Michigan
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Wolverines Set to Face Nation's Best at NCAA Championships
6/8/2021 10:24:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
NCAA Outdoor Championships (Eugene, Ore.)
Meet Central | Live Results
Thursday, June 10 -- Day 1, 4:02 p.m. PDT | Live Video Hub
TV: ESPN2 / Track events (3:30 p.m. PDT)
Saturday, June 12 -- Day 2, 3:24 p.m. PDT | Live Video Hub
TV: ESPNU / Track events (3 p.m. PDT)
• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With one of the biggest qualifying contingents in recent years, the University of Michigan women's track and field team will square off with the nation's best at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., this Thursday through Saturday (June 10-12) in the finale of the 2021 outdoor collegiate season.
Indoor All-Americans Aurora Rynda, Ziyah Holman, Alice Hill and Ericka VanderLende, as well as nationals newcomer Jessi Larson, are the five Michigan entries shooting for their first career All-America honors outdoors in what will be Michigan's first time competing at the redesigned and renovated Hayward Field -- site of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials later this month -- on the campus of the University of Oregon.
All-Americans from the indoor distance medley relay, Rynda, Holman and Hill will be competing in their respective 800-meter, 400-meter and 3,000-meter steeplechase events in Eugene. VanderLende will be looking to complete the career trifecta of cross country, indoor and outdoor All-America honors in the 5,000 meters, and Larson will go for her first All-America honor at 10,000 meters.
Led by Big Ten champions Holman and Rynda, the Wolverines are looking to finish top-25 nationally as a team for the fourth time since 2015.
All four days of the NCAA Outdoor Championships will be carried on the ESPN family of networks as part of expansive wall-to-wall coverage of the meet. All decathlon events and field events are scheduled to receive their own dedicated feeds on the ESPN3 digital platform, with the action on the track carried in full via linear television on ESPN2 or ESPNU, depending on the day.
Live results are available through Flash Results, and the official social media channels of the track and field program will be providing updates throughout the weekend.
Spectators will be allowed, but with a maximum of 4,400 per day. Priority will be given to guests of participating student-athletes and coaches.
How the NCAA Indoor Championships Work
Each of the teams represented at the NCAA Outdoor Championships will field student-athletes in at least one of the 21 events on the 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. Third place earns six points, fourth place gets five points, fifth place receives four points, three points are awarded for sixth place, seventh place nets two points, and eighth place earns one point.
The team that accumulates the most points from its student-athletes will be crowned the team champion.
Additionally, All-America honors are up for grabs from the USTFCCCA. Those who finish first through eighth in their respective events will earn first-team recognition, with second-team distinctions going to those who place ninth through 16th. Individuals who finish 17th or lower, or fail to record a mark or a time by way of disqualification, not starting or not finishing, earn Honorable Mention status.
Event Previews
400 meters (Semifinals Thursday, 5 p.m. PDT / Final Saturday, 4:02 p.m. PDT) -- From All-America honors to Big Ten titles to school records to her viral relay leg, nearly everything has gone Holman's way in 2021. Her most recent school record -- 51.41 at the NCAA East Prelims -- came in what was her first collegiate defeat at the 400-meter distance, by one-tenth of a second after a strong push down the homestretch. That performance ranks her No. 13 in the field based on all outdoor 2021 performances.
The Big Ten indoor and outdoor champion is also just 0.06 seconds shy of the U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying standard, which is also the Olympics qualifier for the Tokyo Games.
800 meters (Semifinals Thursday, 6:44 p.m. PDT / Final Saturday, 5:14 p.m. PDT) -- With a significant 2:01.35 breakthrough at the NCAA East Prelims, Rynda earned the opportunity to compete at the championships. With that time, she is ranked No. 6 in the country, well within the bounds of the eight who will qualify for the final and be named All-Americans.
Her performance was evidence that not only could she win a slower, tactical race as she did at the Big Ten Championships, but that she could also hold her own in a race that went hard from the gun.
3,000-meter steeplechase (Semifinals Thursday, 4:02 p.m. PDT / Final Saturday, 3:24 p.m. PDT) -- Three years after a spectacular summer that saw her finish seventh at the IAAF World U20 Championships as a steeplechase newcomer, Hill has finally arrived for her first NCAA Championships in the event. Ranked No. 19 among qualifiers at 9:54.19, she has shown consistency so far in 2021 with three performances in the 9:50s to her name, and a late-race water jump fall is all that separated her from potentially a second career Big Ten medal in the event.
Historically, those Wolverines who qualify for nationals in the steeplechase run their best at NCAAs. Anna Willard broke the collegiate record in 2007 and the duo of fourth-place Claire Borchers and 14th-place Sarah Zieve both earned All-America honors with PRs in 2018. Hill is aiming to continue that trend in 2021 and potentially cut off enough time to reach the 9:50 qualifying standard for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
5,000 meters (Final Saturday, 4:55 p.m. PDT) -- VanderLende will be going for All-America honors in her third different season for her career after earning cross country plaudits in 2019 and second-team honors indoors at 5,000 meters earlier this winter. Her 15:54.27 from this spring ranks her No. 22 in the field, but she has shown the potential to go faster with a 15:48 clocking indoors this year.
At the NCAA East Prelims, VanderLende also showed late-race strength as she emerged from a group and responded to opponents' moves to secure her berth in a fast close. That may once again prove necessary in a championship race setting that can sometimes become a tactical affair.
10,000 meters (Final Thursday, 6:08 p.m. PDT) -- Unlike her teammates, Larson is the lone woman in the group who has not previously competed in an NCAA Championships track and field meet. That is not to say that she is without experience on the national stage, as she was both a top-100 finisher in NCAA Cross Country and the USATF U20 Champion at 5,000 meters outdoors as a first-year collegian in 2018-19.
Despite several setbacks in the interim, she is now an emerging talent at the 10,000-meter distance. In her only two 10K races in the past month, she has already become and Big Ten scorer and an NCAA Championships qualifier. With a 33:39.92 best from the conference meet, Larson owns the 19th-fastest time in the field.
Players Mentioned
