Michigan
NCAA Indoor Championships
DMR Scores, Johnson Advances on Day One of NCAA Indoor Championships
3/11/2022 9:10:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
Site: Birmingham, Ala. (Birmingham CrossPlex)
Event: NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships (Day 1 of 2)
U-M Team Standing: Tie-28th place (1 point) after Day 1
Next U-M Event: Saturday, March 12 -- at NCAA Indoor Championships (Birmingham, Ala.), 4:30 p.m. CST
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- On the strength of a pair of photo finishes at the line on Friday (March 11), the University of Michigan men's track and field team is in position for a pair of first-team All-America awards after the first day of competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
The distance medley relay team of Tom Dodd, Dubem Amene, Miles Brown and Nick Foster secured first-team honors with an eighth-place finish in the Wolverines' only final of the day, while Cole Johnson clinched a spot in the individual 800-meter final to be run Saturday (March 12).
Both results were hard-earned at the line, as the combined margin between first-team and second-team honors -- Johnson will be a first-team All-American no matter what by virtue of making the final -- was 0.49 of a second. Foster was able to beat Arkansas to the line by 0.4 of a second, and Johnson emerged from a blanket finish with just 0.09 to spare over the next-best finisher.
Run under the watchful eye of director of track and field / cross country Kevin Sullivan 27 years to the day after he himself won the mile and anchored the winning distance medley relay at the 1995 edition of the championships, the relay clocked 9:30.46 for eighth place and one team point for Michigan.
Making his 2022 debut in the stead of 800-meter finalist Johnson, the 2021 mile All-American Dodd ran a 2:54.57 split for 1,200 meters to put Michigan in second place going into Amene's 400-meter leg. The school record-holder dropped down to fourth but charged late and swung wide on the home stretch to a 46.87 split, setting up Brown to take the lead as he began his 800-meter carry.
Brown maintained the lead in the early going but was not able to hold on to it for the duration of his leg. Gritting to the exchange zone, he was able to stay with the pack and hand off in seventh after a 1:49.94 split. Foster hung throughout with the lead pack, which grew to include nearly the entire 12-team field as the pace slowed up front, and was able to move up from ninth on the penultimate lap to eighth at the line with a 3:59.09 carry for 1,600 meters -- the difference between first- and second-team distinctions.
It was the sixth-fastest time in school history.
Johnson, who ran the 1,200-meter leg of Michigan's school-record distance medley relay that qualified to the national meet, was not in the lineup as he earlier in the session had earned a berth -- in fact, the last berth -- to the 800-meter final with a 1:48.00 clocking for eighth overall in the prelims.
Eighth was also where Johnson found himself at the 400-meter halfway split of his heat, out of eight runners. He made a move up to seventh with just one lap around the 200-meter track left to go, with the pack just a step ahead of him running three-wide. He was sixth with 100 meters to go but looked to be boxed in going around the turn. Running on the rail as he rounded the bend onto the homestretch, he had moved to fifth but had three runners ahead of him across two lanes. Just when it looked as though he was going to finish sixth with only 10 meters left in the race, an Arkansas runner tripped up just ahead of him, opening up a sliver of daylight between the Razorback and a Florida Gator next to him. Johnson angled his body through the gap and leaned at the line to get fourth in the heat.
That result stood up to earn him the second and final non-automatic berth to the final, by just 0.09 of a second over the Razorback who had tripped. Johnson will be the first Michigan finalist in the event since Andrew Ellerton claimed the silver medal during the 2007 edition of the meet. Just three other men in school history, not including Johnson's own 1:47.60 from earlier this year, have ever run faster, and his 1:48.00 is the 12th-fastest time ever run by a Big Ten competitor in NCAA Indoor Championships competition.
He will return to the track one more time Saturday at 4:30 p.m. CST with a national title on the line. He would join Olympian Nate Brannen (2003 and 2004) as the only Michigan men to win the event.
Brown was unable to join Johnson in the final, as he clocked 1:50.64 in the second heat after not making contact with the front of the race throughout. He would later come back for the DMR, giving him a first-team All-America honor to go along with three school records and a Big Ten silver medal in just his first season as a collegian.
The relay honor for Amene also came after an unsuccessful bid to qualify for the final of the individual 400 meters competition. The school record-holder and Big Ten silver medalist clocked 46.98 with an impressive closing kick to take second in his heat, but the time was only good for 13th place overall.
Rounding out the individual qualifying rounds for the Wolverines was Big Ten champion Joshua Zeller in the 60-meter hurdles. He was unable to find his title-winning form with a 16th-place finish in 7.85.
Michigan Results by Event
Q / q = qualified for final
400-meter dash
Prelims
13. Dubem Amene / 46.98
800-meter run
Prelims
8. Cole Johnson / 1:48.00q
14. Miles Brown / 1:50.64
60-meter hurdles
Prelims
16. Joshua Zeller / 7.85
Distance Medley Relay
Final
8. Tom Dodd, Dubem Amene, Miles Brown, Nick Foster / 9:30.46 [1 team point]
Players Mentioned
