Season Review: 2018-19 Michigan Women's Track and Field
7/31/2019 3:22:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
NCAA Outdoor Championships: -- (0 points)
NCAA Indoor Championships: T53rd (3 points)
Big Ten Outdoor Championships: 11th (31 points)
Big Ten Indoor Championships: 9th (51.5 points)
Several historic careers came to their ends and many more had their first chapters written during the University of Michigan women's track and field team's 2019 indoor and outdoor seasons.
The Wolverines, led by head coaches James Henry and Jerry Clayton, earned one first-team and two second-team All-America honors, two Big Ten titles, four school records and numerous national-level performances during an eventful 2018-19 academic year -- in addition to successfully hosting the first-ever Big Ten Indoor Championships at the world-class U-M Indoor Track Building.
Making History
School records were on notice throughout the entire 2019 campaign, starting from the first meet of the season at the Wolverine Invitational.
Redshirt senior Bailey Baker topped the school's weight throw record on her final throw of the day with a mark of 19.28m (63 feet, 3.25 inches), only to have it topped moments later by fellow redshirt senior Kayla Deering's 19.53m (64-1) on her final attempt. One week later, Baker matched Deering's mark at the Simmons-Harvey Big Ten Invitational.
Baker was not yet through with the record book. In the lone outdoor home meet of her career -- the Len Paddock Open in May -- she topped a long-standing hammer throw record with a mark of 61.90m (203-1), becoming the first woman in school history to surpass 200 feet.
Records also fell on the track, including two at the hands of Hannah Meier. She teamed with Alice Hill, Chloe Foster and Aurora Rynda for a nation-leading distance medley relay performance of 10:54.47 -- not only the fastest in school history but also the fastest in the history of the Big Ten.
Meier brought down another record the following week on the home track when she won the Big Ten title in the indoor mile with a blistering 4:32.46.
Beginnings and Ends
Michigan's top indoor and outdoor national finishers put two different generations of Michigan talent on display.
Indoors, the distance medley relay quartet of Hill, Foster, Rynda and Meg Darmofal -- subbing in for individual mile finalist Meier -- all competed in their first NCAA Championships meet. The group availed itself admirably, as it ran to a sixth-place finish and earned three team points for Michigan. With the rising senior Darmofal the most veteran among the group -- Hill and Foster are rising juniors and Rynda is a rising sophomore -- this group should be back for more in 2020.
The performance was preceded by each of the women scoring their first individual Big Ten Championships points at the indoor meet. Darmofal and Hill were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the mile final, and Rynda was the champion at 600 meters with Foster just behind in fourth. It also served as a launching pad for the rest of the season as Hill was third in the Big Ten Outdoor steeplechase, Foster was sixth in the 400-meter hurdles and Darmofal was eighth at 1,500 meters. All advanced to the NCAA East Prelims.
Conversely, the NCAA Outdoor Championships saw the final Michigan appearance of the decorated Erin Finn. Granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA prior to the start of the season, injury delayed her debut until April. Still, on limited training, Finn managed to finish seventh in the Big Ten Championships 10,000-meter final and 12th at the NCAA Championships in the same event.
It marked her 10th career individual All-America honor and made her the only woman in Michigan track and field/cross country history to reach double digits in that category.
Notable Highlights
• Rynda was not the only standout freshman for the Wolverines in 2019. In the pole vault, Jessica Mercier established herself as one of the best in school history. After she placed a surprising fourth at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, she opened more eyes outdoors as she took the silver medal with one of the highest clearances in program history at 4.17m (13-8.25). She tied for the best mark of the day, but ultimately lost the tiebreak.
• In addition to Hill, Rynda, Foster, Darmofal and Mercier, another woman scored at the Big Ten indoor and outdoor Championships in Micaela DeGenero. She was seventh at 800 meters indoors and sixth at 1,500 meters outdoors, and parlayed the latter into a berth to the NCAA East Preliminaries.
• Joining Rynda as first-year distance standouts for the Wolverines were Jessi Larson, Anne Forsyth and Camille Davre -- all of whom qualified for the NCAA East Prelims at 5,000 meters. Larson just missed making the NCAA Championships by a single spot (with teammate Kathryn House just another spot behind her), and she went on to win the USATF U20 Championships title in the event. Freshman Megan Worrel also advanced to the East Prelims in the steeplechase. She went on to finish runner-up at USATF U20s and third at the Pan-American U20 Championships.
• Another storied career came to its conclusion in 2019 as two-time Big Ten champion high jumper Claire Kieffer-Wright competed for the last time in a Michigan uniform. Though her lone remaining season of outdoor eligibility was stifled by injury, she still managed to finish sixth at the Big Ten Championships and nearly make the NCAA Championships with a 14th-place finish at the NCAA East Preliminaries.
Honors and Awards
Alice
Hill
Chloe
Foster
Aurora
Rynda
Meg
Darmofal
Hannah
Meier
Erin
Finn
USTFCCCA All-America
First Team: Alice Hill, Chloe Foster, Aurora Rynda, Meg Darmofal (indoor / distance medley relay)
Second Team: Hannah Meier (indoor / mile)
Second Team: Erin Finn (outdoor / 10,000 meters)
Big Ten Champions / first-team All-Big Ten
Aurora Rynda (indoor / 600 meters)
Hannah Meier (indoor / mile)
second-team All-Big Ten
Jessica Mercier (outdoor / pole vault)
Alice Hill, Chloe Foster, Aurora Rynda, Hannah Meier (indoor / distance medley relay)
Big Ten Athlete of the Week
Alice Hill (April 24)
Chloe Foster (April 17)
Distance Medley Relay Team (Feb. 20)
Aurora Rynda (Jan. 23)
USTFCCCA All-Academic Team
Michigan, 3.22 cumulative GPA
USTFCCCA All-Academic Individuals
Bailey Baker / Sport Management MS
Meg Darmofal / Movement Science BS
Camille Davre / LSA Undeclared
Micaela DeGenero / Computer Science BS
Erin Finn / Epidemiology MPH
Anne Forsyth / LSA Undeclared
Alice Hill / LSA Undeclared
Hannah Meier / Sport Management MS
Aurora Rynda / LSA Undeclared
Megan Worrel / Computer Science BSE
Big Ten Distinguished Scholar
Sydney Badger, Sr., Movement Science
Audrey Belf, Sr., Movement Science
Haley Click, So., Business Administration
Camille Davre, So., LSA Undeclared
Alice Hill, So., LSA Undeclared
Kayla Keane, Sr., Movement Science and Psychology
Mary Kate McNamara, Sr., Economics
Jacalyn Overdier, So., Movement Science
Faith Reynolds, Sr., Public Health
Bailey Baker, Gr., Sport Management
Erin Finn, Gr., Epidemiology MPH
Jeryne Fish, Sr., Public Policy
Courtney Jacobsen, Jr., Psychology
Jenna Reid, So., LSA Undeclared
Lauren Vanvlierbergen, Sr., Business Administration
Academic All-Big Ten
Sydney Badger, Sr., Movement Science
Bailey Baker, Sr., Sport Management
Audrey Belf, Sr., Movement Science
Haley Click, So., Business Administration
Meg Darmofal, Sr., Movement Science
Camille Davre, So., LSA Undeclared
Micaela DeGenero, Jr., Computer Science
Erin Finn, Gr., Epidemiology
Jeryne Fish, Sr., Public Policy
Chloe Foster, So., Movement Science
Julia Hall, Jr., Sport Management
Alice Hill, So., LSA Undeclared
Kathryn House, Jr., Sport Management
Courtney Jacobsen, Jr., Psychology
Carola Jansohn, So., Physics
Kayla Keane, Sr., Movement Science and Psychology
Emma Lane, So., LSA Undeclared
Mary Kate McNamara, Sr., Economics
Hannah Meier, Gr., Sport Management
Jena Metwalli, Jr., Public Policy
Katt Miner, Jr., Public Policy
Lexi Munley, So., Business Administration
Briana Nelson, Sr., Public Health
Jacalyn Overdier, So., Movement Science
Raquel Powers, So., Biopsychology, Cognition & Neuroscience
Jenna Reid, So., Communication
Faith Reynolds, Sr., Public Health
Christine Schultz, Jr., Environment
Margaret Sliney, Jr., General Studies
Julia Sullivan, So., Communication
Maddy Trevisan, Jr., Mechanical Engineering
Lauren Vanvlierbergen, Sr., Business Administration
Anna West, Jr., Biopsychology, Cognition & Neuroscience
Players Mentioned
