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With a throw of 47’1/4”, University of Minnesota redshirt freshman Kari Schmidt, a 2004 graduate of Chisago Lakes High School, finished sixth in the shot put at the Big Ten Track and Field Championships in East Lansing Michigan Saturday, May 13. Schmidt’s sixth place finish qualified her for the NCAA Midwest Region Championships at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas May 26-27.

Schmidt, the daughter of Jim and Nancy Schmidt of Lindstrom, was ranked 23rd going into the regional meet and finished 17th. “She didn’t quite qualify for nationals,” said Nancy Schmidt. “But she’s a good competitor and she’s getting used to all of the traveling.”

Earlier this season, Schmidt finished fifth at the Big Ten Indoor Championship meet with a personal best throw of 49’2”. The throw was also one of the top 10 all-time indoor throws by a Gopher woman. The thrower she knocked out of the top ten is, ironically, Beth Carlson, Schmidt’s high school coach at Chisago Lakes.

Carlson competed in throwing events at Minnesota from 1998 through 2001. “I’m very proud of Kari,” said Carlson. “She’s done well. She has the same position coach, Lynne Anderson, who I had when I competed at Minnesota.” Schmidt seems to be in good hands at Minnesota. Anderson, a former Olympian and a member of the Minnesota Track & Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame, has trained 10 All-Americans and 13 Big Ten Champions in her 25-year career at Minnesota.

Schmidt, with three years of college eligibility remaining, is now ranked 74th among NCAA women and 109th among all U.S. women in the shot put.

Schmidt and the Gopher track team train year round. The athletes get two weeks off from training after their season is finished. Since Schmidt’s season finished May 27 at the regional championship, she’ll be back at it next week.

While Schmidt will be a sophomore for athletic eligibility purposes next year, she’ll be a senior academically. She got a head start on college by attending Cambridge Community College under the PSEO program her senior year in high school. She’s also taken some summer school classes. Schmidt will graduate at the end of the 2006-2007 school year with a degree in Human Resources Development. She plans to attend graduate school at the U after she gets her degree next spring and continue to compete in track

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