Football, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track
Paul Blomgren is an 11-time MIAC champion and four-time All-American while accumulating several school and conference records. Although he spent two years as a wide receiver for the Carleton football program, Blomgren made his mark on the track where his rare combination of speed and determination led to individual conference titles at the 200, 300, and 400-meter distances. He was a key part of an unmatched period of success for Carleton relays. The Knights have seen six relays in school history capture All-America status, and Blomgren raced on four of those. He was part of the indoor 4×400, outdoor 4×400, and outdoor 4×100 relays, which still hold the school record a quarter century later. As a freshman, he raced on the MIAC title-winning sprint medley relay. A year later, he repeated as conference champion in the same event, this time helping the Knights post a MIAC Championships record time of 1:34.38, a mark that has not been broken. The outdoor season included all-conference performances in the 100-meter dash and 4×100-meter relay, with the latter qualifying for the NCAA Championships. His junior year brought even more success. During the indoor season, Blomgren and the sprint medley relay won its third consecutive conference championship. He also claimed an individual MIAC title in the 400-meter dash. During the outdoor season, Blomgren added conference crowns at the 200- and 400-meter distances and earned All-America standing in the 4x100m relay with a third-place finish at NCAA Championships in a school-record time of 41.44. At the end of the year, the coaches awarded Blomgren the Kelly Award as the Knights’ most improved track athlete. He was voted team co-MVP in 1992 after capping his collegiate career with a trio of All-America awards. He ran anchor on the 4×400 relay’s fourth-place finishes at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Both the quartet’s indoor (3:19.40) and outdoor (3:12.22) times remain the school record and both were tops in MIAC history for more than a decade. Blomgren also garnered All-America recognition in the outdoor 4×100 relay again in 1992, this time finishing fifth in 41.53. His four All-America awards are tied for third-most in program history.
After Carleton, Blomgren’s career has been in the fixed income investment field and he now serves as the Senior Vice President and Client Portfolio Manager for Nuveen Asset Management. He cites his family as the most important part of his life. He and Lynne, his wife of 16 years, reside in Minneapolis with their children James (14) and Mimi (10).