Michigan
Bryan Clay Invitational
Howell Records New Heptathlon Career Best at Azusa Pacific
4/19/2018 8:27:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
Site: Azusa, Calif. (Cougar Athletic Stadium)
Event: Bryan Clay Invitational Heptathlon
U-M Team Result: No team scoring
Next U-M Event: Fri-Sat., April 20-21 -- Stanford Cardinal Classic (Palo Alto, Calif.)
AZUSA, Calif. -- Competing in her first heptathlon since winning the Big Ten Championship title in the event last May, senior Aaron Howell of the University of Michigan women's track and field team posted a new career best and one of the top scores in school history at the Bryan Clay Invitational on Wednesday and Thursday (April 18-19).
On the strength of personal-record performances in three of the seven events that comprise the heptathlon, Howell scored 5,541 points to surpass her previous best score by just three points.
The performance was good for the 10th-best score of the day, and -- taking into account only the national descending order list entering the weekend and the results from Bryan Clay (and nowhere else around the nation) so far this week -- ranks her No. 17 in the nation.
The top 24 heptathletes in the nation will earn berths to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in June. A bigger round of heptathlons could take place next week, with almost all heptathletes around the nation back in action in one of the first two weekends of May for conference championships.
Entering the final event with 4,751 points -- the better an athlete's performance in each of the seven events, the more points one accrues -- Howell needed to run 2:22.75 or faster in the heptathlon-finale 800 meters to surpass her existing career best of 5,538 points from the 2016 Big Ten Championships.
After two days of competition across seven events, she met that goal with a 2:22.46 over the final two laps of her record-breaking week out West. The display improved her standing as the No. 3 heptathlete in school history, and she now owns three of the 10 best scores in school history.
With her second performance of over 5,500 points, she joins Bettie Wade and Tania Longe as the only Wolverines to top that threshold multiple times. Wade crossed that barrier four times at Michigan, while Longe equaled or surpassed it twice.
While her clutch performance over the final 800 meters sealed the deal for Howell, it was her performance in the field events that truly set her up for success.
After opening up with a solid 14.32 (+1.8m/s) showing in the heptathlon-opener 100-meter hurdles on Wednesday, she posted back-to-back career-best performances in the high jump and shot put.
In the high jump she survived a pair of third-and-final attempts on the way to a career-best-tying clearance of 1.75m (5 feet, 8.75 inches) for the fourth-best jump of anyone in her group.
She came right back and threw a personal-record 13.44m (44-1.25) in the shot put on her first attempt, better than anyone else on the day and well exceeding her previous outdoor PR of 12.90m (42-4) from last year's Big Ten meet.
Howell closed Wednesday with a 26.53 (+1.0m/s) at 200 meters, giving her 3,358 points after the first four events -- the best total of her career through the first day of a heptathlon.
Day two kicked off with a solid 5.43m (17-9.75) leap in the long jump, followed by an exceptional performance in the javelin.
Howell launched a career-best 42.39m (139-1) heave on her second attempt that not only surpassed her previous record by nearly half a meter, but also registered as the best javelin mark since Lindsey Stephenson set the school record of 50.52m (165-9) at the 2004 Big Ten Championships.
Howell's next heptathlon will come in mid-May as she aims to defend her Big Ten title. Competition will be stiff, as Wisconsin's Georgia Ellenwood won this week's competition with a score of 5,983 points and the duo of Iowa's Jenny Kimbro and Minnesota's Ayesha Champagnie scored 5,523 and 5,521 points, respectively, in a separate group at Azusa this week.
Action continues out West for the Wolverines on Friday and Saturday (April 20-21) as Michigan sprinters and distance runners are in action at the Cardinal Classic at Stanford.
U-M CAREER BESTS AT THE AZUSA PACIFIC BRYAN CLAY INVITATIONAL
Aaron Howell -- 1.75m (5-8.75) / High Jump
Aaron Howell -- 13.44m (44-1.25) / Shot Put
Aaron Howell -- 42.39m (139-1) / Javelin Throw
Aaron Howell -- 5541 / Heptathlon
FULL MICHIGAN RESULTS BY EVENT
W = wind-aided (greater than 2.0 meter-per-second wind; marks with wind up to 4.0m/s are allowable for NCAA Preliminaries qualifying purposes)
Heptathlon
10. Aaron Howell / 5,541 points
100 meter hurdles -- 14.32 (+1.8m/s)
High Jump -- 1.75m (5-8.75)
Shot Put -- 13.44m (44-1.25)
200 meter dash -- 26.53 (+1.0m/s)
Long Jump -- 5.43m (17-9.75) (-0.1m/s)
Javelin -- 42.39m (139-1)
800 meter run -- 2:22.46
Players Mentioned
