Michigan
Michigan Open
Wolverine Men Set to Start 2021 Season with Michigan Open
9/1/2021 9:55:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
THIS WEEK
Friday, Sept. 3 -- host Michigan Open (Hudson Mills Metropark), 4:30 p.m.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After a 2020 season that was drastically altered by the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, the University of Michigan men's cross country team is poised to host its first home competition in what will be 735 days as it returns to Hudson Mills Metropark in nearby Dexter for the Michigan Open on Friday (Sept. 3).
Fresh off more than a week of preseason camp up north at the U-M Biological Station in Pellston, Mich., the national No. 26-ranked Wolverines will open the 2021 campaign in rust-busting intrasquad competition. The five-kilometer (3.11-mile) race over the grounds of the Metropark will begin at 4:30 p.m., and will be followed by a women's race at 5 p.m.
This likely will be the lone opportunity to see Michigan's top runners in action in competition near Ann Arbor this fall, though select runners will return to the Metropark in October for a tune-up meet hosted by Eastern Michigan.
The competition is open to the public. Daily admission to the Metropark, normally $10 per vehicle, has been waived thanks to a partnership between the Huron-Clinton Metroparks and DTE Energy.
Masks are not required outdoors at the venue, but the Huron-Clinton Metroparks generally recommend maintaining a social distance of six feet.
The Course
Name: Hudson Mills Metropark North Course
Distance: Five Kilometers (3.11 miles)
Maximum Elevation: 874 feet
Minimum Elevation: 837 feet
Things to Know
• Led by newly appointed director of track and field and cross country Kevin Sullivan, the U-M men will enter ranked No. 7 in the deep preseason Great Lakes Regional rankings and No. 26 in the National Coaches' Poll announced Monday (Aug. 30) and Tuesday (Aug. 31), respectively, by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
• At No. 18 nationally, the Wolverines enter the season ranked top-30 in the country for the 21st time in the past 23 years. Among Big Ten teams, Michigan is ranked fourth-best behind No. 14 Wisconsin, No. 16 Michigan State and No. 22 Indiana.
• Friday likely will be the only chance to see many of Michigan's top runners in action in the state of Michigan this year, as the top squad likely will opt out of the Eastern Michigan Fall Classic on Oct. 22 in favor of preparing for the Big Ten Championships the following weekend in State College, Pa.
• Two-time cross country All-American Devin Meyrer returns for a final season thanks to extra COVID-19 eligibility to lead a squad that also includes track All-Americans Christian Hubaker, Tom Brady and Tom Dodd; NCAA Outdoor Championships qualifier Joost Plaetinck; and multiple-time Big Ten track medalist Nick Foster, among others.
• The Wolverines were shut out of the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2014 last winter in a season that was largely derailed by a department-wide shutdown as a result of COVID-19 protocals, and will look to return to November's national meet in Tallahassee, Fla., with only two returners -- Meyrer and Plaetinck -- from 2019's historic seventh-place scoring lineup
.• Since 2019, Meyrer has become a two-time cross country All-American, an indoor All-American at 5,000 meters, a multiple-time scorer on the track, and the school record-holder for the indoor 5,000 meters. Joost Plaetinck, also returning for a final season with the extra eligibility bestowed by the NCAA, was the Big Ten bronze medalist in the steeplechase outdoors and made the national meet in the event.
• They will be bolstered by a pair of second-team All-Americans from the 2021 track campaign in Tom Brady and Christian Hubaker. Brady earned his national honors indoors at 3,000 meters and followed with a Big Ten silver medal at 10,000 meters, while Hubaker had a breakthrough season that culminated in a 15th-place finish in the steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
• Tom Dodd made an immediate impact in the middle distances for the Wolverines in his first season at Michigan last year, earning first team All-America honors in the mile indoors and making the national meet outdoors.
• Nick Foster was perhaps the Wolverines' most consistent performer at the conference level during the 2021 track season, picking up a pair of medals along the way in the indoor mile (bronze) and outdoor 1,500 meters (silver) to go along with a seventh-place finish at 3,000 meters indoors.
• Oli Raimond will make his belated cross country debut for Michigan in 2021 after circumstances prevented him from racing the trails this past winter. On the track, he was a scorer at 5,000 meters and advanced to the NCAA East Prelims at 1,500 meters.
• The Wolverines will be looking for breakthrough seasons from a number of its less experienced cross country runners, including sub-9:00 steeplechasers Austin Remick and Jack Spamer, former Big Ten Indoor Championships scorer Will Landowne, Cole Johnson and James Gedris, among others.
Up Next
Friday, Sept. 10 -- at Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational (State College, Pa.), 10:30 a.m.
Players Mentioned
