February 2016- An ND Runner Month-In-Review

The short month of February is now behind us, but that doesn't mean it was without some exciting things going on in the world of running. Not only did February bring some fast times at big meets early on in the month, but the final weekend was conference time, and with that some great performances in crunch time.

Former ND high school
state champ (Courtesy:
gophersports.com)

Women's Performance of the Month: At the Big Ten Indoor Championships this past weekend, Madeline Strandemo (Fargo South/Minnesota) ran personal-bests in the mile in the both the prelims and finals. In prelims she ran 4:42.98 and in the finals 4:42.24, which gave her 3rd place in the Big Ten. Her time also places her just outside the top 50 in D1, while earlier in the month her 3k time of 9:21 also sits just outside of the top 50. Her mile is additionally the fastest time this season on a strong Minnesota girls squad that qualified for cross country nationals back in the fall.





Women's Performance of the Month #2: Last month I referenced the fact that Laura Roesler (Fargo South/Oregon/Nike) had started off her year by running the 800 in 2:05, 2:04, and 2:03, respectively. She kept the momentum going, starting out the month with a 2:02 for second place at the Armory Invitational in New York on February 6th. She then ran at the prestigious Milrose Games also at the Armory in New York, running a time of 2:00.49 for third place. Apparently 2:01 was worth skipping. She's well on her way to making the US Olympic Team this year, in my opinion!

She still has #Nodak on her twitter
(courtesy: Pat Holleran's twitter)

Another former ND state
champ
Courtesy: goducks.com

Men's Performance of the Month: At the University of Washington on February 12th, Jake Leingang (Bismarck High/Oregon) ran in the fast section of the 5k (fast as in the winning time was 13:35), and he ran 13:46.41, which was not only a personal-best for him, but also sits him 12th in D1, and top 16 can compete at indoor nationals in March. It was also the second-fastest 5k run by a North Dakotan, only trailing Andrew Carlson.
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The first big weekend was Friday-Saturday, February 12-13. The two big local meets were at North Dakota St and South Dakota St.

MSUM has a strong twitter game
Courtesy: msumdragons.com

For the second month in a row, the facility record for the Shelly Ellig Indoor Track at NDSU was broken in the mile, except this time it was in the men's. Brady Speicher (Perham, MN/MSUM) ran a 4:07 in the mile to get not only the building record, but also into the top-ten lists for all-time in the state. The track-conversion for his race gives him a good enough time to run at the DII National Meet in March.

I ran with Elliot once
this summer. He kicked
my butt.
Courtesy: gobison.com

Speaking of NDSU, Elliot Stone (Shiloh Christian/NDSU) competed at South Dakota St unattached in the 3k and ran 8:27,94, which
dips under the US Junior National qualifying standard of 8:31 (the standard qualifies for the 5k race). The US Junior Outdoor Championships is June 24-26 in Clovis, California.

Still killin' it, a month later
Courtesy: nsuwolves.com

Also at SDSU, in the women's 5k, Sasha Hovind (Stirum, ND/Northern State) won by an incredible 30 seconds with a time of 16:48, while in the men's 5k, Chris Jessop (Corvallis, Montana/U-Mary) broke the his own Mary school record with a time of 14:40. Hovind also broke the NSU indoor 5k record at the conference meet at the end of the month, running 16:46 to win the title.

There should've been an award
for best beard in ND in
2015, and Chris should've won.
Courtesy: goumary.com

As for indoor conference championships this month, here's a list of conference champions either from North Dakota or North Dakota schools:

North Star (NAIA):
Matthew Young (Woodland, WA/Jamestown U)- Men's Mile in 4:28
Eddie Meneses (Las Vegas, NV/Dickinson St.)- Men's 3k and 5k in 9:15 and 16:21, respectively.
Samantha VanHeuveln (Danvers,MN/Jamestown U)- Women's Mile, 3k, and 5k, in 5:33, 11:02, and 19:43, respectively.
Summit League (D1):
Erin Teschuk (Winnipeg, MA/NDSU)- Women's Mile and 3k in 4:41 and 9:08, respectively.
Northern Sun (DII):
Alexis Zeis (Bismarck/U-Mary)- Women's 3k in 9:42
Sasha Hovind (Stirum, ND/Northern State)- Women's 5k in 16:46

Now that March is here, we start the transition to outdoors. As I've said above, this month will bring some athletes competing at national meets, but most people will begin to move to outdoors (at UND we actually take a trip to South Carolina over spring break to run in a couple of meets). High school practices will start ramping up, college athletes start sharpening up their outdoor events, and post-collegians around here will be relishing getting some warmer weather, while some will probably keep training through in preparation for the Fargo Marathon in May. We can all agree that this warm February can transfer over to March, right?!?!

Happy Runnings,

Nate

(As always, if I've made an error or left something out, feel free to let me know and I'll change or update it)