A fall, a miscue ... and a league championship

Heather Dorniden took a tumble in her 600 heat but got up and contributed points, helping the U win the Big Ten women's indoor track meet.

By ROMAN AUGUSTOVIZ, Star Tribune

Last update: March 2, 2008 - 11:40 PM

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Gophers junior Heather Dorniden stepped up to the middle platform -- the tallest of three, with the big number 1 on it -- as the awards ceremony for the 600-meter race was set to begin.

"The girl looked at me that won from Indiana and she says, 'You are on that side,' " said Dorniden, who finished second by 13-hundredths of second. Dorniden apologized.

Her awards misstep could be excused Sunday, because she was mobbed, interviewed and congratulated by so many after winning her 600 heat. And for sheer drama, Dorniden's second of three races was easily the best on a day her team repeated as Big Ten women's indoor track and field champions.

Dorniden had just cut in front of another runner to take the lead when she fell at the start of the third and final lap in the 600. By the time she got up, the lead runner was 30 meters ahead of her, and the second of the other two runners in the race was maybe 20 meters away, rounding the first curve.

With a nasty-looking red track burn on her left knee, Dorniden gave chase. She caught the pack at the end of the backstretch and kept moving up until edging teammate Jamie Dittmar with a lean at the finish line.

"Actually, we practice something in cross-country called the Griak Roll," Dorniden said. "When you go down, you practice getting up as fast as you can and keep going. When I got up, I realized the race wasn't too far away and the fans got going. And I thought, 'Wouldn't this be so cool if I could come back?' "

Unlike the last time.

"I fell on my face at the state cross-country meet my senior year in high school [at Rosemount], but I stayed down," she said. "That wasn't going to happen this time. Not here. Not now."

Second-year Gophers coach Matt Bingle was counting on Dorniden scoring a lot of points in the 600. And then he saw her fall. "Well, you thought you lost and then you thought you won real fast," he said. "I've never seen anything like that. Most kids, when they fall like that, they're down. Forget it."

Only 50 minutes earlier, Dorniden ran fourth in the mile. And, in the meet's final event of 18 over two days, she anchored the 4x400 relay. It took third place, moving up a spot on Dorniden's leg, to clinch Minnesota's second women's indoor title in school history.

The Gophers amassed 136 points to beat two other teams rated in the top 10 nationally. Michigan was second (128 points), Penn State third (121).

After winning three events Saturday to take the lead, the Gophers stayed ahead Sunday with second- and third-place finishes. They had four of each.

U men place fifth

The men's team with 77 points took fifth place in the conference meet in Madison, Wis. Junior Ibrahim Kabia was second in the 60-meter dash Sunday, and freshman Hassan Mead was second in the 5,000.

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