Rapid City Stevens grad Julie Schwengler finished seventh in the women’s 800 at the Big Ten Championships over the weekend.
Schwengler, a junior running for the University of Minnesota, finished in 2 minutes, 9.73 seconds to cross in seventh place Sunday. She was one of four Gophers to finish in the top eight in the finals of the 800. She also ran a leg on Minnesota’s 4×400 relay team, which placed fifth.
Another Stevens graduate attending Minnesota, Ashley Nord, cleared 12 feet, 5-1/2 inches to place sixth in the women’s pole vault Friday.
Former Lennox standout Derek Gearman was named the Big Ten’s men’s field event athlete of the year at completion of the league meet.
Gearman, a senior at Minnesota, finished as runnerup in the men’s long jump and high jump, and scored a team-high 21 points for the Gophers. He hit the 25-6 mark in the long jump, a career best, and cleared 7-0 in the high jump while competing in the long jump, too.
The Lennox native also finished fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 51-0-1/4, a season-best jump, and ran a leg on the Gopher men’s 400-meter relay team that placed fourth.
Gearman also earned NCAA Midwest Region Championships berths in the long jump, triple jump and high jump.

So how good of an athlete is Shannon Hellman?

After numerous state titles in the hurdles events at Douglas High School, she’s a 3-time All-American at South Dakota Mines — including a national championship in the 60-meter high hurdles on Saturday (March 10). She can do it all, whether it’s the hurdles, the 100, the 200, or whatever.

It would have been interesting to see how she would have fared at the U, or even at the DI level. Personally, I think she would have done just fine.

 

–Sean Welsh