Michigan
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Borchers Advances to NCAA Steeplechase Final
6/7/2018 9:44:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
Site: Eugene, Ore. (Hayward Field)
Event: NCAA Outdoor Championships (Day 1 of 3)
U-M Team Result: No team score
Next U-M Event: Friday, June 8 -- NCAA Outdoor Championships - Day 2 (Eugene, Ore.), 12:30 p.m. PDT
EUGENE, Ore. -- A career-best performance by University of Michigan senior Claire Borchers on the first day of women's action at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday (June 7) propelled the Wolverine to berth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase final.
On the strength of the fastest race of her life in 9:54.52, the Big Ten champion Borchers took fifth in her semifinal heat to earn the last of five automatic berths to Saturday's final to be run at 3:54 p.m. PDT.
Not since Anna Willard won the national title and broke the collegiate record in 2007 had a Wolverine advanced to the 12-woman final.
Borchers will have an opportunity to become join Willard as the Wolverine women to earn a top-eight finish, as her time held up for the seventh-best time overall between the two semifinal heats.
Steeplechase teammate Sarah Zieve was unable to advance to the final with a near-career-best time of 10:09.17 for ninth in the same heat as Borchers, but a strong close -- which seemingly has become her trademark in this postseason -- secured her a 16th-place overall finish for second team All-America honors in her final race at Michigan.
Assuming Borchers finishes the steeplechase final on Saturday, Michigan will be the only school with a pair of All-Americans in the event this year.
One event earlier, Haley Meier earned Honorable Mention status at the 1,500-meter distance with an 18th-place overall finish in 4:16.60. The race was her last on the track in a Michigan uniform, bringing to a conclusion a career that saw her win a pair of Big Ten titles this winter and earn All-America honors in the indoor mile.
In the steeplechase, Borchers ran right on the top-five bubble for practically the entirety of her semifinal heat, pushing at the right time late to secure her finals berth. Nearly the entire field was in contention through four laps, paring down to a lead group of eight by lap five.
All the while, Borchers dropped no lower than seventh in the order on lap five, working her way up to sixth with two laps to go in the eight-lap race. By the next time around, a lead group of four had broken away with Borchers leading a four-woman chase group.
She would stay at the front of that group, running the fastest final lap among them at 75.68, enough to secure that crucial fifth-place spot by nearly two seconds over Oklahoma's Sarah Scott.
Though Zieve was unable to advance to the final alongside her, she employed a strong late-race surge to secure All-America honors. In retrospect after the completion of both heats, her split heading into the bell lap was ultimately the 18th-fastest in the field. With a final lap of 78.53, she moved up one spot and was one of only two women in the field who ran over 10 minutes but also closed in less than 80 seconds.
Like Borchers, Meier was in the thick of her semifinal heat of the 1,500 meters for the entire way, but ultimately could not punch through a crowded blanket finish for one of the required five automatic berths (by virtue of the first race being faster than Meier's heat).
Meier came through at the bell in fifth place, but was in the midst of traffic as all 12 runners in the field crossed the split within a second of one another. The group was still mostly intact coming off the final turn, but Meier was unable to keep pace down the homestretch.
Before Borchers takes on the steeplechase final on Saturday, the Wolverine women's lone remaining competitor, heptathlete Aaron Howell, will begin her two-day event on Friday. Wolverine men Taylor McLaughlin (400-meter hurdles) and Brandon Piwinski (high jump) also will compete in their respective finals.
COLLEGIATE CAREER BESTS AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Claire Borchers -- 9:54.52 / Steeplechase
FULL MICHIGAN RESULTS BY EVENT
Q = Automatic qualifier to NCAA Championships Final
q = Non-automatic qualifier to NCAA Championships Final
w = wind-aided (greater than 2.0 meter-per-second [m/s] wind)
1,500 Meters (Semifinals)
Final to be contested on Saturday
18. Haley Meier / 4:16.60
3,000-Meter Steeplechase (Semifinals)
Final to be contested on Saturday
7. Claire Borchers / 9:54.52Q
16. Sarah Zieve / 10:09.17
Heptathlon (Final)
To be contested Friday and Saturday
Friday: 100m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put, 200m
Saturday: Long Jump, Javelin, 800m
Players Mentioned
