Michigan
Michigan Invitational
Michigan Invitational to Close Out Three-Weekend Homestand
1/20/2022 1:32:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
Saturday, Jan. 22 -- host, Michigan Invitational (U-M Indoor Track Building), 11 a.m.
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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. -- The University of Michigan men's track and field team will host the last and biggest of its three straight season-opening home meets on Saturday (Jan. 22) as it welcomes teams from around the Great Lakes region to the world-class U-M Indoor Track Building for the Michigan 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 just after 5 p.m.
Michigan's sprints, jumps and throws groups will take center stage, including the likes of Simmons-Harvey Invitational double-winner Dubem Amene, Big Ten leader Joshua Zeller, and past Big Ten scorers Bera Ajala, Mason Mahacek, Job Mayhue and Derrick Simmons.
The competition also will feature multiple Olympians and other notable professionals. Five-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medalist Nick Willis will race at 3,000 meters against Very Nice Track Club teammate and fellow Olympian Mason Ferlic and Ann Arbor native Hobbs Kessler, who went professional after breaking the national high school indoor mile and outdoor 1,500-meter records in 2021. Both Ferlic and Willis are U-M alumni, and both are coached by former U-M coach Ron Warhurst, as is Kessler.
Another U-M alumni Olympian in Steven Bastien will compete in multiple events, and the triple jump will feature Eastern Michigan Olympian alumni Donald Scott.
Live streams of the track events and all of the field events can be accessed on MGoBlue.com. 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 men are coming off of a seventh-place finish at the 2021 edition of the Big Ten Indoor Championships. The Wolverines do not return any conference champions, but do have a returning indoor medalist in Nick Foster as well as multiple All-Americans. In total, Michigan returns student-athletes who combined to score 36 of its 52 points.
• Returning All-Americans: Tom Brady (indoor 3,000 meters), Tom Dodd (indoor mile); Christian Hubaker (outdoor steeplechase); Devin Meyrer (cross country, indoor 5,000 meters);
• Returning Individual Big Ten Indoor Championships scorers: Tom Brady (5,000 meters), Tom Dodd (mile), Nick Foster (mile, 3,000 meters), Devin Meyrer (5,000 meters), Mason Mahacek (heptathlon x2), Joshua Zeller (60-meter hurdles x2), Cassidy Henshaw (high jump), Job Mayhue (2019 60-meter hurdles), Will Landowne (2019 3,000 meters)
• Current school record-holders: Devin Meyrer (indoor 5,000 meters), Miles Brown (indoor 600 meters)
• It took Brown just two meets as a Wolverine to claim his first school record, as he broke the all-time mark at 600 meters in a 1:16.98 win at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational last Saturday (Jan. 15). His mark not only leads the Big Ten in 2022, it is No. 5 nationally and No. 6 all-time among NCAA freshmen. The performance -- along with his role in the winning 4x400 relay -- earned him Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week honors. He will not compete this weekend.
• The Wolverines swept the weekly men's Big Ten awards as Cassidy Henshaw claimed the Field Athlete of the Week nod after becoming just the 10th man in school history to clear seven feet indoors. On his third-and-final attempt, he made it over the bar at 2.17m (7 feet, 1.5 inches), moving him into a tie for No. 6 nationally and putting him atop the Big Ten leaderboard. That is the exact height of the last qualifier to the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2021, putting him firmly on the bubble early in the season. He will not compete this weekend.
• If not for the historic run by Miles Brown, Joshua Zeller may well have been tapped as the Track Athlete of the Week. The British hurdler emerged atop the Big Ten leaderboard in the 60-meter hurdles after the Simmons-Harvey Invitational with a blistering career-best 7.76-second performance in the final after clocking a near-personal record 7.83 in the prelims. The times are ranked No. 1 and 4 in the Big Ten this season, and No. 6 nationally. He will work on his flat speed this Saturday, currently slated for the 60- and 200-meter competitions.
• The Wolverines had a third worthy Track Athlete of the Week candidate in Dubem Amene, who moved to No. 4 in school history at 200 meters in 21.29 seconds and ran a blazing 45.65 final leg of the 4x400 relay to make up more than a second on Indiana and get the Hoosier at the line by .01 seconds. Yet to debut at his signature 400-meter distance, he will instead race 600 meters this weekend and attempt to become the first man in school history to break 21.50 at 200 meters and 1:20.00 at 600 meters. He enters Saturday with a best of 1:20.90 from a year ago.
• Though his performances may have been overshadowed in the early going, heptathlete Mason Mahacek is quietly off to a strong start as he nears his heptathlon debut later this winter. The two-time Big Ten indoor scorer has already lowered his career best in the 60-meter hurdles by a tenth of a second to 8.84, extended his shot put PR by nearly a meter, and has come within two centimeters of his best pole vault at 4.83m (15 feet, 10 inches). He also split just under 50 seconds in the 4x400 relay, in line with his career-best at that distance.
• The Michigan distance corps is targeting fast times later this winter, but the projected top performers all put in strong opening salvos at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational. Oli Raimond led seven Wolverines under 4:10 in the mile at 4:06.20, including career-best runs from longer-distance specialists Tom Brady (4:07.88), Christian Hubaker (4:08.60) and Devin Meyrer (4:09.54) that bode well for their fitness later in the season.
Up Next
Fri-Sat., Jan. 28-29 -- at Indiana Relays (Bloomington, Ind.), TBA
Fri-Sat. Jan. 28-29 -- at Rod McCravy Memorial (Lexington, Ky.), TBA
Players Mentioned
