Posted October 5, 2009

Former UW-Platteville national champion Tyler Sigl qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Sunday while placing ninth at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.

Sigl completed the 26.2-mile course in 2:17:28, beating the new, more stringent American qualifying standard of 2:19. The 2008 trials had a 2:20 or better to meet the "A" standard and 2:20:01 to 2:22 for the "B" standard. For the 2012 trials, all competitors must have gone under 2:19 at least once.

More than 11,000 runners entered Sunday's race from 50 U.S. states and 20 countries. The course began in Minneapolis and went past several lakes along the Mississippi River embankment to the finish line at State Capitol in St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota.

Sigl's placing was the fourth-best among all U.S. runners.

The top 10:

1. Jason Hartmann USA 2:12:09
2. Augustus Kavutu Mbusya KEN 2:13:03
3. John Njoroge KEN 2:13:26
4. Joseph Mutinda KEN 2:13:47
5. Grigoriy Andreev RUS 2:13:59
6. Reuben Chesang KEN 2:15:24
7. Luke Watson USA 2:15:29
8. Antonio Vega USA 2:15:45
9. Tyler Sigl USA 2:17:28
10. Mario MacIas USA 2:18:34

Sigl was a 13-time NCAA III all-American at UW-Platteville who captured back-to-back 10,000-meter outdoor national championships (2007-08) and the 2007 individual NCAA III cross country championship.