Former Duluth resident Jen Houck of Salem, Ore., won Sunday’s inaugural Eugene (Ore.) Women’s Half-Marathon, leading a field of 1,555.
Houck, 26, a former St. Scholastica cross country athlete, was first in a personal-best 1 hour, 14 minutes, 40 seconds. Liana Bernard, 29, of Medford, Ore., was second in 1:18:36 and Brittany Brenny, 23, of Staples, Minn., was third in 1:21:38. Houck plans to run the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 10.
The men’s world record in the marathon hasn’t been broken in two years, but the intriguing conversation continues of “When will there be a marathon time under two hours?” Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie holds the mark of 2:03:59, in the 2008 Berlin Marathon (Sept. 28). He held the previous mark of 2:04:26 on the same course in 2007.
Exercise physiologist Ross Tucker, who has a Ph.D. and works for the University of Cape Town in South Africa, also co-authors the blog The Science of Sport. Last week he had two in-depth posts on the prospect of a sub-2 hour marathon. Tucker looks at significant data, yet predicting is inexact. He projects the sub-2 hour marathon could come in 11 years, 25 years or 80 years — so no time soon. (The women’s world record of 2:15:25 by England’s Paula Radcliffe, was set in 2003.)
The posts are The Sub-2 Hour Marathon? Who and when?
And The Sub-2 Hour Marathon: What physiology will it take?
Grandma’s Marathon has a course record that was set 29 years ago — 2:09:37 — by Dick Beardsley. The News Tribune took a look at the prospect of a two-hour marathon in a 2009 story here.
Alex Stalock’s path to the NHL got a bit more congested this week as the San Jose Sharks signed a second free-agent Finnish goalie, Antti Niemi, who was with Stanley-Cup winning Chicago in 2009-10.
Stalock, 23, from South St. Paul and Minnesota Duluth, who has had one professional season (as an American Hockey League all-star with Worcester, Mass.), now appears to rank behind three goalies in the San Jose system.
Antero Niittymaki of Finland was signed in July by the Sharks to help fill in for the departed Evgeni Nabokov. And in newspaper stories about the Niemi signing, the third San Jose player mentioned in the goalie equation is Thomas Greiss of Germany.
The San Jose Mercury News had a David Pollak story Thursday that is here.
And the Mercury News has a reaction from Niittymaky and Greiss here.
The Worcester Sharks open the American Hockey League season Oct. 9-10, the same weekend UMD begins play (Oct. 8 at Lake Superior State.) Stalock set an AHL record for wins (39) by a rookie goalie in 2009-10 and was voted the Worcester player of the year. The Worcester Sharks had a review of his season here.
The College Hockey Blog recently listed five prospective darkhorse Hobey Baker Memorial Award candidates for 2010-11, meaning these are not the obvious choices. Two are from the WCHA, with North Dakota defenseman Chay Genoway leading the way. That Hobey Baker preview is here.
From a blog called Too Many Men on the Site is a condensed ranking of Division I conferences for 2010-11, and, no, the WCHA isn’t ranked No. 1. That list can be found here.
The Chris Garner On-Line Benefit Auction – Coming in Oct. 2010 [HD]
Making a college commitment before turning 16 wasn’t a goal for forward Kyle Osterberg, but he got a good feeling about Minnesota Duluth during a campus visit last Saturday and accepted a hockey scholarship offer Sunday.
“I liked everything about what I saw. I liked the campus, it wasn’t big and it wasn’t small. I liked the new rink and I know the atmosphere there will be great. I liked the coaching staff,” Osterberg, who was a freshman at Lakeville (Minn.) South High School in 2009-10, said Thursday. “Everything made me feel at home.”
After just one varsity season, and leading his team in scoring, Osterberg joins the U.S. National Team Development Program this week in Ann Arbor, Mich. He plans to be there for two years, this season with the Under 17 team, and possibly be at UMD by 2012-13 with the help of an accelerated academic schedule. If another development season is needed, he would likely play for Omaha in the U.S. Hockey League and arrive in Duluth in 2013-14.
On Sunday, Osterberg turns 16 as he enters his sophomore year. He had 19 goals and 44 assists in 2009-10 for 63 points in 28 games while playing in the Lake Conference as Minnesota’s top-scoring ninth grader. He was a right winger on a line with sophomores Justin Kloos and Alex Harvey and the threesome combined for 156 points for a Lakeville South team that lost to Lakeville North 5-0 in the Section 1AA title game.
“Kyle’s greatest gifts are his vision and drive,” said Lakeville South coach Kurt Weber, whose team was 18-10 last season after going 10-17 the year before. “He’s very motivated, very gifted, he’s a playmaker and he rises to the challenge. He played on a great line and all three of those players can think so far ahead of the game. Every one of their goals was the result of three or four passes, and sometimes seven.”
Osterberg, 5-foot-7 1/2 and 165 pounds and a natural center, said he received interest from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Colorado College, and had a scholarship offer from Ohio State, where former UMD assistant Steve Rohlik is in his first season as an associate head coach. He’s an A student who also played ninth-grade football and baseball in 2009-10. An older brother, Zach, was a Lakeville South senior forward last season.
“Going to the (USA Hockey program) is something I’ve always dreamed about, but the only other thing I’d wish for, is that our high school line could’ve stayed together. We had such great chemistry,” said Osterberg.
Osterberg had two goals and two assists last month in four games for the USA U17 team at the Five Nations tournament in Huttwil, Switzerland. The Americans went 3-1.
The installation of seats in the lower bowl of the new Amsoil Arena is being completed and other fine tuning continues to take place, according to the DECC website. A bunch of photos from the DECC are available here and an update from the DECC is below along with a photo of installed seats:
August 26 from the DECC
Seat installation on the lower bowl will be complete this week. Upper bowl seat installation will take place during the next two weeks. The terrazzo floor in the ticket lobby is being laid and will soon be sanded. Cabinets and tile flooring was recently installed in the private suites. Carpeting, countertops and other finishes will be completed in the suites by the beginning of September. Work continues on the exterior siding and finishes. Trees, shrubs, perennials and other landscaping materials have been put in the areas surrounding the AMSOIL Arena. Concrete curbs and sidewalks have been poured in the areas between the AMSOIL Arena and the Auditorium/Convention Center/DECC Arena. Pavement was also laid in that area. See the progress beginning with the ground-breaking in our photo gallery.
Kara Goucher, Paula Radcliffe and now American marathon record holder Deena Kastor are among distance running stars who are expectant mothers.
Kastor was to run the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7, but now will await her first child in March. Goucher and Radcliffe have identical due dates of Sept. 29. Kastor won the U.S. women’s half-marathon title in Duluth in 2004.
A Kastor story by Runner’s World is here.
A story from the Fargo (N.D.) Forum on a Chapter 13 filing by marathoner Dick Beardsley and his wife, Jill, of Austin, Texas.
This link from the Forum: Runner Beardsley files for bankruptcy
Dick Beardsley a legendary marathon runner who recently sold his interest in a Fargo retail store that bore his name …Dick Beardsley is a two-time winner of Grandma ’s Marathon in Duluth. He still holds the course record with a 2:09:37 in 1981 …His experiences led him to create the nonprofit Dick Beardsley Foundation which educates about chemical dependence and helps addicts find …In April 2007 Beardsley opened the Dick Beardsley Running Co. at 1801 45th St. S. in Fargo. …This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Dick Beardsley Half Marathon in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
Pat Micheletti, a Hibbing High School contemporary and teammate of Scott Sandelin, was a stick boy for the University of Minnesota team when his older brothers played for the Gophers. He followed his brothers to Minnesota and left as the school’s No. 2 career scoring leader.
The Minnesota athletic website recently caught with Pat Micheletti, 46, and had a question-and-answer session that can be found here.
Also an update from Kara Goucher on what may be next for her husband, Adam, following a recent injury and the thought of Adam retiring as a professional runner, which is here.
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