Michigan
B1G Indiana Invitational #1
First Indiana Outdoor Meet on Tap for Wolverine Women
3/25/2021 10:36:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
Fri-Sat., March 26-27 -- at Big Ten Indiana invitational #1 (Bloomington, Ind.)
Meet Information
Friday, March 26 -- at Big Ten Indiana invitational #1, 6:30 p.m.
Live Results
Saturday, March 27 -- at Big Ten Indiana invitational #1, 11 a.m.
Live Results
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After a long 671-day hiatus for anyone on the current roster, the University of Michigan women's track and field team once again will compete outdoors this Friday and Saturday (March 26-27) as it opens up the 2021 spring season in the first of four Big Ten Indiana Invitationals in which the Wolverines will compete during March, April and May.
Most areas of the 2021 Big Ten Indoor Championships runner-up Wolverines' roster, minus the distance crew, will be in action over the course of the two-day meet at Indiana's Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex.
Host Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Purdue will comprise the competition in this Big Ten-only event.
Action officially gets underway Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. in the pole vault, the lone event of the day for the Wolverines.
The meet opens in earnest on Saturday morning, with both field events and track events beginning at 11 a.m., before coming to a close at around 4 p.m.
Of the 18 women entered to compete for Michigan, only five of them have ever worn the maize and blue during outdoor competition, headlined by reigning Big Ten Indoor pole vault champion Jessica Mercier.
Such is the nature of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that seven of the 18 Wolverines have not competed in interscholastic outdoor events since their junior years of high school.
What this weekend's group lacks in experience it makes up for in 2021 winter performances. Both Mercier and sprinter Ziyah Holman enter having most recently claimed Big Ten Indoor Championships individual titles, with sprinter/jumper Hannah Waller and pole vaulter Mia Manson fresh off setting U-M indoor first-year records in their respective events at Big Tens.
In addition to racing, jumping and throwing for wins in their respective events, the group also will be looking to post marks that will boost them into position to qualify for the NCAA East Preliminaries in May. The threshold for qualification will be tighter than in years past, as the number of qualifiers per event has been decreased from 48 to 32 as a coronavirus precaution.
Fans can follow along with the action by way of live results from Indiana. Updates will also be provided via the team's official social media accounts.
Notes and Outlook
• When last the Wolverines competed outdoors as a full team under the direction of head coaches James Henry and Jerry Clayton, they finished 11th at the 2019 Big Ten Outdoor Championships held at Iowa but are most recently coming off a runner-up finish at the 2021 Big Ten Indoor Championships.
• Only three women return as scorers from that 2019 Big Ten Outdoor Championships team, led by silver medal pole vaulter Jessica Mercier, bronze medal steeplechaser Alice Hill and eighth-place mid-distance runner Meg Darmofal. In total, only 14 women who competed in that meet are back for the 2021 season.
• Mercier was a silver medalist in the pole vault as a first-year collegian in 2019, and she now enters her follow-up 2021 outdoor campaign as the reigning Big Ten Indoor champion in the event. She will be looking to become the first woman in program history to win both the indoor and outdoor crowns in the same academic year.
• In addition to their outdoor successes in 2019, both Meg Darmofal and Alice Hill also are multiple-time All-Americans on the distance medley relay on the indoor circuit. So, too, is Aurora Rynda, the two-time Big Ten Indoor 600-meter champion who specializes in the 800 meters outdoors. A fall in the prelims kept her from potential big points at the 2019 Big Ten Outdoor Championships, but she did qualify for the NCAA East Preliminaries.
• Two other multiple-time scorers return for the Wolverines in high jumper Katt Miner and hammer thrower Courtney Jacobsen. Before she was a two-time indoor medalist in the high jump, Miner scored at the 2018 outdoor championships. That same meet is when Jacobsen last competed for the Wolverines outdoors in an eighth-place finish, then missing the 2019 season and losing 2020 to the pandemic. She also is a two-time scorer in the indoor weight throw.
• In place of the outdoor scorers who have departed since Michigan last competed outdoors in 2019, a class of young talent has quickly grown into immediate contributors. Big Ten Indoor 400-meter champion and two-time school record-holder Ziyah Holman is chief among that group, which also includes U-M first-year record-holders in Hannah Waller (60 meters), Mia Manson (pole vault) and Amanda Schaare (shot put); All-Americans in Ericka VanderLende (5,000 meters and cross country), Katelynne Hart (distance medley relay) and Lauren Fulcher (distance medley relay); and 2020 Big Ten Cross Country Freshman of the Year Samantha Tran.
• Ziyah Holman in particular was impressive, going viral in her collegiate debut, breaking indoor school records at both the 400- and 600-meter distances, winning the Big Ten Indoor Championships title at 400 meters -- Michigan's first indoor title in that event -- and earning All-America honors as part of the distance medley relay.
• Still underclassmen in the spring of 2019, several current upperclassmen have developed into Big Ten scorers to boost the Wolverines' prospects. Distance runners Kathryn House, Raquel Powers and Jena Metwalli all put points on the board for the Wolverines at the 2021 Big Ten Indoor Championships, as did multi-event competitor Theresa Mayanja.
Players Mentioned
