Scored Simmons-Harvey Invite to Pit Wolverines Against Rivals

Saturday, January 15

Ann Arbor, Mich.

11:00 AM

Michigan

Simmons-Harvey Invitational

Amanda Schaare (Michigan Photography)

Scored Simmons-Harvey Invite to Pit Wolverines Against Rivals

1/13/2022 3:46:00 PM | Women's Track & Field

By: Kyle Terwillegar

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Note: Effective Jan. 1, 2022, the University of Michigan has instituted a proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative-test protocol for indoor athletic events. Face masks continue to be required and must be worn during all home indoor athletic events. [ U-M Vaccination Policy ]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Team titles are at stake before the eyes of a national Big Ten Network audience this Saturday (Jan. 15) for the University of Michigan women's track and field team as it hosts rivals Michigan State, Indiana and Notre Dame at the world-class U-M Indoor Track Building for the team-scored Simmons-Harvey Invitational.

Both the men's and the women's competitions will comprise a single session -- unlike the split men's and women's competitions of the 2021 season -- beginning with the start of field events at 11 a.m. Preliminary rounds of the 60-meter hurdles and 60-meter dash begin at 11:30 a.m., with the finals-only portion of the track program set to begin at 12:30 p.m. The meet is expected to conclude prior to 4 p.m.

While the proceedings will be streamed live on B1G+, the meet will not air on Big Ten Network until 4:30 p.m., when it makes its tape-delayed television debut.

Entries will not be finalized until Thursday afternoon. Check back to this release for the full details on when each Wolverine will be competing in which events.

Each team is permitted as many as six entries per event, with the top two finishers per school in each event contributing to the overall team scoring. Event winners will score nine points for their respective teams, with the next seven eligible athletes garnering between seven points and one point, depending on their order of finish (9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1).

The team with the most points after all 15 events per gender are finished will earn the team trophy.

Live results will be available through Delta Timing, and updates will be posted throughout the day on the official social media channels of Michigan track and field.

Team Outlook & Notes

• Now under the guidance of Kevin Sullivan in his first year as the director of track and field/cross country for the University of Michigan, the Wolverine women are coming off of a runner-up finish at the 2021 edition of the Big Ten Indoor Championships. Returning from that squad are Big Ten champions Ziyah Holman (400 meters) and Jessica Mercier (pole vault), as well as double silver-medalist distance runner Ericka VanderLende and all of the members of the runner-up distance medley relay. Also returning after not competing last winter is two-time Big Ten 600-meter champion Aurora Rynda. In total, Michigan returns student-athletes who scored 59 of its 80 points.

• Returning All-Americans: Katelynne Hart (distance medley relay), Alice Hill (distance medley relay), Ziyah Holman (distance medley relay), Lucy Petee (distance medley relay), Aurora Rynda (distance medley relay), Ericka VanderLende (cross country and indoor 5,000 meters)

• Returning Individual Big Ten Indoor Championships scorers: Ziyah Holman (400 meters champion), Aurora Rynda (600 meters champion x2), Ericka VanderLende (3,000 meters x2, 5,000 meters), Jessica Mercier (pole vault champion and scorer '19), Alice Hill (mile x3), Amber Gall (800 meters '20), Hannah Waller (60 meters), Samantha Tran (3,000 meters), Amanda Schaare (shot put), Theresa Mayanja (pentathlon)

• Current school record-holders: Ziyah Holman (indoor 400 meters, indoor 600 meters, outdoor 400 meters); Jessica Mercier (outdoor pole vault); Alice Hill and Aurora Rynda (distance medley relay)

• Michigan's mid-distance crew put up big performances in the season-opening Wolverine Invitational last Saturday (Jan. 8), headlined by NCAA 600-meter leader and Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week Aurora Rynda. The two-time B1G 600-meter champion opened her campaign with a 1:29.35 performance that leads the conference by three-and-a-half seconds. Ericka VanderLende and Samantha Saenz rank No. 2 and No. 4 nationally in the mile, respectively, with their personal-best performances from Saturday, and Samantha Tran is No. 3 nationally at 800 meters. Though those performances will not hold up as nation-leaders over the coming weeks, they are still strong debut efforts and bode well for the rest of the year.

• Newcomer BreeAna Bates immediately established herself on a trajectory of greatness within program history, winning both the 60 meters and 200 meters in her debut meet. Her 7.51-secnd time in the shorter race moved her into the top-10 in school history, and her 24.53 seconds in the latter put her just outside the top 10. She ranks top-30 in both events nationally, and in the top-five among Big Ten athletes.

• Michigan has assembled one of the deepest pole vault crews in all the NCAA, and it showed its potential at the Wolverine Invitational. Both reigning conference champion Jessica Mercier and Mia Manson cleared 4.13m (13 feet, 6.5 inches), transfer Brooke Tjerrild made it over 3.98m (13-0.75) and Cate Visscher got over a career-best 3.83m (12-6.5). All rank top-50 nationally, with Mercier and Manson as high as 12th. The four of them averaged over four meters in their opener, making Michigan one of just two schools nationally (Arkansas) that has accomplished that feat so far this season.

• Elsewhere in the field, Amanda Schaare picked right up where she left off last season as she blasted a meet-record 16.19m (53 feet, 1.5 inches) mark that moved her up to No. 2 in school history -- just one centimeter ahead of current volunteer assistant Allison (Liske) Boevers -- and into the top-10 nationally. Corinne Jemison made her Michigan debut -- and competed in her first shot put since senior year of high school in 2018 -- with a strong 15.58m (51-1.5) throw to move to No. 6 in school history. The horizontal jumps were headlined by Ameia Wilson, who got a career best and meet record of her own in the long jump at 5.86m (19-2.75).

• After a sensational debut season in 2021, Ziyah Holman returns as one of the nation's premier long sprinters. After breaking three school records, winning two Big Ten titles and competing at both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships as well as the U.S. Olympic Trials, she returns for a sophomore campaign in 2022 looking to build on all of those accomplishments. Holman enters the year ranked No. 18 among last year's top indoor 400-meter runners; 16 qualify to the NCAA Indoor Championships.

• Holman is the face of what has quickly become a very deep sprints and hurdles squad. Joining her in the Wolverines long sprints corps this year are multiple-time All-American Florida transfer Nikki Stephens -- who also will put in work in the multi-events -- and reigning World Athletics U20 Championships 400-meter hurdles bronze medalist Savannah Sutherland, as well as former NAIA-level conference champion Delaney Stersic, formerly of Siena Heights. Waller returns from a strong debut collegiate campaign to lead the short sprints group, which also includes former MAC scorer Hanna Hearn and Michigan high school standout BreeAna Bates as a newcomer to the team. Texas transfer Aasia Laurencin leads the hurdles crew after an NCAA Outdoor Championships appearance for the Longhorns in 2021, along with Columbia transfer Carlita Taylor.

• As always, the Wolverines will rely on its storied distance program to generate big points come the Big Ten Championships in February. Chief among its perennial point scorers are two-time indoor 600-meter and reigning outdoor 800-meter champion Aurora Rynda and multiple-time conference medalist Ericka VanderLende. Rynda, also a two-time All-American for the Wolverines' distance medley relay squad, missed the 2021 indoor season but roared back with a 14th-place finish at NCAAs. VanderLende had a busy 2021, amassing three Big Ten Championships medals at 3,000 and 5,000 meters and two appearances at the NCAA Championships on the track. This fall she was the Big Ten runner-up in cross country.

• They are joined by a wealth of talent, including established veterans like three-time All-American and five-time individual conference scorer Hill and NCAA Championships qualifier Jessi Larson, and a group of up-and-coming talent. Among them are 2021 cross country breakthrough stars Kayla Windemuller and Katelynne Hart, two-time mid-distance scorer Samantha Tran, and mid-distance runners Lucy Petee and Lauren Fulcher. The Wolverines will also gain from the addition of standout Davidson transfer Eleni Daughters.