Michigan
B1G Ohio State Invitational
Wolverine Women Set for Weekend at Ohio State and Indiana
4/28/2021 12:10:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
Fri-Sat., April 30-May 1 -- at B1G Jesse Owens Classic (Columbus, Ohio)
Meet Information
Friday, April 30 -- at B1G Jesse Owens Classic, 1 p.m.
Live Results
Saturday, May 1 -- at B1G Jesse Owens Classic , 11 a.m.
Live Results
Fri-Sat., April 30-May 1 -- at B1G Billy Hayes Invitational (Bloomington, Ind.)
Meet Information
Friday, April 30 -- at B1G Billy Hayes Invitational, 7:30 p.m.
Live Results
Saturday, May 1 -- at B1G Billy Hayes Invitational, 2:45 p.m.
Live Results
• When to Watch the Wolverines
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With just over two weeks remaining until the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, a split-squad weekend at Ohio State and Indiana awaits the University of Michigan women's track and field team this Friday and Saturday (April 30-May 1) in what will be the last significant push of the regular season.
A contingent featuring the Wolverines' sprinters and distance runners will head to Bloomington, Ind., for the fourth time this year for the B1G Billy Hayes Invitational, while Michigan's field-event athletes are making the trip to Columbus, Ohio, for the B1G Jesse Owens Classic. Both meets span Friday and Saturday (April 30-May 1), with a bulk of the action at Ohio State taking place during the afternoon hours and much of Michigan's program at Indiana set for the evening hours.
Both meets will serve the purpose of a final dress rehearsal for the conference meet, which will be held May 12-14 at Illinois. The Wolverines will host the B1G Len Paddock Open next Saturday (May 8), but many of the team's top contenders will be idle in preparation for Big Tens.
Entries are not yet finalized, but all of those top contenders are expected to compete at one of the meets this weekend. The squad at Indiana will feature All-Americans Ziyah Holman, Meg Darmofal, Lauren Fulcher, Katelynne Hart, Alice Hill, Aurora Rynda and Ericka VanderLende, as well as 2021 standouts Hannah Waller, Kathryn House, Jessi Larson, Jena Metwalli, Lucy Petee, Annie Taylor and Samantha Tran.
Michigan's weekend at Indiana begins Friday evening (April 30) with the steeplechase and 5,000-meter races at 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, before starting in earnest on Saturday (May 1). Beginning with the 4x100 relay at 2:45 p.m., the Wolverines' schedule will run until 9 p.m.
Big Ten champion Jessica Mercier and two-time medalist Katt Miner headline the group competing at Ohio State, along with 2021 standouts Mia Manson, Theresa Mayanja, Amanda Schaare and Courtney Jacobsen.
A limited Friday schedule for the Wolverines will begin at 1 p.m. and last through approximately 6 p.m., with the majority of the team's entries to compete Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. The final event of Saturday in Columbus is expected to wrap around 4:15 p.m.
The competitions also will provide one more opportunity to notch marks and times that will better position the Wolverines to qualify for the NCAA East Preliminaries next month by virtue of ranking among the top 32 in the East Region. The East Prelims are the opening rounds for the NCAA Outdoor Championships to be held in Eugene, Ore., in June.
Once entries are finalized, this posting will be updated with more details and a full schedule of when to watch the Wolverines.
Fans can follow along with the action by way of live results from FinishTiming for the Jesse Owens Classic and via live results from Indiana for its meet. Updates also will be provided via the team's official social media accounts for both competitions.
Notes and Outlook
• 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 all-time list at Michigan. Along the way, she bypassed NCAA champions Rebecca Addison, Nicole Edwards, Jaimie Phelan and Anna Willard. She leads the 16th-deepest quartet for Michigan in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Event Squad Rankings. Michigan also ranks No. 14 at 1,500 meters.
• Jessica Mercier became the first woman in school history to win the Big Ten Indoor Championships pole vault title this past winter, 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. In combination with Bree Bredeweg and Morgan Flynn, they make up the nation's 15th-best pole vault quartet.
• Hannah Waller is impressing both on the track and in the field in her debut outdoor season at Michigan. She currently leads the Wolverines at 100 meters in 11.71 seconds (+1.5m/s wind), in the long jump at 5.96m (19-6.75) and in the triple jump at 12.35m (40-6.25). That 100 meter sprint from last weekend and her long jump performance from earlier this month moved her to No. 8 in school history in both events.
• After putting in some endurance work at the 800-meter distance to open up the season -- three of her four races this spring have been the half-mile -- Holman likely will return to the 400-meter distance this weekend. Her outdoor best of 52.12 seconds -- which is superior to Joyce Wilson's 36-year-old U-M outdoor school record of 52.43 -- was run nearly two years ago while she was a high school junior. She clocked 52.55 on a smaller indoor track this past winter for the U-M indoor school record en route to the Big Ten title, and a Big Ten-leading 52.92 in her lone collegiate outdoor quarter-mile earlier this month.
Up Next
Saturday, May 8 -- host Paddock Open (U-M Track and Field Stadium), TBA
Players Mentioned
