Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Meet on Deck for Michigan Men

Thursday, February 25

Geneva, Ohio

10:00 AM

Michigan

Big Ten Indoor Championships

Anthony Berry (Michigan Photography)

Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Meet on Deck for Michigan Men

2/22/2021 12:42:00 PM | Men's Track & Field

By: Kyle Terwillegar

THIS WEEK
Thu-Sat., Feb. 25-27 -- at Big Ten Indoor Championships (Geneva, Ohio)
Meet Central

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Conference crowns at both the individual and team levels will be at stake this weekend as the University of Michigan track and field team travels to Geneva, Ohio, this Thursday through Saturday (Feb. 25-27) for the Big Ten Indoor Championships at the SPIRE Institute.

The Michigan men are expected to challenge for one of the top spots in the overall team standings, on the strength of numerous Wolverines who are contenders to claim victory in their individual or relay events. Michigan finished eighth overall a year ago.

Entries are not yet finalized as of publication.

Spectators will not be allowed into the facility as a precautionary measure and to allow for more room for participants from separate teams to space themselves out within the building.

Fans will be able to follow along with Big Ten Network Plus live streams of the action on all three days. Regular updates will also be provided through Delta Timing's live results page and the official social media channels of Michigan track and field.

Meet Schedule

In order to mitigate the risks posed by the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, the meet will be spread over three days instead of the traditional two. Each day will feature distinct men's sessions in the morning into the early afternoon, followed by a women's session late in the afternoon into the evening.

For the men, Thursday's session will begin at 10 a.m. with competition in the first of two days in the heptathlon, followed by action on the track and in the field beginning at noon. Finals in the long jump and weight throw will be contested in the field, and the track finals will include the 3,000-meter run and the distance medley relay.

Friday starts at 10:30 a.m. with the resumption of the heptathlon, which will conclude in the early afternoon, followed by preliminary rounds on the track and the triple jump final at noon. Only the heptathlon and triple jump are finals on the day.

Saturday's finale kicks off at 11 a.m. both on the track and in the field. A bulk of the weekend's points in the team standings will be awarded in this session, as finals will take place in three field events and nine events on the track.

How the Big Ten Indoor Championships Work

Each of the teams in the conference will field student-athletes in the 17 events on the Big Ten Indoor Championships meet program. Student-athletes will compete against each other in each of those events, with points awarded to their respective teams based on how high they finish in the top eight of their event.

Event winners will get 10 points for their teams, with the runners-up receiving eight points in the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring. The team that accumulates the most points from its student-athletes will be crowned the team champion.

Team Notes

• Led by head coaches Jerry Clayton and James Henry, the Michigan men checked in at No. 29 nationally in the latest Track and Field Rating Index (TFRI) from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

• Michigan returns four competitors who scored at the Big Ten Indoor Championships a year ago, plus two more who scored when Big Tens were last in Ann Arbor in 2019. Returning from a year ago are fourth-place shot putter John Meyer, seventh-place hurdler Josh Zeller, and the heptathlon duo of Mason Mahacek (seventh) and Heath Baldwin (eighth). Anthony Berry was seventh at 800 meters in 2019, while Job Mayhue was eighth in the hurdles.

• While Ayden Owens will be competing in his first Big Ten Championship meet, he does have conference championship experience from his days at USC prior to his transfer in 2019. Owens was a member of the winning 4x400 relay team at both the MPSF Indoor Championships and Pac-12 Outdoor Championships that year, and he claimed bronze outdoors in the 110-meter hurdles and 4x100 relay.

• The Wolverines will be contenders across the board in the distance events. Michigan is one of just four schools in NCAA Division I that have had at least one student-athlete run sub-four-minutes in the mile (Tom Dodd, 3:58.47), sub-eight-minutes over 3,000 meters (Tom Brady, 7:58.06, and Nick Foster, 7:59.23) and sub-14-minutes over 5,000 meters (Devin Meyrer, 13:52.83). The others are Washington State, Arkansas and Ole Miss.

• Those performances have spearheaded national-caliber depth at those distances, as evidenced by top-10 showings in the latest Event Squad Rankings from the USTFCCCA. Brady and Foster lead the nation's No. 3 quartet at 3,000 meters, Meyrer is at the head of the country's fifth-ranked 5,000-meter group, and Dodd headlines the nation's No. 7 mile corps. Such depth bodes well for the potential for big points in those events, as well as in the distance medley relay.

• The Wolverines also boast depth in the sprints with the nation's third-ranked 60-meter hurdles crew in the latest USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings. Ayden Owens (7.87) leads a talented group including Josh Zeller at 7.91, Job Mayhue at 8.05, and Heath Baldwin at 8.25.

• John Meyer is carrying the banner for the Michigan field events in 2021, currently ranked top-16 nationally in the shot put and in line for a potential berth to the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career. Meyer was second only to Olympic silver medalist and multiple-time world champion Joe Kovacs at SPIRE last weekend as he threw a career-best 19.32m (63-4.75) to move to No. 3 in school history.

Wolverines in the Conference Rankings

Name	Event	Rank
Devin Meyrer	5000m	1
Ayden Owens	Heptathlon	1
Tom Dodd	Mile	2
Tom Brady	3000m	2
Ayden Owens	60m Hurdles	2
John Meyer	Shot Put	2
Heath Baldwin	Heptathlon	2
Lin, Amene, Owens, Hartman	4x400m Relay	3
Tom Brady	5000m	4
Cassidy Henshaw	High Jump	4
Nick Foster	3000m	5
Mason Mahacek	Heptathlon	5
Tom Dodd	800m	6
Derrick Simmons	800m	7
Oli Raimond	Mile	7
Josh Zeller	60m Hurdles	7
Thomas Shilgalis	800m	9
James Gedris	5000m	9
Devin Meyrer	3000m	10
Henry Sheldon	Pole Vault	10
Austin Remick	Mile	11
Christian Hubaker	3000m	11
Jacob Branch	5000m	11
Job Mayhue	60m Hurdles	11
Ayden Owens	Long Jump	11
Dubem Amene	400m	12
Ayden Owens	60m	13
Mason Mahacek	High Jump	13
Anthony Berry	Mile	14
Mason Mahacek	Pole Vault	14
Heath Baldwin	High Jump	15
Austin Lin	400m	16
Cole Johnson	800m	16
Jacob Lee	3000m	17
Oli Raimond	3000m	18
Austin Remick	3000m	19
Colton Yesney	Mile	20