Athlete seeks fourth pentathlon title

Senior Liz Roehrig will compete in the Big Ten women's indoor track and field meet today at the U's venerable Field House.

By ROMAN AUGUSTOVIZ, Star Tribune

Last update: February 29, 2008 - 9:09 PM

Liz Roehrig is on the brink of an unprecedented feat. Today the senior from little Chilton, Wis., could become the first female Gophers athlete in any sport to be a four-time individual Big Ten champion in the same event.

Roehrig has won the pentathlon in the past three indoor women's track and field conference meets. Starting at 9 a.m. today with the 60-meter hurdles, she will chase a fourth title in the grueling one-day, five-event competition. This meet is in the university's old Field House where she trains.

So she has a home edge? Not really. "All the surfaces are pretty much the same," Roehrig said. "And you still high jump the same and everything is the same."

The pressure must be intense? "Actually, I really don't think about it that much," Roehrig said. "If it happens, it happens. I am just going to try my best."

Gophers second-year head coach Matt Bingle understands Roehrig's mental approach. He competed in the decathlon early in his college career at Ball State.

"When [Roehrig] won the Big Ten title last year, she acted like it was another day," Bingle said. "With that event, you have to be like that. With the pentathlon, you compete in five events and they are not all going to go well. You have to go with the flow."

With Roehrig in the pentathlon and Sunday's individual high jump, and Alicia Rue in the pole vault, the Gophers are one of the team favorites in the two-day meet. Minnesota won its first women's indoor title a year ago.

Michigan and Penn State, two other teams ranked in the top 10, should challenge Minnesota.

"Twenty points separate the three schools," Bingle said. "Who has the good day, who takes care of business both days will win."

Roehrig's long first day will start with the hurdles, followed by the high jump at 9:45 a.m., the shot put at 11:30 a.m., the long jump at 12:30 p.m., and the 800 meters at 2 p.m. She'll also compete in the individual long jump at 3:15 p.m.

"I always tell the other girls, Liz is a freak of nature," Bingle said. "She is so strong, she's got real good speed, she's tough as nails. She is kind a freak, and I'm not using freak as a bad word. She has the qualities it takes to be good. She has the mind, and she has the passion for track and field."

When she is done jumping, throwing and running today, Roehrig knows how she'll feel. "My adrenaline is still running and I get really weird," said Roehrig who laughs easily. "And I just start talking, like blah, blah, blah. And I can never sleep."

The aches and pains come the next day. But she's used to it and prefers a heavy schedule. At Chilton, she competed in four events at the state meet starting in ninth grade.

As a Gophers freshman, Roehrig had a taste of being a specialist when she only high jumped in the outdoor region and NCAA meets. "For those four weeks, all I did was train for the high jump and I got so bored," Roehrig said. "It was the same thing like every day. And I'm like, I wish I could hurdle or do something else."

Her sophomore season has been Roehrig's best so far. She earned All-America honors twice. She placed sixth in the pentathlon in the NCAA indoor meet and eighth in the heptathlon [seven events] in the NCAA outdoor meet.

Last spring she suffered a severe ankle injury high jumping on April 17 that ended her outdoor season. She received a medical red-shirt to compete outdoors only in 2009.

The ankle sprain, bone bruise and stretched tendons meant her left ankle had to be in a boot until July. It was mid-August before she could run on a track again.

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