Two-Time Olympian Sifuentes to Headline Elite Women's Mile at Wolverine Invite
1/10/2018 11:03:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Former University of Michigan women's track and field standout Nicole (Edwards) Sifuentes broke her own facility record in the old U-M Indoor Track Building last January in what was the final collegiate meet in the venue's history.
A year later, the two-time Olympian and IAAF World Indoor bronze medalist will have a chance Saturday (Jan. 13) to set the inaugural facility record at that same distance when the university hosts the Wolverine Invitational, the first competition in the world-class Athletics South Competition and Performance Center.
Sifuentes, an Olympic middle-distance runner for Canada in each of the past two Olympic Games, will headline an elite section of the women's mile scheduled for approximately 12:25 p.m. The event also will feature Wolverine standouts from both past (Shannon Osika, Becca Addison and Kira Garry) and present (Erin Finn and Gina Sereno), as well as former NCAA Division II All-American Samantha Johnson.
Though Sifuentes' facility record of 4:35.69 at the old U-M Indoor Track Building will stand for eternity, the group will be chasing that standard on the Wolverines' new hydraulic-banked 200-meter competition track, surfaced with the same material as that used at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships (at which Sifuentes competed).
The women's mile directly will follow the facility's first-ever sub-four-minute mile attempt, led by two-time Olympic medalist Nick Willis, at 12:20 p.m. A full schedule of collegiate event finals will begin thereafter against the likes of Michigan State, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, South Florida, Hillsdale and Western Ontario.
Admission to the meet is free of charge. Field events begin at 11 a.m., with track preliminaries in the short sprints beginning at 11:30 a.m.
The Competitors
Sifuentes has been a standard-bearer for Canadian mid-distance running dating back to her days as an NCAA Champion and mile school record-holder at Michigan and into her professional career. She achieved global-medalist status in 2014 when she claimed the bronze over 1,500 meters at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland.
In addition to advancing to the 1,500-meter semifinals at both the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2012 London Games, she achieved semifinalist status in the last three editions of the IAAF World Championships and has competed in three of the last four IAAF World Indoor Championships.
With a career-best 4:27.93 mile to her name from 2016, she has ranked top 15 in the world for the 1,609-meter race six of the last 10 seasons.
Osika, a multiple-time All-American at U-M during her undergraduate career who currently holds the program's outdoor record at 1,500 meters, clocked an impressive 4:28.45 outdoor mile in August 2016, coming on the heels of a 4:28 performance on the roads a month earlier. She ranks No. 2 behind only Sifuentes on U-M's all-time indoor mile list.
Addison ran a leg of Michigan's school-record national title-winning distance medley relay team in 2013, and was a six-time All-American for the Wolverines as an undergraduate. After running 4:40.41 in college -- just a second beyond Michigan's all-time top-10 list -- she dropped her personal record to 4:30.31 in 2015 and clocked 4:34.26 at last year's Penn Relays.
The redshirt senior duo of Finn and Sereno will be contesting the race as current Wolverines, though both have already cemented their positions among the best in program history.
Specializing in the longer distances, Finn has earned four NCAA national runner-up honors between track and cross country. The nine-time All-American has found great success in the shorter distances, however, clocking 4:38.35 a year ago to rank seventh in program history. This will be her first race at a collegiate meet since last season's NCAA Indoor Championships.
With five Big Ten titles and three All-America honors in the past two track seasons to go along with a pair of All-American cross country finishes, Sereno has likewise established herself as one of Michigan's all-time distance-running greats. Like Finn, she has also found success in dropping down to the shorter races, winning the prestigious Meyo Mile last year in 4:36.68 for the No. 3 spot on the all-time Michigan list.
Joining the group is Johnson, a former NCAA Division II standout at Ferris State. She was a five-time NCAA finalist at 1,500 meters for the Bulldogs and took fifth at the 2013 NCAA D-II Cross Country Championships, and has gone on to run 4:37.88 for the mile indoors as recently as last February.
Below is the list of the competitors with their career-best times in the mile and outdoor 1,500 meters:
| Name | Indoor Mile | Outdoor Mile | Outdoor 1,500m |
| Nicole Sifuentes | 4:27.93 | 4:28.51 | 4:03.97 |
| Shannon Osika | 4:34.34 | 4:28.45 | 4:06.17 |
| Becca Addison | 4:30.70 | 4:34.26 | 4:08.93 |
| Erin Finn | 4:38.35 | 4:46.29 | N/A |
| Gina Sereno | 4:36.68 | 4:47* | 4:21.38 |
| Kira Garry | 4:43.83 | 4:51* | 4:24.80 |
| Samantha Johnson | 4:37.88 | 4:39* | 4:25.96 |
* Road Mile
Players Mentioned
