and think they’re doing it in the name of religion is a slap in our faces,” Ali said, adding that people like the Boston bombers skew perception of her religion.

Imam Youssef Soussi said after learning of the Boston bombings that Muslims grieved like all other Americans.

“Our sentiments are the same as [after] 9/11 — we reject it completely,” Soussi said of the bombings.

He said negative stereotypes hold Muslims back.

“People want to keep that boogeyman perception alive,” he said. “… That’s a very big disadvantage to Muslims.”

While the Muslim community continues to face discrimination, Ali said she tries to think positively.

“I, still in my heart, even with all the things we see online, I try to think that everyone out there is good and on our side.”

By: Brian Arola

Minneapolis bike leaders gathered Monday at the Commons Hotel near the University of Minnesota to show off strides the city has taken to promote bicycling, as well as to hear from representatives from across the nation on ways to improve safety.

The second annual Midwest Regional Bicycle Safety Summit, hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, included panels on bicycling education, planning and how to increase the number of people biking.

Monday’s summit came as Minnesota legislators are considering giving bicyclists more rights on the road.

Many conference attendees took to the streets on Nice Ride bikes for a roughly 3-mile bike tour of Minneapolis, which included popular bike routes in the University area like the Washington Avenue Bridge and 15th Avenue Southeast.

Last week, the state Senate passed a bill banning cars from using bike lanes to pass other cars and requiring drivers to use turn signals when crossing bike lanes. The bill also prohibits cars from parking in bike lanes unless signs say otherwise.

Republican legislators unsuccessfully tried to put a brake on the bike lane parking ban, leading to tensions between Minneapolis and the rest of the state, the Star Tribune reported.

But many in the city and state say bicycling is worth investing in and that the summit was an opportunity for Minnesota — and Minneapolis in particular — to show off the work it’s put into bicycling, said Minneapolis City Councilman Cam Gordon, who attended some of the panels.

Mark Hicks, a board member from Bike Walk Tennessee who works as an airline pilot, said he chose to live part time in Minneapolis because of its pro-bicycling reputation. He said the summit drew some of the premier experts on bicycling safety.

“It’s motivational to hear the safety thoughts of the experts from around the country,” he said.

With a wide range of attendees, Gordon said the summit gave people from all sides of the bicycling community a chance to learn from each other.

“It gives us a chance to learn what’s going on in other areas,” he said, “and what people think about some of the decisions and questions we have about it.”

One of the main themes of the summit was the idea that more bicyclists on the street leads to more safety. Drivers are more used to seeing them, and the bicyclists have strength in numbers. Bike Walk Twin Cities provided numbers to back up that assertion.

Encouraging more people to bike is important for safety, said University alternative transportation manager Steve Sanders. He outlined the ZAP bike commuter program as an example of work being done at the University to encourage more biking.

Participants in the ZAP program install a radio frequency tracker onto their front spoke and have their commutes tracked along popular routes.

University employees can gain insurance benefits by getting “zapped,” while students are eligible for gift card drawings to local businesses if they’re recorded 12 times per month.

More than 1,200 people have registered for the program, Sanders said, and the participation rate is more than 80 percent.

Bicycling activists will continue to push for bike-friendly measures in Minneapolis, and the summit gives them ideas on what the next step could be, said Minneapolis City Councilman Robert Lilligren, who biked to the event.

“We have a very rich history of activism in general,” he said, “but especially in biking.”

By: Nickalas Tabbert

Erik Van Rooyen is a professional golfer in a Gophers uniform.

The senior on the men’s golf team has been one of the program’s best golfers since he first set foot on campus. He plans to turn pro after the NCAA tournament this spring.

In January, Van Rooyen earned a spot in the Sunshine Tour, a PGA Tour affiliate based in his native South Africa.

But he has at least one more tournament to play at Minnesota — the NCAA regional starting May 16.

A victory in that tournament is the only way he can advance  to the NCAA championships May 28.

Van Rooyen began this spring with a pair of wins in Big Ten match play. He said he carried a lot of confidence from those wins into the rest of the spring.

But the last few months have been what he classified as a “roller coaster ride” marked by inconsistent play.

He tied for 46th at the Linger Longer Invitational on March 24. He then tied for ninth at the U.S. Intercollegiate six days later.

One reason for the struggles was the bad weather. Gophers coach John Carlson said poor conditions early in the spring forced Minnesota to stay indoors for all but one day before the Big Ten championships.

“There were some factors of my game that usually would be some of my strong points that almost just lacked some confidence,” Van Rooyen said, “just because I haven’t been able to practice and see those types of shots outside.”

The last month has been different.

Van Rooyen strung together top-10 finishes in three of Minnesota’s four tournaments, including a tie for second place at last weekend’s Big Ten championships.

Consistency and confidence are among the more valuable skills Van Rooyen has developed since he cracked the Gophers’ lineup as a freshman.

He played nine of the team’s 11 tournaments his freshman year, but he had only the seventh-best scoring average.

“I remember my very first tournament,” he said. “I was shaking on the first tee being so nervous.”

He said he still has those nerves but handles the pressure better.

“You know your [own] game so well,” he said, “that you know where you’re going to miss [a shot] if you’re going to miss it.”

His consistency improved noticeably his sophomore season as he played in every tournament and finished second on the team in scoring average.

He hasn’t missed a tournament since, and he’s led the Gophers in scoring average the past two seasons.

Van Rooyen also said his mental strength has helped him succeed. He said he’s improved his consistency by facing high-pressure situations over the last few years and getting more repetition with his swing.

“I’m usually more of just a feel player,” he said, “and [I know] that if I’m strong mentally, things will go well.”

Senior teammate Robert Bell said Van Rooyen has improved at course management over the years.

“He was a very good player when I first got to know him,” Bell said, “but he’s become more mature, he makes better decisions on the golf course, and his swing has become more compact.”

Van Rooyen relies on his driving and putting to play consistently. With two weeks to prepare for his third NCAA regional, he said he thinks he can win the tournament if the two defining parts of his game work well.

“Everything is just going to have to come together at the right time,” he said. “I’m going to have to play confidently and freely and see what happens.”

Van Rooyen said he hopes to play professional golf in the United States someday and play on golf’s biggest stage: the PGA Tour.

The next step toward achieving that goal would likely be earning a PGA Tour card through the Web.com Tour qualifying tournament, which is regarded as the dominant pathway to the PGA Tour.

“I think the possibilities are endless if he keeps working hard at his game,” Bell said.

Women miss NCAA tourney

The Gophers women’s golf team failed to make the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.

Sophomore Carmen Laguna, the team’s top performer this spring, also missed the tournament, per an NCAA release.

By: Samuel Gordon

When professional baseball came knocking, Gophers outfielder Troy Larson didn’t pay much attention.

A few years back, a professional scout sent Larson a questionnaire.

“He walked into my office and said, ‘Do I have to fill this out?’” Minnesota head coach John Anderson recalled. “‘I don’t want to be a pro player. I want to be a doctor.’”

Larson is well on his way to living out that dream.

The senior is set to enroll in medical school after the 2013 season, his last as a member of the Gophers baseball team.

He’s been accepted to Penn State’s College of Medicine, and he’s on the wait list at Minnesota’s and Vermont’s. Add those achievements to his lengthy list of academic accomplishments.

In his fifth year at the University, Larson is finishing up his second major — biochemistry — to accompany his degree in genetics, cell biology and development.

His 3.95 GPA is one of the best in Minnesota’s athletics department, and he was honored as an Academic All-American during the 2012 season.

Larson batted .304 last season and was the Gophers’ everyday center fielder. This year, he’s hitting .297 in the same role, and Anderson said he’s been a more consistent player.

For Larson, baseball and school go hand-in-hand.

“It’s kind of a nice distraction both ways,” he said. “In the middle of the season, it’s a lot of baseball. You can focus on schoolwork a little bit to get your mind off of baseball.”

This semester, Larson is taking one class while serving as a teacher’s assistant in the biochemistry lab. But throughout his career, his studies have demanded he miss more practice time than most players.

The baseball program at Minnesota places a heavy emphasis on academic success, and Anderson said he tells players they can pursue any major they want.

“[Larson] shows that if you want to pursue a major like that, it can be done and combined with athletics,” Anderson said.

Larson brings schoolwork on the road. He studies at the hotels, airports and on the bus rides.

“He takes in every bit of time you can squeeze in around his athletic career” to prepare for the MCATs and medical school, Anderson said.

Kurt Schlangen, Larson’s teammate, classmate and former roommate, said he “puts in 110 percent on everything he does.”

Larson’s relationship between academics and athletics dates back to his high school days at the prestigious Hill-Murray High School.

He said the transition from middle school to high school was key in preparing him for the rigorous academic demands of college.

“I kind of learned to either sink or swim at that point,” he said. “It became second nature to study a lot and get my work done.”

Larson’s high school days were filled with classes, baseball and homework, and by the time he got to college, he was ready.

“I actually did more homework in high school than I did in college,” he said.

Larson’s father, Dale, said his son was highly motivated as far back as elementary school and said that’s about the time Troy’s interest in medicine started to develop.

Dale said Larson took many trips to doctors and specialists as a child because of various sports-related injuries.

“He was watching that whole process as he was going through it,” Dale said. “That was something that really intrigued him.

“All of a sudden, he would talk about that’s what he wanted to do.”

Larson soaked in the teachings of his science classes and spent time shadowing doctors.

By the time he got to college, there was little doubt surrounding his career choice.

Alissa Allen, Larson’s academic counselor since 2009, said Larson’s willingness to sacrifice social and athletic opportunities are a prime reason for his success.

“Coming in, he knew he wanted to be a doctor, and that was always his focus,” Allen said. “He made sure that was always in the forefront.”

Larson frontloaded his coursework to make it more manageable, taking upward of 17 credits his first couple of semesters.

He redshirted his freshman season on the baseball team, which helped him prioritize school, he said.

Getting ahead in school has helped Larson both on and off the diamond.

His lighter class schedule as a senior has afforded him more practice time, which Anderson said has aided his performance.

Larson, who contemplated not returning for his final season, is enjoying a successful 2013 campaign as a player and a teacher’s assistant.

“Just to be able to use the education I’ve accumulated to help kids learn,” he said, “I hope that when I’m older and am a physician I can incorporate that into my job.”

By: Daily Editorial Board

Almost every year, a discussion between students, academic advisers and department heads crops up about how to properly evaluate what constitutes an appropriate workload for a class with a designated number of credits.

The official University of Minnesota policy on assessing workload for a given course is that a student will have, on average, three hours of academic work per week for every credit that the class is worth. This policy represents the number of hours a student is expected to put in for a class per week in order to receive an average grade in the course. But students know this policy is not applicable across all departments, and standardization of workloads in a sequence of classes in the same department is rare.

A Minnesota Daily article published April 24 reported several online institutions’ switch to competency-based models of learning evaluation instead of the seemingly archaic credit-hour system. Competency-based programs, according to the Daily, associate credits with “skills gained rather than seat time in class, allowing for accelerated, less expensive education.”

While these models may be successful for online institutions and technical degrees, the University should not look to this type of learning evaluation as a means of evolving the “credit-hour” system we have in place. Instead, the University needs a revamp of its credit-workload policies to more honestly reflect the rigor of academic work both inter- and intra-departmentally.

Faculty and department heads should consult with students before changing the number of credits for core classes, and student credit-to-workload evaluations should be included in class descriptions during registration so other students can be more informed when scheduling for upcoming semesters.

By: Luqman Lawal — University student

The yummy taste and satisfaction derived from the unbelievably cheap $1 double-decker burger may seem long-lasting, but its translation to obesity, its health effects and extremely high government health care spending in the face of a mind-boggling budget deficit makes paying for the hidden cost unsustainable. The real cost, which economists refer to as the “opportunity cost,” is the forgone alternative, which in this case is the individual’s health and taxpayers’ money that the government is spending on sky-rocketing health care costs in the U.S. Obesity accounts for 10 percent of annual heath care costs in the U.S. and has been tagged as the fastest-growing disease and the secondmost common cause of preventable death in our country. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third (35.7 percent) of adults in the U.S. are obese. Should we keep paying the hidden cost? I am sure it’s clear that we all pay at higher folds, but do we want to keep paying? Most of these costs have been paid as hospital bills for the management of diseases caused by or closely linked to obesity which include: hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, cancers, strokes and many others. There is hardly a week in which a study on rising rates of obesity in the U.S. is not churned out. There have been a lot of proposals on ways to tackle this problem; however, tackling the urgent and foundational problem of bridging the access gap between healthy and unhealthy foods is essential in achieving positive results in the battle against obesity.

Different studies have attributed the cause of obesity in the U.S. to the wide gap in the costs of healthy and unhealthy foods. A healthy diet may seem like it requires a lot of money. The reality is that eating a healthy diet can save more money in the short and long term, not only for you but also for the nation. It is cheaper to feed a family fast food with all sorts of unhealthy foods than to take a family out for a salad bar in a restaurant. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, comparing costs of food items in different categories since 1985, the cost of healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables have increased by about 120 percent when compared to an increase in the cost of sugar-sweetened beverages of about 20 percent. Are we driving away the healthy diets from the menu of the poor? Numerous strategies for health promotion over the years have presumed that good nutrition was simply a matter of making the right choices. Access to healthier diets could be sharply limited in low-income families due to inability to afford the cost of healthy diets, rendering previous strategies inappropriate. However, I strongly urge that issues of food costs receive attention. There is a need for a governmental and policy intervention to subsidize the cost of healthy foods and raise taxes on unhealthy foods.

Firstly, we need the establishment of a federal program that increases access to healthy foods by subsidizing the cost. Families that chose to go for unhealthy foods due to the cheaper cost would have the opportunity of buying healthy foods at affordable prices, which will in turn drive down the obesity rates in the U.S. The government needs to subsidize healthy foods at this level. Affordability of healthy foods has been linked to reduced risk of obesity.

Secondly, increasing taxes on the most widely consumed unhealthy foods, such as soda, candy, cookies, etc., through the same federal program would prevent excessive consumption of these food items. Energy-dense foods not only provide more calories per unit weight but can provide more empty calories per unit cost. In attempts to reduce spending on food, families are driven to make unhealthy choices that seem “cheaper.” Increased access to fast foods has also been linked to higher risk of obesity.

The time  is now for us, as a country, to join hands and utilize the window of opportunity presented to us by the  obesity awareness created by the media and the support gathered by first lady Michelle Obama’s campaigns on the prevention of obesity in our darling country. We need our policy makers to set and implement policies that will drive down the cost of healthy foods relative to unhealthy ones, thereby making healthy foods affordable, improving families’ choices and ultimately halting and reversing the obesity trend in the U.S.

By: Janice Bitters

Students could pay more to borrow federal student loans as early as this summer if a deal isn’t reached in Congress. 

Interest rates for Stafford loans — the most common type of federal student loan — are set to double this summer, returning to their 2008 rate.

The law that subsidizes these loans will expire June 30, raising the rate from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent and allowing the loans to accrue interest while students are still in school.

The debate on subsidized student loans is a familiar one for Congress. Last summer, policymakers granted a one-year extension for undergraduate students when the same rate increase was scheduled. Graduate student loans, however, lost the federal subsidy.

“Last year, the undergraduates really benefited from the pressure of the presidential campaign,” said Kris Wright, director of the University of Minnesota’s Office of Student Finance. “There was a lot bigger forum to talk about education issues.”

English senior Jena Ohman said the loan increases could hurt students already grappling with debt.

“It’s scary because it’s hard enough to get a job, and this will add on more debt,” she said. “Everyone is already in enough debt as it is.”

In 2012, the White House estimated more than 7 million students nationwide would pay more for their student loans if the rates increased. In Minnesota alone, more than 207,000 students have taken out the loan, according to the White House.

The rate won’t be retroactive. Borrowers who have taken a subsidized Stafford loan in the past still won’t be required to pay interest that accrues until six months after graduation.

If the rate increases, federal Stafford loans taken out as of July 1 would accrue interest at the higher rate, even while students are still in school.

Ohman said having more loans that accrue interest while students are in school concerns her.

“It’s scary because it’s suggested that I start paying off the interest on my loans before the six month [grace] period,” she said. “But with the way jobs are right now, that is going to be hard.”

At the University, students can seek counseling about student loans from One Stop Student Services. In addition, Wright said the school is working on an online calculator to help students see the long-term impact of the loans they take out. 

Other options are available to help after graduation, including the federal Pay As You Earn program.

The program allows graduates to make payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income, offering lower repayment plans for graduates with low starting salaries. The balance of student loans is forgiven after 20 years.

Though the interest rate increases are widely unpopular, many in Congress are avoiding another one-year extension and instead vying for long-term solutions.

One solution proposed by President Barack Obama would tie the federal loan interest rates to market rates each year.

Wright said this plan would benefit students in the near future as market interest rates are low. However, she’s concerned about future rates as the economy improves.

“Unlike a mortgage, students can’t renegotiate the interest rates on these loans,” she said. “… If [students] have the misfortune to go to school in a high interest rate time, they will have to pay those high interest rates for the life of the loan.”

Some consumer groups have also criticized Obama’s plan because it doesn’t provide a maximum rate.

In a statement released earlier this month, the Young Invincibles, a nonprofit group that advocates for policy decisions that affect 18- to 34-year-olds, said students should pay less for loans when interest rates are low and more when those rates are high.

“However, without the protection of an interest rate cap, a market-based rate could be disastrous for students,” the statement said. “It poses the risk that interest rates will shoot upward.”

By: Andrew Krammer

Richard Pitino has taken steps to distance himself from the Tubby Smith era of Gophers basketball, taking very little from the national champion coach.

But the University of Minnesota officially announced four additions to Pitino’s staff late last week, one of whom was a special assistant to Smith during his six years with the Gophers.

Steve Goodson, Pitino’s director of basketball operations, will be the only employee crossing over from Smith’s tenure. Goodson graduated from Kentucky in 2005 and served as a special assistant under Smith with the Wildcats in 2006-07 before moving to Minnesota with the same role.

“I have a history with each one of these guys, so they are coming into this situation with knowledge of what is expected of them,” Pitino said in a release. “They know that they will be playing an integral role as we try and take this program to the next level.”

Pitino originally hired Mike Balado, a former assistant at his old school, Florida International, as the director of operations.

But Balado resigned after less than a week and accepted an assistant position at Louisville, where Pitino’s father Rick Pitino is the head coach.

Pitino’s final assistant coaching hire, Dan McHale, comes from the Big East Conference after spending the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Seton Hall.

“He fits what we already have in place here with [assistant coaches Kimani Young and Ben Johnson],” Pitino said in a release, “which is a love and passion for the game of basketball.”

McHale also spent four seasons with Louisville as a video coordinator and staff assistant.

In the final two years with Louisville, McHale was “responsible for advance scouting video of Cardinal opponents,” according to his profile on Louisville’s site.

Shaun Brown was named the Gophers’ head strength and conditioning coach. He held the same position for three years at Southern California under Kevin O’Neill, who was fired this season.

Brown worked eight seasons in the NBA as a strength and conditioning coach for the Boston Celtics (1997-2003) and Toronto Raptors (2003-05).

Josh Adel will follow Pitino from Florida International to become the Gophers’ assistant director of basketball operations. Like Pitino, Adel spent one year at FIU. Previously, he spent five years at Florida as a manager and later a head manager.

By: Megan Ryan

The Gophers men’s and women’s track and field teams continued their strong traditions at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, this weekend.

The men won two events while the women won one and set a school record.

Senior Travis Burkstrand was a part of both the men’s titles. He won the 800-meter run and the 4×800-meter relay with senior Harun Abda and redshirt freshmen Goaner Deng and Alex Brend.

The 800-meter run pitted Burkstrand, a distance runner, against Abda, a middle-distance runner. Burkstrand edged Abda by a little more than three tenths of a second with his time of 1:49.32.

“I think it was just how the race played out,” Burkstrand said. “He did all the work for the first 500 meters, and I just kind of hung on.”

Burkstrand’s title was Minnesota’s first-ever in the 800 at the Drake Relays. Assistant coach Paul Thornton said the feat was special because the Drake Relays are more of a relay meet.

Burkstrand said he enjoyed collaborating with the distance runners and his younger teammates in the relay. They clocked 7:26.49 to collect the Gophers’ third-straight trophy in the event.

The Gophers’ 4×1,600-meter relay of juniors Derek Storkel and Bobby Nicolls, sophomore Blayne Dulian and Brend placed second, crossing the finish line in 16:45.51.

Senior Oladipo Fagbemi finished third in the triple jump at 15.59 meters.

The women’s team won the distance medley relay in school record-setting fashion. Senior Alena Brooks, juniors TeShon Adderley, Katie Hill and Laura Docherty ran the event in 11:06.47 to beat the previous record from 2007 by nearly two seconds.

Docherty received the baton in fourth place to start her anchor leg, but she made up the distance to cross the line first.

Volunteer assistant coach Sarah Hesser said the team felt it had underperformed in other relays and wanted to make up for it in the distance medley relay.

“They were phenomenal,” Hesser said. “It really meant a lot to [retiring assistant coach Gary Wilson] … to get a win in that stadium because it’s a place that we have had a lot of history.”

The Gophers’ 4×1,600-meter relay team of juniors Maggie Bollig, Ashlie Decker, Docherty and redshirt freshman Becca Dyson placed second with a time of 19:23.25.

Junior Katie Moraczewski competed individually and placed second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a personal-record time of 10:15.37.

Throwers win two titles

The men’s throwers competed at the UCSD Triton Invitational in San Diego and picked up two titles.

Senior Micah Hegerle won the hammer throw invitational at 64.67 meters, and sophomore Logan Hussung won the open section of the shot put at 17.49 meters.