Finn Breaks 10,000m School Record at USATF Championships
6/23/2017 10:12:00 AM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
» Erin Finn ran 32:00.46 to finish sixth in the USATF Championships 10,000-meter final, breaking the Michigan and Big Ten records in the event and moving to No. 9 on the all-time collegiate list.
» Steven Bastien closed out the first day of the decathlon in fifth place overall.
» Former Wolverine All-Americans Amanda Eccleston and Shannon Osika got one step closer to making Team USA in the 1,500 meters.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Running her first race since a runner-up finish at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in March, University of Michigan star Erin Finn made the most of her proper 2017 outdoor debut with a historic, school-record run at the USATF Outdoor Championships late Thursday night (June 22).
Finn ran 32:00.46 over 10,000 meters to break her own three-year-old record program record by more than 40 seconds, in the process moving up to ninth on the all-time collegiate performers list with the fastest time in Big Ten history.
Only one collegian during the 2017 season, Anna Rohrer of Notre Dame, ran faster during the NCAA season.
New school record for @erinefinn! Her 32:00.46 10K at #USATFOutdoors replaces her 32:41.65 from 2014
— Michigan Track&Field (@UMichTrack) June 23, 2017
Now #9 on the all-time #NCAATF list! pic.twitter.com/NnLW0lhLgj
The performance, which earned her sixth place in the 21-woman race run under an excessive heat warning well past midnight Eastern Time, is the second-fastest time of her career. She previously ran a 31:51.84 clocking during her redshirted 2016 campaign, but the mark did not count as the school record since she was not representing Michigan at the time.
Finn steadily worked her way up the field throughout the duration of the 6.2-mile, 25-lap race. Settling in early right in the middle of the pack, she moved from 11th for the first mile of the race to seventh just after the halfway point of the race at 5K, covering the first 3.1 miles in just over 16 minutes.
She moved to sixth place with just over two miles to go in the race, continuously closing in on fifth-place finisher Natosha Rogers. Trailing by as many as 12 seconds with two kilometers to go, Finn was able to close on the former NCAA champion thanks to her metronomic pacing in the late stages of the race.
With the exception of a final-lap push of 74.80 seconds, Finn covered each 400-meter circuit of the track over the final 5,200 meters between 75.96 seconds and 77.45 seconds. Her consistency in pacing was enough to significantly narrow the gap between herself and Rogers to just over four seconds entering the final lap and just less than six by the time all was said and done.
Olympian Molly Huddle won the race in 31:19.86, with Emily Infeld and Emily Sisson rounding out the three-woman team going to the IAAF World Championships in London later this summer.
Finn was not the only Wolverine who excelled on the first day of nationals, as first-team All-America decathlete Steven Bastien finished the opening session of his 10-event competition in fifth place overall with 4,119 points.
Though he is behind the school-record pace he set through day one of the NCAA decathlon two weeks ago en route to his 8,015-point total, he performed well under grueling temperatures that rose as high as 108 degrees during the day.
He just missed a career best at 100 meters in 10.71 (+0.9m/s) to open the day, followed by a solid 7.27m (23-10.25, +2.0m/s) second attempt in the long jump. He made up ground in the shot put with a career-best 13.54m (44-5.25) put on his final attempt, improving by more than a meter from his next-best mark to add 62 more points to his total.
He cleared 1.92m (6-3.5) on his third attempt to add an additional 52 points to his tally over what he would have gotten with his 1.86m (6-1.25) clearance earlier in the competition.
Bastien closed out the day with a 48.52 showing over 400 meters.
Day two of the decathlon -- featuring the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters -- will kick off at 12:55 p.m. PDT.
Kira Garry, a graduate transfer from Harvard who closed out her collegiate eligibility with Michigan this year, finished 20th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:07.24.
Among former Wolverines, U-M went two-for-two in qualifying for the women's 1,500 meter final as both volunteer assistant coach Amanda Eccleston and Shannon Osika made it through to Saturday's final at 2:12 p.m. PDT.
Eccleston clocked in at 4:10.04 to finish fourth in her heat and claim the fastest non-automatic qualifying time, while Osika crossed the line in 4:11.96 to take fourth in her heat and take the second of the three non-automatic qualifying berths.
Both will have the opportunity to run for Team USA's three berths to the World Championships.
Friday action at USAs begins at 9 a.m. PDT with incoming freshmen Isaac Harding and Jacob Branch in the USATF Junior Championships 5,000-meter final. The day will also feature Roland Amarteifio in both the 110- and 400-meter hurdles and the hammer throw duo of Courtney Jacobsen and Meagan Malloy in junior competition, as well as volunteer assistant coach Mason Ferlic in the senior steeplechase.
Tweet of the Day 
.@erinefinn's 32:00.46 in the #USATFOutdoors 10K moves her to No. 9 on the all-time college performers list.
— Michigan Track&Field (@UMichTrack) June 23, 2017
Best time ever in @bigten pic.twitter.com/VpZ2dTErnc
Communications Contact: Kyle Terwillegar
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