Michigan
Meyo Invitational
Wolverines Set to Compete at Notre Dame Meyo Invite
2/3/2022 1:48:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
Saturday, Feb. 5 -- at Notre Dame Meyo Invitational (South Bend, Ind.), 9:45 a.m. ET
TV: ACC Network Extra (2-4 p.m.) | Live Results | Live Video
• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
• When to Watch the Wolverines (PDF)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A small contingent from the University of Michigan women's track and field team will be in action this Saturday (Feb. 5) at the Notre Dame Meyo Invitational as the squad gears up for its last big push of the regular season.
Members of the distance squad and throwers Amanda Schaare and Corinne Jemison will represent the Wolverines as the rest of the team bides its time ahead of the de facto regular-season finale next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11-12 in Chicago.
All-Americans Alice Hill, Lucy Petee, Aurora Rynda and Ericka VanderLende headline a group of 12 distance runners who will be competing in the 800-meter, mile and 3,000-meter events.
Schaare and Jemison will both contest the shot put.
Competition begins at 9:45 a.m. ET with unseeded sections and field events, with select Wolverines to also compete beginning at 2:46 p.m. ET during the broadcast window for the meet. The full schedule of when the Wolverines will compete is included in the info sheet linked above.
Saturday's competition will be streamed on ESPN's ACC Network Extra digital platform from 2-4 p.m. ET, and live results will be available via Endurance Race Timing. Updates will also be posted throughout the weekend on the official @umichtrack social media channels.
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), 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 & 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)
• With just one 400-meter race under her belt in 2022, Ziyah Holman already is the woman to beat at that distance in the Big Ten. With her 52.95-second performance at Kentucky this past weekend, the reigning indoor and outdoor Big Ten champion leads the conference by more than a second, and ranks No. 17 nationally. It is nearly a full second faster than her 53.77 debut around this time last year, and just four-tenths of a second off her 52.55 school record.
• Rynda is the top performer from the distance squad so far in 2022, as the two-time indoor 600-meter and reigning outdoor 800-meter conference champ has bests of 1:29.35 and 2:06.92 at those distances this winter that rank No. 2 and No. 6 in the Big Ten, respectively.
• Michigan's pole vault crew has revealed more and more of its potential with each passing week, and it turned in the best team performance in school history at Kentucky last Friday. Both Brooke Tjerrild and Mia Manson cleared 4.21m (13 feet, 9.75 inches) for new career bests that moved them into a tie for No. 2 in school history and No. 4 in the conference, while reigning Big Ten champion Mercier is No. 8 in the conference with her 4.13m (13-6.5) best from earlier this season. Those three, along with Cate Visscher, rank Michigan No. 4 in the USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings for the women's pole vault.
• Holman is not the only Wolverine sprinter excelling this winter. Transfer Aasia Laurencin already has eclipsed her career best in the 60-meter hurdles in just two meets in an 8.30-second win last month and is No. 3 in the Big Ten this season. BreeAna Bates won her first five races at either 60 meters or 200 meters this winter before bowing out in the semifinals at Kentucky at 60 meters, but posted a career-best 24.18 at 200 meters that ranks No. 4 in the conference and is ranked top-10 in the conference in both events as a first-year collegian.
• Riley Ammenhauser made the most of her collegiate debut in the triple jump last month, as she leapt 12.46m (40 feet, 10.5 inches) to tie the U-M first-year record set by eventual school record-holder Casey Taylor in 2006. One week later, Ammenhauser took outright control of the record by a single centimeter as she jumped 12.47m (40-11) for fifth at Kentucky.
Up Next
Fri-Sat., Feb. 11-12 -- at Windy City Invitational (Chicago, Ill.), TBA
Players Mentioned
