Michigan
NCAA Championships
NCAA Championships Await Michigan Men
11/17/2021 3:37:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
THIS WEEK
Saturday, Nov. 20 -- at NCAA Cross Country Championships (Tallahassee, Fla.), 11:10 a.m.
TV: ESPNU | Live Results | Live Video
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 14-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country team will put its national-caliber depth to the final test this Saturday (Nov. 20) as it battles the country's best teams and runners at the NCAA Cross Country Championships hosted by Florida State.
The Michigan men will race 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) over multiple loops of the Apalachee Regional Park Cross Country Course in Tallahassee, Fla., starting at 11:10 a.m., with both national team and individual honors on the line.
The Wolverines will run in front of a national television audience as part of the ESPNU broadcast of the meet. Michigan will also be represented in the women's six-kilometer (3.73-mile) race at 10:20 a.m. with its national No. 17-ranked squad.
A fifth top-11 national team finish dating back to 2014 could be in the offing for Michigan, powered by a deep seven-man roster than could include two-time reigning All-American Devin Meyrer; All-Big Ten honoree Tom Dodd; Big Ten track medalists Tom Brady, Nick Foster and Joost Plaetinck; track All-American Christian Hubaker; and 2021 standouts Zach Stewart, Oli Raimond and Colton Yesney.
Conditions are expected to be dry with moderate winds between 5-10 mph. The projected high temperature for the day is 67 degrees, with the thermometer likely reading in the high 50s at race time.
Live results will be available through Primetime Timing. Comprehensive in-race updates will be provided at each kilometer split checkpoint on both the team's official Twitter and its official Instagram Stories.
Things to Know: NCAA Championships
• The NCAA Championships are scored by standard NCAA rules, with the top five runners for each team accumulating points that correspond to their finishing place relative to other full teams in the field (there are also teams that have fewer than five runners at the NCAA Championships; their runners do not factor into the team scoring). The lower the team score, the better. Sixth and seventh runners' points do not directly factor into a team's score, but they serve as point displacers to runners who finish behind them.
• The top four teams in the standings make the NCAA podium and receive team trophies.
• The top 15 finishers are recognized by the NCAA with individual trophies.
• The top 40 finishers are recognized by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as All-Americans, and receive medals for their efforts.
Team Notes
• Few teams in the country run as a pack as well as the Wolverines. At the Big Ten Championships in its runner-up finish, Michigan saw its top five runners separated by just 13.3 seconds -- the next-closest team was champion Wisconsin at 30.1 seconds -- and less than 30 seconds separated the top five at the Great Lakes Regional in a third-place finish there.
• Devin Meyrer is looking to become just the sixth man in school history to have earned All-America honors in three consecutive years. He ran through the cold, wind and rain to a 16th-place effort in 2019 to lead Michigan's national seventh-place squad, and was 24th in the COVID-delayed 2020 championships held in March -- just three days after he broke the indoor 5,000-meter school record at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Among those who have also been All-American in three straight seasons: current coach Kevin Sullivan, who earned four such honors in 1993-95 and 1997.
• After making a splash last winter as one of the fastest milers in school history en route to first-team All-America honors, Tom Dodd has shown superb range on the trails this fall. He was Michigan's top finisher at Wisconsin during the regular season, and was Michigan's No. 2 runner at the Big Ten Championships.
• The wait was worth it, as Tom Brady made his debut at Big Tens as the Wolverines' No. 3 runner in 17th. He continued to improve as the race distance lengthened as he moved to No. 2 in the Wolverines' lineup at Regionals with a 16th-place finish.
• Joost Plaetinck has excelled in his surge-from-behind signature style this fall, finishing among the Wolverines' top five runners in all six of his meets so far. He is one of the few Michigan runners, along with Devin Meyrer, who returns from 2019's seventh-place squad, and will draw upon the experience from his 101st-place effort that year to guide his 2021 performance.
Course Description
Apalachee Regional Park Cross Country Course
Course Maps
Distance: 10 kilometers (6.21 miles)
Max Elevation: 96 feet above sea level
Low Elevation: 44 feet above sea level
With only four major hills on the course and plenty of rolling downhill afterward -- to go along with firm grass and crushed gravel trails -- the Apalachee Regional Park Cross Country Course will be one of the fastest courses the Wolverines will have run this fall.
Distances selected to match with intermediate checkpoints in live results
First Kilometer: The race begins on a nearly half-mile straightaway that goes over rolling grassy downhills that gives way around an S-curve into a downhill that continues into the second kilometer.
Second Kilometer: The course continues over gently rolling hills into a U-turn at the farthest point from the starting line, before quickly making another sharp turn that descends to the course's lowest point.
Third Kilometer: Gently rolling hills over the first half of this split give way to the course's largest climb -- a roughly 50-foot ascent over about 200 meters of running to complete the first loop.
Fourth Kilometer: Mostly the same as the first kilometer.
Fifth Kilometer: Mostly the same as the second kilometer.
Sixth Kilometer: Mostly the same as the third kilometer, up until the point near the crest of the large hill when the course veers left toward where the finish line is. Brief gentle rolls give way to a descent over the next 200 meters as the course gently bears right away from the finish chute and into the first of two smaller loops.
Seventh Kilometer: Similar to the first kilometer until a U-turn reroutes the runners away from the course's farthest point and deposits them on a steep descent at the course's lowest point just before where the second kilometer began.
Eighth Kilometer: Runners tackle the largest hill beginning at the start of this split, again taking the left turn near the crest of the hill and running downhill by the finish chute to enter the final loop around the course.
Ninth Kilometer: Similar to the seventh kilometer.
10th Kilometer: Runners climb the largest hill one last time before veering left one last time toward the finish line. Brief gentle rolls give way to a descent to the finish over the final 200 meters.
Players Mentioned
