Ofili, McGuire Collect Regional Honors
6/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
June 6, 2016
EUGENE, Ore. -- Associate head coach Mike McGuire and senior co-captain Cindy Ofili of the University of Michigan women's track and field program were recognized on Monday (June 6) as the Great Lakes Region Assistant Coach of the Year and Track Athlete of the Year, respectively, for the 2016 outdoor season by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
The recognition is another honor in what has been a storybook senior season for Ofili. A six-time Michigan record holder, she currently ranks No. 5 in the world in her specialty event, the 100-meter hurdles, in which she is a perfect 8-0 this season. She is the top collegian on the world leaders list as well as the top British athlete.
This year at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, where she has accumulated 121.5 career points in scoring contributions, she scored 15 points to help her team to its second team championship of the season, sweeping indoor and outdoor conference crowns for the first time since 2003.
Ofili earned her fifth career individual Big Ten title as well, becoming the second woman in conference history to three-peat individual titles in the 100-meter hurdles (2014-15-16). She also contributed to the team's best scoring performance since 2009 by adding points in the 100-meter dash and as a member of the school record-setting 4x400-meter relay, which clinched a share of the championship on the last event of the weekend.
She is the top NCAA seed in the hurdles at 12.66 seconds, making her the favorite to win her second career NCAA title when she toes the line at the University of Oregon this week. In addition, Ofili is one of five women in Drake Relays history to repeat her 100-meter hurdles titles at that historic meet, joining her sister Tiffany (Ofili) Porter.
This marks the fifth career regional coaching honor for McGuire, who was already a three-time NCAA Mideast Region Assistant Coach of the Year (2005, '06, '07) and NCAA Great Lakes Region Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year (2016). For Ofili, this year's recognition is her first and means that U-M athletes have earned this honor twice in the last three seasons (Erin Finn, 2014).
Now in his 27th year with the program, McGuire coaches athletes who represent four of Michigan's five bids to the NCAA Outdoor Championships this week. Only Kentucky's four sprinters at 200 meters outrank the three qualified Wolverines entered to race at 1,500 meters. It is the second time in U-M history that three athletes have run in the same race at the national meet (2006 5,000-meter run: Rebecca Walter, Alyson Kohlmeier, Erin Webster), with both occurrences falling under McGuire's jurisdiction.
He helped guide the team to its 17th Big Ten title at the outdoor conference meet last month, with the Wolverines scoring 106 points to tie atop the standings with Minnesota. It was the 11th time in program history that U-M has scored 100 points or more both indoors and outdoors (109 indoors this year).
Michigan scored in every middle-distance and distance race at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and nearly swept the events, winning gold medals at 800, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters with six total medalists in those four races. Gina Sereno swept the 5K and 10K races, becoming the fourth Wolverine to accomplish that feat and the second in the last three years (Finn), and McGuire's mid-distance and distance athletes totaled 69 of 106 points to lead scoring for the Maize and Blue.
McGuire coached eight of U-M's 16 entries at the NCAA East Preliminary Round, advancing four to this weekend's championship meet. In addition, he has coached Finn to sub-Olympic standard performances at 5,000 (15:23.16) and 10,000 meters (31:51.84; No. 6 in NCAA history).
Ofili, along with four of her U-M teammates, will compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, with competition scheduled for Thursday (June 9) and Saturday (June 11).
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
