Michigan
NCAA East Preliminaries
Steeplechasers Borchers, Zieve Advance to NCAA Championships
5/25/2018 11:25:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
Site: Tampa, Fla. (USF Track & Field Stadium)
Event: NCAA East Preliminary Rounds (Day 2 of 3)
U-M Team Result: No Team Scoring
Next U-M Event: Saturday, May 26 -- NCAA East Preliminary Rounds - Day 3 (Tampa, Fla.), 1:15 p.m.
Confirmed NCAA Championships Qualifiers: Claire Borchers and Sarah Zieve (3,000m steeplechase)
TAMPA, Fla. -- One made it look easy and the other took it down to the last possible second in the most dramatic of finishes, but Claire Borchers and Sarah Zieve will be representing the University of Michigan women's track and field team at nationals after their performances to conclude the second day of action at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds on Friday (May 25).
Borchers and Zieve automatically qualified to compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on June 6-9, marking just the second time in school history two Michigan women have qualified to nationals in the event.
Borchers clinched her second consecutive berth to NCAAs with a controlled effort to take second in her heat, but Zieve needed a blistering half-mile kick to move up from outside the top 10 with two laps to go to third by fractions of a second at the line to secure her first berth to nationals.
The clock read 9:58.57 for Borchers as she finished, good for the sixth-best time of the day, while Zieve came away with a career-best 10:07.58 as the final woman to make it through to Eugene.
What. A. Finish.
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack) May 26, 2018
11th with 2 laps to go.
8th with 1 lap to go.
7th with 200m to go.
3rd by .13 of a second at the line to make the @NCAATrackField Championships steeplechase #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/r0C1s9yl7i
Running as far back in the pack as 11th with two laps to go -- more than four seconds off the lead pack of six steeplers -- Zieve once more went to the well and summoned the same late-race magic that earned her the bronze medal at the Big Ten Championships two weekends ago.
Zieve dropped the fastest penultimate lap of anyone in the field by nearly a second to move up to eighth at the bell signalling the last lap of the race, closing the gap between her and the lead group to less than three seconds.
She kept her foot on the gas all the way through the final lap, moving up to seventh going into the final turn and into the top five as the field swung onto the final homestretch.
Still outside the top-three threshold needed to advance with less than 100 meters to go, Zieve closed to within steps of Clemson's Logan Morris and Indiana State's Taylor Austin halfway down the straightaway.
With only about 25 meters to go, Zieve caught up to the pair, and with only about 10 meters until the finish line, she wedged her way into a slight gap that had opened up between Morris and Austin. While she ultimately did not get past Morris into second, she was able to fend off Austin for the final steps and cross the line just .21 seconds clear of the Sycamore.
When the water finally settled, Zieve had clocked 2:41.09 over the final two laps -- longer than 800 meters due to the water pit's position on the outside of the track -- for the best closing finish of the race, more than a second better than winner Amy Cashin of West Virginia.
With her 9:58.57 performance tonight -- nearly identical to her 9:58.36 from winning the @bigten -- she becomes just the 2nd Wolverine woman to make the NCAA Championships steeplechase in back-to-back years #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/C95y1T18Bb
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack) May 26, 2018
Borchers' heat was far less eventful, as the reigning Big Ten champion broke away with a lead group that quickly whittled its way down to just five runners after a little more than three laps of racing.
A lap later, that pack shrunk to just herself, eventual winner Katy Kunc of Kentucky and Gabrielle Jennings of Furman. That crew would hold steady throughout the next two laps as they built up a lead of more than seven seconds over the field.
Ole Miss' Shelby Brown injected a bit of late drama into the proceedings as she overtook Jennings for third on a blistering last-lap kick that rivaled Zieve's, but Borchers was able to parry it down the homestretch to take runner-up honors in the heat.
The only other time two Michigan women have gone on to NCAAs in the steeplechase -- which has only been contested at nationals since the turn of the century -- was 11 years ago when Anna Willard won the NCAA title in collegiate-record fashion with teammate Arianne Field also in the meet.
Jade Harrison was the lone non-steeplechase competitor of the day for the Wolverines, as she just missed making the quarterfinals at 200 meters in a 27th-place finish.
Running in the fourth heat of the event, her race went off exactly as a storm system moved into the area, bringing with it a drastic increase in wind speed oriented directly down the straightaway. With a stiff gust at her back -- 4.8m/s, or more than 10 miles per hour -- Harrison clocked 23.18 for the fastest time of her career under all conditions.
It was not quite enough, however, as the final time through to Saturday's quarterfinals was 23.16.
Though the wind reading exceeded the 2.0m/s limit used by the international track and field community to determine legal performances for record-keeping -- and even the 4.0m/s limit that apply for marks eligible to qualify for this Prelims meet -- Harrison's time is still notable as the second-fastest in school history under all conditions.
Only Richelle Webb's windy 22.90 (+2.1m/s) from the 1994 Big Ten Championships outclasses Harrison's performance in terms of the number on the clock.
Only the quarterfinals in the women's 1,500 meters -- Saturday at 1:15 p.m. -- remain for the Wolverines this weekend, as Jamie Morrissey and Haley Meier go for their first NCAA Outdoor Championships berths at Michigan.
FULL MICHIGAN RESULTS BY EVENT
Q = Automatically advanced to NCAA East Prelims quarterfinals
q = Non-automatic qualifier to NCAA East Prelims quarterfinals
w = wind-aided (greater than 2.0 meter-per-second [m/s] wind)
200 Meters (First Round)
27. Jade Harrison / 23.18w (+4.8m/s)
400 Meters (First Round) [Thursday]
38. Jade Harrison / 53.93
1,500 Meters (First Round) [Thursday]
Quarterfinals to be contested Saturday
2. Haley Meier / 4:16.82Q
19. Jamie Morrissey / 4:20.21Q
31. Hannah Meier / 4:23.87
10,000 Meters (Semifinals) [Thursday]
28. Madeline Trevisan / 35:37.91
400-Meter Hurdles (First Round) [Thursday]
39. Chloe Foster / 60.11
3,000-Meter Steeplechase (Quarterfinals)
6. Claire Borchers / 9:58.57 (Advanced to NCAA Championships)
13. Sarah Zieve / 10:07.58 (Advanced to NCAA Championships)
High Jump (First Round) [Thursday]
27. Katt Miner / 1.70m (5-7)
45. Aaron Howell / 1.65m (5-5)
Hammer Throw (First Round)
To be contested Saturday
Players Mentioned
