Michigan
Big Ten Outdoor Championships
Michigan Ready for Big Ten Championships
5/9/2018 4:29:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
» Michigan will look to win its first Big Ten team title since 2008, having come as close as second just two seasons ago in 2016.
» Reigning hammer throw champion Joe Ellis and shot putter Andrew Liskowitz are favored in their events coming off school-record performances, but both will face significant opposition on the road to titles.
» Michigan also is looking to get big points from former Big Ten champions Taylor McLaughlin, Ben Flanagan and Grant Cartwright.
THIS WEEK
Fri-Sun., May 11-13 -- Big Ten Outdoor Championships (Bloomington, Ind.)
Friday, May 11 -- Big Ten Outdoor Championships (Bloomington, Ind.), 2:30 p.m.
Meet Homepage | Live Results | Watch Live on Flotrack Pro & BTN Plus
Saturday, May 12 -- Big Ten Outdoor Championships (Bloomington, Ind.), 4:15 p.m.
Meet Homepage | Live Results | Watch Live on Flotrack Pro & BTN Plus
Sunday, May 13 -- Big Ten Outdoor Championships (Bloomington, Ind.), 11 a.m.
Meet Homepage | Live Results | Watch Live on Flotrack Pro & BTN Plus
• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Postseason competition begins this weekend for the University of Michigan men's track and field team as it travels to Bloomington, Indiana, for the Big Ten Outdoor Championships on Friday through Sunday (May 11-13).
The Wolverines head to Indiana with a strong corps of reigning, former and aspiring conference champions with the goal of an improvement on last season's tied-for-eighth-place finish.
Defending hammer throw champion Joe Ellis and shot putter Andrew Liskowitz lead Michigan to the conference meet as the favorites in their respective events, bolstered by a championships roster that includes 2016 Big Ten champions Taylor McLaughlin and Ben Flanagan and last year's most prolific thrower in Grant Cartwright.
The first two days of the meet on Friday and Saturday are comprised largely of track-event preliminaries with a long-distance final each night and assorted field events throughout the day. While there are relatively few point-scoring opportunities on Friday and Saturday, it will be crucial for the Wolverines to advance as many men as possible from the preliminary rounds -- contested in of all the events shorter than 1,500 meters -- on to Sunday's finals-only program for maximum-points potential.
Action on Friday's opening day kicks off for the U-M men in the field at 2:30 p.m. with the hammer throw, followed by action on the track for Michigan set to begin at 5:55 p.m. Point-scoring opportunities for the men on Friday include the hammer and the 10,000-meter final at 8:15 p.m.
Michigan does not get underway on Saturday's day two until 4:15 p.m. with preliminaries of the 400 meters, followed closely by the first final of the day for U-M with the shot put at 4:30 p.m. The Wolverines will have point-scoring opportunities Saturday in the shot put and the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 6:55 p.m.
Sunday is "moving day" as the entries Michigan hopes to have advanced from prelims on Friday and Saturday look to put big points on the board for the Wolverines' team prospects. The day begins with the triple jump at 11 a.m. with the finals-only track program set to begin at 12:55 p.m. with the 4x100 relay.
Sunday's finals include (in chronological order) the triple jump, the pole vault, the high jump, the 4x100 relay, the 1,500 meters, the discus, the 110-meter hurdles, the 400 meters, the 100 meters, the 800 meters, the 400-meter hurdles, the 200 meters, the 5,000 meters and the 4x400 relay.
Michigan will be aiming for its first Big Ten team title outdoors since last winning it all in 2008, having come as close as second during the 2016 season when McLaughlin and Flanagan claimed their individual titles.
The team title will be awarded to the school that accrues the most points over the course of the championship's 19 different individual or relay events. Points are awarded to the top eight individuals or relay teams in every event based on how they finish, with the winner earning the most points.
Event champions earn 10 points for their team, with eight going to the runner-up. Third place earns six points, fourth gets five, fifth earns four, sixth gets three, seventh earns two and eighth gets one.
Fans can watch the meet live online via webstreams from FloTrack and BTN Plus, and live results are available from PTTiming. Follow the official social media platforms of the program for the most up-to-date information throughout the weekend.
WHEN TO FOLLOW THE WOLVERINES
| Wolverines Competing This Weekend | |||
| FRIDAY, MAY 11 | |||
| Name | Event | Round | Time (ET) |
| Grant Cartwright | Hammer Throw | Final | 2:30 PM |
| Joe Ellis | Hammer Throw | Final | 2:30 PM |
| Manning Plater | Hammer Throw | Final | 2:30 PM |
| Roland Amarteifio | 400 meter hurdles | Prelims * | 5:55 PM |
| Noah Caudy | 400 meter hurdles | Prelims * | 5:55 PM |
| Sean Marshall | 400 meter hurdles | Prelims * | 5:55 PM |
| Taylor McLaughlin | 400 meter hurdles | Prelims * | 5:55 PM |
| Josiah Carpenter | 200 meter dash | Prelims * | 6:30 PM |
| Chase Barnett | 1500 meter run | Prelims ^ | 7:05 PM |
| Anthony Berry | 1500 meter run | Prelims ^ | 7:05 PM |
| Billy Bund | 10,000 meter run | Final | 8:15 PM |
| Benjamin Flanagan | 10,000 meter run | Final | 8:15 PM |
| Isaac Harding | 10,000 meter run | Final | 8:15 PM |
| Jacob Lee | 10,000 meter run | Final | 8:15 PM |
| SATURDAY, MAY 12 | |||
| Name | Event | Round | Time (ET) |
| Desmond Melson | 400 meter dash | Prelims * | 4:15 PM |
| Alex Schwedt | 400 meter dash | Prelims * | 4:15 PM |
| Grant Cartwright | Shot Put | Final | 4:30 PM |
| Andrew Liskowitz | Shot Put | Final | 4:30 PM |
| Manning Plater | Shot Put | Final | 4:30 PM |
| Khoury Crenshaw | 100 meter dash | Prelims * | 4:55 PM |
| Desmond Nicholas | 100 meter dash | Prelims * | 4:55 PM |
| Roland Amarteifio | 110 meter hurdles | Prelims * | 5:25 PM |
| Sierra Hendrix-Williams | 110 meter hurdles | Prelims * | 5:25 PM |
| Matt Plowman | 800 meter run | Prelims * | 6:05 PM |
| Austin Benoit | Steeplechase | Final | 6:55 PM |
| Andrew Lorant | Steeplechase | Final | 6:55 PM |
| Connor Mora | Steeplechase | Final | 6:55 PM |
| SUNDAY, MAY 13 | |||
| Name | Event | Round | Time (ET) |
| Daniel Butael | Triple Jump | Final | 11:00 AM |
| Kevin Stephens | Triple Jump | Final | 11:00 AM |
| Nick Burkhalter | Pole Vault | Final | 12:00 PM |
| Kevin Haughn | Pole Vault | Final | 12:00 PM |
| Alex Klemm | High Jump | Final | 12:30 PM |
| Brandon Piwinski | High Jump | Final | 12:30 PM |
| Nicholas, Carpenter, Crenshaw, McLaughlin |
4x100 relay | Final | 12:55 PM |
| TBD Finalists | 1500 meter run | Final | 1:15 PM |
| Grant Cartwright | Discus | Final | 1:30 PM |
| Andrew Liskowitz | Discus | Final | 1:30 PM |
| Manning Plater | Discus | Final | 1:30 PM |
| TBD Finalists | 110 meter hurdles | Final | 1:35 PM |
| TBD Finalists | 400 meter dash | Final | 1:45 PM |
| TBD Finalists | 100 meter dash | Final | 1:55 PM |
| TBD Finalists | 800 meter run | Final | 2:08 PM |
| TBD Finalists | 400 meter hurdles | Final | 2:28 PM |
| TBD Finalists | 200 meter dash | Final | 2:42 PM |
| Jack Aho | 5000 meter run | Final | 3:11 PM |
| Aaron Baumgarten | 5000 meter run | Final | 3:11 PM |
| Micah Beller | 5000 meter run | Final | 3:11 PM |
| Connor Mora | 5000 meter run | Final | 3:11 PM |
| McLaughlin, Melson, Amarteifio, Schwedt |
4x400 relay | Final | 3:45 PM |
* = Nine qualifiers advance to Sunday final
^ = 12 qualifiers advance to Sunday final
MICHIGAN'S TOP CONTENDERS
Men's Hammer
Hammer thrower Joe Ellis is ranked No. 1 in the conference and is the defending national champion, but he will face a difficult road to the repeat with reigning NCAA champion & 2016 Olympian Rudy Winkler joining the conference this season. Winkler transferred to Rutgers from Cornell, where he was the 2016 Olympic Trials champion. However, Ellis has outclassed the Olympian in 2018; Winkler is ranked a spot behind Ellis at No. 7 nationally. Ellis -- who launched three 71-meter-or-farther throws, including his school-record 72.16m (236-9) mark, in his last outing -- will also have to contend with No. 11 Morgan Shigo of Penn State.
With all three of those men having surpassed 70 meters so far this season, the stage is set for perhaps the biggest fireworks show in the history of the Big Ten hammer throw. Not only could the championships record of 72.77m (238-9.25) set in 2015 by Purdue's Chukwuebuka Enekwechi be in danger, but the record for most men over 70 meters -- two, also in 2015 -- could fall.
Men's Shot Put
Like Ellis, Andrew Liskowitz is the top-ranked man in his signature event -- the shot put -- and will also face significant opposition in the quest for his first career Big Ten title. In his first competition since launching his titanic 20.28m (66 feet, 6.5 inches) two weekends ago to break the school record by nearly a meter, he will square off with a pair of former Big Ten winners in Ohio State's Nicholas Demaline and Indiana's Willie Morrison. Liskowitz is ranked No. 1 in the conference and No. 6 nationally, followed by Demaline (20.13m/66-0.5) at No. 2/No. 7 and Morrison (19.98m/65-6.75) at No. 3/No. 8.
Liskowitz's shot put competition on Saturday could rival the firepower of the hammer throw competition from the previous day. Never before have three men surpassed 20 meters in the same Big Ten final, and only three times have a pair of men crossed that threshold in the same Big Ten Championship competition (2015, 2012 and 1982).
Grant Cartwright
While the 2017 Big Ten Championships saw Ellis win Michigan's first Big Ten title in the hammer since the 1930s and Liskowitz break through to become the nation's top freshman shot putter in a third-place finish, arguably no man was stronger in the field events than Grant Cartwright. With a third-place discus performance and fourth-place finishes in the shot and hammer, Cartwright scored 16 points as the only man in the meet to finish top-eight in three throws events.
Having already improved his career-best hammer mark by two meters to 67.12m (220 feet, 2 inches), he is in the running to take top-four in that event once more. He is ranked eighth in the shot put at 18.45m (60-6.5), but has a history of peaking for this meet as he posted his 2017 season's best performance at Big Tens. His discus has not yet materialized into the career-best 58.23m (191-0) that earned him the bronze medal, having only gone 48.53m (159-3) in the event so far in 2018.
Men's Sprints
Twice Taylor McLaughlin has competed in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships 400-meter hurdles; twice he has scored points for the Wolverines, including a Big Ten title as a freshman in 2016. McLaughlin once again enters the Big Ten meet as the Wolverines' leader in the sprint and hurdle events, ranked No. 3 in the conference and No. 14 nationally. With three sub-51-second clockings this season -- including a best of 50.76 -- McLaughlin is in the midst of his most consistent season to date in Ann Arbor, and will be looking to drop those times even further to contend for another conference title. He will have his hands full with defending champ and national No. 2 David Kendziera of Illinois in the field with a 49.39 best this season.
McLaughlin could potentially be joined in the scoring by Roland Amarteifio, who is part of a big group of hurdlers set to jockey for position in the top-eight. Amarteifio is ranked No. 11 in the conference at 52.41, but he is among a group of seven men within a half-second of seventh-ranked Ryan Dundun of Wisconsin.
McLaughlin is also slated to pull double-duty in the relays, as he is projected as a member of both the Wolverines' 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams to start and finish Sunday's track program, respectively.
Men's Distance
The distance corps was strong for the Wolverines at the 2017 edition of the championships, scoring in the 800-meter, 1,500-meter, steeplechase, 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events. While several of those athletes who scored -- particularly two-time top-five finisher Ned Willig -- have moved on, the 2018 squad could come close to replicating that feat.
Former Big Ten champion Ben Flanagan will lead the way as he contends for the win at 10,000 meters and looks to reclaim the conference crown he won in 2016. He has excelled at this distance in 2017-18, most notably during a cross country season during which he won the Great Lakes Regional and earned All-America honors at NCAAs as the top Big Ten finisher. He is currently ranked No. 4 in the conference at 29:33.07.
Flanagan took sixth in the Big Ten Indoor 5,000-meter final this past February, and was joined in the scoring by fourth-place Micah Beller, who will look to finish his career on the podium once more in the outdoor 5,000 meters, joined by 2017 outdoor scorer Connor Mora and 2018 indoor 3,000-meter scorer Aaron Baumgarten.
Mora will also be going for his third consecutive year of scoring in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, following up on a runner-up showing in 2016 and a sixth-place effort a year ago.
The mid-distance events will see Anthony Berry in the 1,500-meter competition aiming to follow up on his breakthrough sixth-place effort in the mile at the indoor championships.
WOLVERINES IN THE BIG TEN RANKINGS
The table below details how the Wolverines' entries for the Big Ten Championships are ranked in their respective events heading into the conference weekend.
| Name | Event | Rank |
| Khoury Crenshaw | 100m | 8 |
| Anthony Berry | 1500m | 16 |
| Aaron Baumgarten | 5,000m | 6 |
| Micah Beller | 5,000m | 12 |
| Ben Flanagan | 10,000m | 4 |
| Roland Amarteifio | 110H | 12 |
| Sierra Hendrix-Williams | 110H | 14 |
| Noah Caudy | 110H | 19 |
| Taylor McLaughlin | 400H | 3 |
| Roland Amarteifio | 400H | 11 |
| Noah Caudy | 400H | 16 |
| Sean Marshall | 400H | 17 |
| Connor Mora | Steeplechase | 7 |
| Austin Benoit | Steeplechase | 9 |
| Andrew Lorant | Steeplechase | 13 |
| Michigan | 4x100 Relay | 10 |
| Michigan | 4x400 Relay | 11 |
| Brandon Piwinski | High Jump | 10 |
| Alex Klemm | High Jump | 19 |
| Kevin Haughn | Pole Vault | 15 |
| Nick Burkhalter | Pole Vault | 20 |
| Daniel Butael | Triple Jump | 9 |
| Kevin Stephens, Jr. | Triple Jump | 11 |
| Andrew Liskowitz | Shot Put | 1 |
| Grant Cartwright | Shot Put | 8 |
| Joe Ellis | Hammer | 1 |
| Grant Cartwright | Hammer | 5 |
| Manning Plater | Hammer | 18 |
