Michigan
Michigan Quadrangular
Brannen, Willis Shine as U-M Takes Second in Quadrangular
1/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With wins in five events, the University of Michigan men's track and field team earned a second-place finish at the Michigan Quadrangular held today (Saturday, Jan. 18) at the U-M Track Building. Indiana won the meet with a 172-point score, while the runner-up Wolverines totaled 157 points, Kent State finished third with 135 points and a partial-strength Michigan State unit was fourth with 53 points.
| | Brannen, who ran the mile at last year's NCAA indoor meet qualified for this year's event in the 800-meter run. |
Brannen's time of 1:48.80 surpassed the NCAA "A" standard by a tenth of a second. Brannen kept pace in second place until the second to last lap before he broke from the pack to begin his strong finish in the final 400 meters. Brannen built nearly a seven-second lead in his heat and won the event by just over five seconds. Senior Phil Stead (Dearborn, Mich./Divine Child HS), senior/junior Dan Cooke (Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney HS), freshman Joe Schramsky (Troy, Mich./Avondale HS) and redshirt freshman Rondell Ruff (Detroit, Mich./Henry Ford HS) finished within two seconds of one another as the Maize and Blue swept the race's top five spots.
Running the first indoor race of his Michigan career, Willis turned in a 4:04.59 performance in the mile to earn NCAA consideration. Taking an early lead, Willis increased his pace in the last half of the race, running the final 800 meters in under two minutes. Senior Alex L'Hereux (Weedon, Quebec/Palm Beach Gardens HS, Fla.) improved upon his season-best time, finishing second with a result of 4:11.00. Junior Brian Turner (Omaha, Neb./Millard North HS) was third at 4:13.01.
The Maize and Blue continued its successes in the 600- and 3,000-meter races. Freshman Andrew Ellerton (Windsor, Ontario/Confederation HS) barely edged out Indiana's Russell Hollis to earn the first win of his career by just 0.02 seconds at 1:21.82. In the 3,000, senior/junior Nick Stanko (Wyandotte, Mich./Roosevelt HS) and redshirt freshman Tarn Leach (East Jordan, Mich./East Jordan HS) placed one-two with times of 8:26.57 and 8:28.53, respectively.
Sophomore Braylon Edwards (Detroit, Mich./Bishop Gallagher HS) rounded out Michigan's wins with a victory in the high jump. Edwards' mark of 6-9 3/4 out-jumped teammate Adam Kring (Port Huron, Mich./Northern HS), who reached 6-8 before fouling out.
The Wolverines ran an exciting 1,600-meter relay to close out the day's competition, finishing second to a strong Indiana unit. In the anchor lap, sophomore DarNell Talbert (San Diego, Calif./Mt. Carmel HS), the runner-up in the 400-meter run, and Indiana's Ryan Sarbinhoff, the 400-meter champion, took the batons in a dead heat. Talbert's spilt of 49.1 seconds was U-M's top split, but he could not beat Sarbinhoff across the finish line. Sophomore Seth Waits (Grand Rapids, Ohio/Otsego HS), redshirt sophomore Nick Meter (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Brother Rice HS) and Brannen joined Talbert on the top Wolverine unit.
Michigan returns to action as host of the Red Simmons Invitational next Saturday (Jan. 25) at the U-M Track Building. The Wolverines' final home meet of the indoor season is scheduled to begin with field events at 9:30 a.m. and track events at noon.
Contact: Andrew Ladd (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
