Michigan
Windy City Invitational
Wolverine Women Head to Windy City for Last Major Regular-Season Road Trip
2/8/2022 3:10:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
Fri. Sat., Feb. 11-12 -- at Wisconsin Windy City Invitational (Chicago, Ill.)
Friday, Feb. 11 -- at Windy City Invitational, 2 p.m. CST
Live Results
Saturday, Feb. 12 -- at Windy City Invitational, 11:30 a.m. CST
Live Results
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's track and field team is gearing up for its last big test of the 2022 indoor regular season as it travels to Chicago, Ill., this Friday and Saturday (Feb. 11-12) for the Wisconsin Windy City Invitational.
The Wolverines -- with a full complement of sprinters, distance runners, jumpers and throwers -- will compete for the first time at the new Track and Field Center at Gately Park against conference foes Illinois, Michigan State and Wisconsin, as well as perennial national contender Oregon. Also scheduled to compete are Arizona, Howard, South Florida and Tulsa.
Friday kicks off with field event action at 2 p.m. CST followed by events on the banked 200-meter track starting at 4 p.m. CST, with all events expected to conclude by 7:30 p.m. CST.
Action is set to resume Saturday at 11:30 a.m. CST in the field, with the track program scheduled for a 12:50 p.m. CST start. The meet will tentatively conclude prior to 4 p.m. CST.
Reigning National Athlete of the Week Aurora Rynda (600 meters) is slated to compete for the second-straight weekend, and will be joined by fellow Big Ten champions in Ziyah Holman (200 and 400 meters) and Jessica Mercier (pole vault). Mercier will be joined by Brooke Tjerrild and Mia Manson as the only trio in school history to all carry career bests higher than 4.20m at the same time.
They will be joined at Gately by All-Americans Alice Hill (mile), Lucy Petee (mile) and Ericka VanderLende (mile); and 2021-22 standouts Riley Ammenhauser (triple jump), BreeAna Bates (60 and 200 meters), Aasia Laurencin (60-meter hurdles, 200 meters), Theresa Mayanja (60-meter hurdles, long jump, shot put), Amanda Schaare (shot put), Savannah Sutherland (200 and 400 meters), Samantha Tran (3,000 meters), Hannah Waller (60 meters and long jump), Ameia Wilson (60 meters and long jump), and Kayla Windemuller (mile).
Rynda is coming off a school record for the 800-meter distance last weekend at Notre Dame, and could reclaim the 600-meter school record that was broken last year by teammate Holman in 1:28.08.
Holman also holds the record at 400 meters in 52.55 seconds, and has already come within a half-second of it this winter in her only attempt at the distance.
The two will combine on the indoor 4x400 relay for the first time on Saturday as they, along with Sutherland and Waller, look to dip beneath the existing 3:36.70 program standard in that event.
Mercier owns a share of the outdoor pole vault record at 4.25m (13 feet, 11.25 inches), which is identical to the indoor record and could fall to any one of Mercier, Tjerrild or Manson on any given weekend. Both Tjerrild and Manson nearly cleared 4.36m (14-3.5) at Kentucky two weekends ago.
Bates is just .09 seconds -- literally the blink of an eye -- shy of Cindy Ofili's 7.37 school record at 60 meters, and Schaare is the No. 2 woman in school history in the shot put, about a foot-and-a-half behind April Phillips' 16.76m (55 feet) heave from nearly two decades ago.
Live results will be available via Lake Shore Timing. Updates also will 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), 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 & 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)
• Aurora Rynda turned in one of the finest performances in school and Big Ten history last weekend at Notre Dame as she ran 2:02.89 to win the Meyo Invitational 800 meters and take the 2022 NCAA lead by more than a second. Her time ranks her No. 2 in Big Ten indoor history, and only 11 other women in conference history have ever run the distance faster outdoors. It was enough to garner her USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week honors, becoming the first Michigan woman to earn the honor individually during the track and field season, though she claimed it as part of the fastest distance medley relay in Big Ten history back in 2019.
• With just one 400-meter race under her belt in 2022, Ziyah Holman is already the woman to beat in the Big Ten at that distance. With her 52.95-second performance at Kentucky two weekends ago, the reigning indoor and outdoor Big Ten champion leads the conference by more than a second, and ranks No. 19 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.
• 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 two weekends ago. 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. 5 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.
• Ziyah Holman is not the only Wolverine sprinter excelling this winter. Transfer Aasia Laurencin has already eclipsed her career best in the 60-meter hurdles 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. 7 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, she took outright control of the record by a single centimeter as she jumped 12.47m (40-11) for fifth at Kentucky.
Up Next
Friday, Feb. 18 -- host, Silverston Invitational (U-M Indoor Track Building), TBA
Players Mentioned
