Michigan
NCAA Indoor Championships
Distance Medley Relay Takes Third at NCAA Indoors
3/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Site: Randal Tyson Track Center (Fayetteville, Ark.)
Event: NCAA Indoor Championships (Day 1)
U-M Team Result: Tie-32nd Place (6 points)
Next U-M Event: Fri-Sat., March 27-28 -- at Big Ten/Pac 12 Challenge (Tempe, Ariz.)
• Complete Results (PDF)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The University of Michigan women's track and field team's distance medley relay clocked a season-best 10:58.64 to secure a third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday (March 13) at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
With six points from the DMR's performance, the Maize and Blue stands in a five-team tie for 13th place, although U-M does not have any competitors remaining. The University of Georgia sits in first place with 14 total points, and five other schools have at least 12.
The DMR consisted of juniors Shannon Osika (1,200m), Maya Long (400m) and Danielle Pfeifer (800m) and senior co-captain Brook Handler (mile), surpassing its sixth overall seed with a time of 10:58.64, and earning U-M's third consecutive top-five finish in the relay event.
Osika ran a 3:23.78 split in the 1,200-meter leg to give Long the baton in second place. Long then clocked a 54.95 400m leg to leave U-M in fourth as she passed the baton to Pfeifer, but the time was more impressive than it appears. Villanova fumbled its handoff, and the errant baton nearly took the Maize and Blue out of it early, but thanks to composure from Long and Pfeifer, U-M remained in the hunt.
Pfeifer flew over her four laps in 2:04.72 -- fastest in the field -- to set up Handler in the same position, and the senior co-captain closed with a 4:35.21 split to move Michigan into third before the finish line. All four members of the relay team earned All-America first team honors for their efforts, marking the third straight year Long has earned the honor as she was a member of the 2013 national championship relay and last year's fifth-place team.
Junior Cindy Ofili ended her indoor season in unfortunate fashion, falling on the penultimate hurdle during the 60-meter hurdle prelims on the opening day. Ofili clipped the third hurdle and fell on the fourth, failing to qualify for Saturday evening's finals. The overall top time in the prelims came from Florida's Bridgette Owens in Ofili's heat (7.94), while Oregon's Sasha Wallace secured the last spot in the finals at 8.17. Ofili's qualifying mark was 8.10, and her PR is 8.07.
It was an unfitting end to a tremendous junior indoor season for Ofili. The Ypsilanti, Michigan, native was the event champion in four of U-M's six regular-season meets this season, and she successfully defended her conference crown at the Big Ten Championships (Feb. 27-28) in 8.15 seconds.
Without a finalist in tomorrow's 60m hurdles final, the indoor season has come to a close for the Maize and Blue. U-M will continue its outdoor campaign with the Big Ten/Pac 12 Challenge in two weekends (March 27-28). The meet is hosted by Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.
NOTES
• U-M has had All-Americans in the distance medley relay each year dating back to 2004, and this year was no different. The streak was extended to 12 consecutive NCAA Championships; all four members of this year's relay are among the 51 Wolverines to have achieved All-America status in the event.
• Maya Long earned first team All-America honors for the third time in her career and for the third consecutive indoor season in the DMR. Danielle Pfeifer and Brook Handler can now claim back-to-back All-America honors in the event (2014-15), and Handler has also been a first teamer in the outdoor 1,500m (2014), giving her three career honors. For Shannon Osika, this represents her fourth All-America honor and her first as a member of the first team (2013 indoor, second team, mile; 2012 indoor, second team, mile and DMR).
• The Maize and Blue has finished in the top seven of the DMR standings on 11 occasions during its 15 NCAA appearances in the event dating back to 1998.
• Michigan's facility record (10:56.46) set in 2013 by its most-recent national-champion relay team was broken by the winning relay team from Arkansas, which clocked 10:51.89.
• A tape-delayed airing of the championships will run Monday, March 23, at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
QUOTES
Michigan Associate Head Coach Mike McGuire
On his group's effort in the distance medley relay ... "I was really pleased with the effort. It was a great effort across the board. We came in ranked sixth, so we improved up on that and we ran our fastest time of the year by four seconds. I couldn't have asked for much more than what they did today."
On all four athletes only gaining ground and not losing any places during the race ... "Shannon (Osika) did a great job on the last lap. Maya (Long) got into a little bit of trouble with the baton exchange because the Villanova girl hit her hand as she was coming up on the exchange, so that kind of threw her off as she was coming up the straightaway, but she recovered nicely. Danielle (Pfeifer) ran a solid race, which I knew she would, and I think it was Brook's (Handler) best effort of the year. I had her around 4:35, so they went out there and beat as many people as they could. Arkansas and Standford definitely were outstanding, but they beat a lot of really good teams so we are proud of that."
On the composure of Maya Long and Danielle Pfeifer on the near-fumbled exchange ... "Maya (Long) did a great job of regrouping there in the last 40-meters. We got the baton through the zone and then we were down a little bit there but I thought Danielle displayed controlled aggression and she displayed that throughout the race."
U-M Junior Danielle Pfeifer
On how she felt with her 800m leg ... "Going into the race, I didn't really care about my split or my time. The goal was just to pick people off and get the baton to Brook as close to the front of the pack as I could. I went after it a little bit faster than I should have, which is par for the course for me. I had a pretty good third lap, which is usually when people rest, so I tried to make my move there and just tried to hang on to get us in the next spot up and I'm happy with my leg."
On qualifying for the 800m as an individual but choosing to compete in the DMR, and what that tradition means to her ... "Coming off of this relay last year we were still hungry; we got fifth and we wanted a better time. It's an honor to qualify individually as well, but being with this team and being a part of this tradition of the DMR at Michigan -- in a sense, it was a no-brainer. It hadn't come together for all of us in previous races so we decided to have all of us fresh and see what we could do. We had our best time of the season and a personal best, and we came in third so we are pretty happy with that."
U-M Senior Brook Handler
On how she felt during her mile leg ... "I felt pretty good; I got the baton in fourth with a pretty good group. I knew that Baylor had a strong team and I knew that (Dominique) Scott (Arkansas) and Elise Cranny (Stanford) were really good runners. I know that they have very good PR's in the mile so I knew I was in a good place for us to run a fast time. They kind of pulled away when we were four laps in and I could hear Coach McGuire say 'Go with them!' but I kind of hesitated, so that kept us from staying in contact with first and second, but I didn't want to prevent us from losing third place. I did not go after them as soon as I should have. I went around the Baylor girl with about three laps to go and when I saw the Arkansas girl put a move on the Stanford girl I was hoping I could make up the ground, but I was too far back at that point and they are very strong runners. But I am really, really excited with how our team ran. We haven't put it all together yet this season so it was great to take off four seconds from our last run."
On her approach to the final laps, holding off Baylor's Maggie Montoya ... "I just wanted to stay smooth and run with good form and good posture. I just knew that my teammates behind me worked really, really hard so I wanted to do it for them -- especially with a baton in your hand, you really want to do it for them."
On Michigan's rich DMR tradition and being a part of it ... "When I was being recruited, it was all about the DMR. I had hoped to be on a DMR when I was in college and I am really excited that we improved from last year to this year, being a senior."
Players Mentioned
