Michigan
B1G Fighting Illini Relays
Fighting Illini Relays Up Next for Select Wolverine Women
4/22/2021 11:19:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
Fri-Sat., April 23-24 -- at B1G Fighting Illini Relays (Champaign, Ill.)
Friday, April 23 -- at B1G Fighting Illini Relays, 2:30 p.m. CDT
Live Results
Saturday, April 24 -- at B1G Fighting Illini Relays, 2:30 p.m. CDT
Live Results
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Select members of the University of Michigan women's track and field team will compete this Friday and Saturday (April 23-24) the B1G Fighting Illini Relays in Champaign, Ill., the site of next month's Big Ten Outdoor Championships.
Led by reigning indoor Big Ten champions Jessica Mercier and Ziyah Holman, a group of 13 women will represent the Wolverines in the two-day competition at Illinois' newly opened Demirjian Park facility, with most of the roster home in Ann Arbor resting up ahead of next weekend's final big regular-season push.
Most of them will be competing in Champaign on Friday (April 23), starting at 2:30 p.m. CDT and lasting through around 7 p.m. CDT. Michigan will compete in just one event -- the high jump -- on Saturday (April 24), starting at 2:30 p.m. CDT.
Mercier will lead the Wolverines' deep pole vault crew -- featuring first-year collegians Mia Manson, Bree Bredeweg and Morgan Flynn -- into action at 2:30 p.m. CDT. With Mercier having already likely secured a spot to the NCAA postseason, Manson is the next closest to joining her and needs a clearance north of four meters to put her in contention.
After debuting with one of the fastest 400-meter races in school history, Holman will run her third race of the year at the 800-meter distance at 4:20 p.m. CDT. She could join Joyce Wilson from the mid-1980s as the only women in school history to run sub-53.00 seconds at 400 meters and sub-2:10.00 at 800 meters in the same career, and could be the first to do it in the same season.
Two-time Big Ten medalist Katt Miner and Jada Wimberly will compete Saturday in the high jump. Miner tied her outdoor career best last weekend, and is looking to raise the bar again to position herself for the NCAA postseason for the second time in her career.
Sprinters Chika Amene, Paige Chapman, Hanna Hearn, Simone Roberts, Michaiah Thomas and Hannah Waller are entered in the 100 meters (Waller, Hearn), 200 meters (Hearn, Roberts, Amene, Thomas), 400 meters (Roberts) and 100-meter hurdles (Chapman, Thomas) throughout the day on Friday. Waller will also compete in Friday's long jump competition.
Fans can follow along with the action by way of live results from Primetime Timing, and updates will also be provided via the team's official social media accounts.
Wolverine Notes
• This past winter, Jessica Mercier became the first woman in school history to win the Big Ten Indoor Championships pole vault title, and is aiming to become Michigan's first to sweep the indoor and outdoor titles this spring. She most recently cleared an outdoor career-best 4.14m (13 feet, 7 inches) last weekend. She and teammate Mia Manson became the first U-M teammates to clear 3.90m in the same outdoor competition last weekend, and they are aiming to repeat the feat for 4.00m this weekend.
• Mid-distance runner Aurora Rynda is having a breakthrough outdoor season after missing the indoor campaign, running a career-best and Big Ten-leading 2:03.93 over 800 meters to move to No. 13 nationally. She moved up to No. 4 on the all-time U-M outdoor list, which is arguably the deepest list at Michigan. Along the way, she bypassed NCAA champions Rebecca Addison, Nicole Edwards, Jaimie Phelan and Anna Willard.
• Hannah Waller is impressing both on the track and in the field in her debut outdoor season at Michigan. She leads the Wolverines at 100 meters in 11.84 seconds (+1.8m/s wind), in the long jump at 5.96m (19-6.75) and in the triple jump at 12.35m (40-6.25). That long jump performance from last weekend moved her to No. 8 in school history.
Up Next
Friday, April 30 -- at Billy Hayes Invitational (Bloomington, Ind.), TBA
Fri-Sat., April 30-May 1 -- at B1G Ohio State Invitational (Columbus, Ohio), TBA
Players Mentioned
