Michigan
Big Ten Outdoor Championships
Champion Zeller Makes History on Final Day at Big Tens
5/15/2022 7:52:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
Site: Minneapolis, Minn. (University of Minnesota Track and Field Stadium)
Event: Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships (Day 3 of 3)
U-M Result: 6th of 13 teams (70 points)
Next U-M Event: Wed-Sat., May 25-28 -- at NCAA East Preliminaries (Bloomington, Ind.)
• Results (PDF) | Photo Gallery
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Powered by an incendiary performance by champion 110-meter hurdler Joshua Zeller, the University of Michigan men's track and field team closed out the final day of the Big Ten Championships on Sunday (May 15) with a sixth-place team showing at the University of Minnesota Track and Field Stadium.
Zeller blasted a new Big Ten record 13.19 (+1.1 meters-per-second [m/s] wind reading) to claim the 110-meter hurdles title with a historic and globally significant performance, leading a deluge of medal-winning and point-scoring performances on the final day of the competition.
Cole Johnson and Miles Brown took the silver and bronze medals, respectively, in a thrilling 800-meter final; Dubem Amene repeated his silver-medal performance from the indoor season at 400 meters; and Cassidy Henshaw had a significant breakthrough to win the bronze in the high jump.
Those efforts -- worth a combined 38 points in the team standings -- were bolstered by six points at 1,500 meters from fifth-place Tom Dodd and eighth-place Nick Foster, two points from the seventh-place 4x400 relay, and one point each in eighth-place finishes from Job Mayhue behind Zeller in the hurdles, Tom Brady at 5,000 meters, and the 4x100 relay squad.
Zeller was transcendent in his title-winning performance, eclipsing his own school record by nearly a quarter of a second and edging out by .04 of a second the 13.23 run by Iowa's Jaylan McConico last year as both the overall Big Ten and Big Ten Championships record.
Not only was his performance a new school record, by one measure it is the greatest result in school history in any event. On the World Athletics scoring tables, which allow for comparison between events, his run was worth 1,217 points, narrowly surpassing the 1,216 points earned by Neil Gardner's school-record 48.30 in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
The Englishman ran even with Ohio State's Kentre Patterson through six of 10 hurdles, and started pulling away in the final third of the race. By the eighth hurdle Zeller had taken a clear lead, and he only continued to pull away as he accelerated off the final barrier into history.
As the fastest man in conference history, Zeller also took his spot on the all-time pantheon of collegiate hurdlers as just the seventh man in NCAA history to run faster than 13.20. Only Florida State's Trey Cunningham has run faster among collegians this year, setting up a potential showdown at the NCAA East Preliminaries and the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the coming weeks.
Globally, the time moves him up to No. 4 in the world this year on the wind-legal list (+2.0m/s wind or less) and exceeded the 13.32 qualifying standard for the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Ore., later this summer, should Team Great Britain select him for its squad.
In British history, he now ranks No. 5 overall and checked in at No. 72 on the all-time global list.
Mayhue clocked 14.06 in the same race for eighth, giving Michigan 11 total points in the event.
The biggest point haul of the day came at 800 meters, where the runner-up Johnson (1:52.23) and third-place Brown (1:52.29) combined for 14 total points in a race that went right down to the wire.
Indoor bronze medalist Johnson led the race until about 200 meters to go as Penn State's Olivier Desmeules moved to the point, but was able to respond and retake the lead coming off the final turn on the homestretch. He battled with Desmeules and took a slight lead with 30 meters to go, only to have Wisconsin's Abdullahi Hassan go by on his right side to take the win. Meanwhile, indoor 600-meter silver medalist Brown ran stride-for-stride with Abdullahi for much of the closing 100 meters, bypassing Desmeules along the way and coming with .06 of Johnson.
Amene matched his silver-medal performance from the indoor championships, clocking 46.84 to take second overall. With only 100 meters to go, he emerged onto the homestretch in a four-way battle for the silver. With about 50 meters to go he was able to power to some separation to secure his runner-up finish and Michigan's eight team points.
Brown and Amene combined with Jacob Koerner and Lawrence Gilliam in the meet-finale 4x400 relay to clock 3:13.62 for seventh overall, good for two points.
Michigan netted six more team points at 1,500 meters, where Dodd held off a crowd for fourth place and five points, and Foster snuck into the scoring with an eighth-place showing for a point.
The racing began in earnest with a lap to go, and Dodd moved up to the back of a group of five leaders, while Foster was forced to catch up from the back of the pack. Coming off the final turn, Dodd had fallen to sixth but was able to mount a late charge that delivered him to fourth place in 3:53.42, with just .43 of a second separating him from seventh. Foster crossed in 3:55.17 to clinch his spot.
In the high jump, Henshaw leapt all the way up to No. 5 in school history with a clutch third-and-final attempt make at 2.17m (7-1.5) for the bronze medal.
Henshaw was flawless through his first four bars, and only needed second attempts at 2.11m (6-11) and 2.14m (7-0.25) as the field whittled down to seven then five men.
Though he was already likely to advance to the NCAA East Preliminaries as one of the top 48 in his event in the East Region, this result cemented his status.
The 4x100 relay team of Ryan McCloskey, Amene, Zeller and Jacob Koerner combined to run 40.61 for eighth place and a team point.
In the final individual event of the weekend, Brady doubled back from his fifth-place 10,000-meter finish two nights ago to chip in another point in a 14:18.92 showing for eighth place. In total, he scored five points on the weekend.
Select members of the squad will continue their seasons in two weekends' time at the NCAA East Preliminaries at Indiana on May 25-28. Qualifiers will be announced this week.
Full Michigan results from the weekend to this point can be found below.
Michigan Results
Q/q = qualified for the next round
200 meter dash
Prelims
20. Jacob Koerner / 21.57 (+0.9m/s]
22. Ryan McCloskey / 21.70 (+1.6m/s]
400 meter dash
Final
2. Dubem Amene / 46.84
Prelims
2. Dubem Amene / 46.17Q
24. Lawrence Gilliam / 49.01
800 meter run
Final
2. Cole Johnson / 1:52.23
3. Miles Brown / 1:52.29
Prelims
2. Cole Johnson / 1:49.29q
11. Henry Johnson / 1:51.18
15. Thomas Shilgalis / 1:51.56
19. Miles Brown / 1:52.28Q
1500 meter run
Final
4. Tom Dodd / 3:53.42
8. Nick Foster / 3:55.17
Prelims
3. Nick Foster / 3:45.05Q
4. Tom Dodd / 3:45.25Q
12. Anthony Dekraker / 4:38.62
17. Anthony Hancock / 3:51.93 [New PR]
21. Will Landowne / 3:52.32
Steeplechase
Final
3. Christian Hubaker / 8:49.64
4. Austin Remick / 8:52.39
6. Joost Plaetinck / 9:02.39
13. Joe Meyers / 9:20.60
17. Jack Spamer / 9:31.07
5000 meter run
Final
8. Tom Brady / 14:18.92
16. Oli Raimond / 14:31.01
--. Will Landowne / DNF
--. Joost Plaetinck / DNF
10,000 meter run
Final
5. Tom Brady / 29:09.53
11. Devin Meyrer / 29:42.98
17. Zach Stewart / 30:04.59
110 meter hurdles
Final
1. Joshua Zeller / 13.19 (+1.6m/s] [Big Ten Record]
8. Job Mayhue / 14.06 (+1.6m/s]
Prelims
1. Joshua Zeller / 13.46Q (+1.1m/s]
5. Job Mayhue / 13.95q (+1.1m/s]
400 meter hurdles
Prelims
20. Gabe Piepergerdes / 54.66
4x100 relay
Final
8. Ryan McCloskey, Joshua Zeller, Jacob Koerner / 40.61
4x400 relay
Final
7. Dubem Amene, Miles Brown, Lawrence Gilliam, Jacob Koerner / 3:13..62
High Jump
Final
3. Cassidy Henshaw / 2.17m (7-1.5) [New PR]
Pole Vault
Final
12. Henry Sheldon / 5.00m (16-4.75)
Shot Put
Final
22. Aiden Felty / 15.84m (51-11.5)
Hammer Throw
Final
21. Tony Sommers / 55.91m (183-5)
Decathlon
Final
6. Mason Mahacek / 7,349 points (Three team points)
100 meter dash / 10.94 [+1.8m/s] (874 pts) [New PR] / Place: 4
Long Jump / 6.44m (21-1.5) [+1.1m/s] (684 pts) / Place: 8
Shot Put / 12.48m (40-11.25) (636 pts) / Place: 6
High Jump / 2.00m (6-6.75) (803 pts) / Place: 2
400 meter dash / 49.51 (837 pts) / Place: 3
110 meter hurdles / 15.65 (+1.1m/s) (773 pts) [New PR] / Place: 11
Discus / 40.44m (132-8) (674 pts) [New PR] / Place: 5
Pole Vault / 4.80m (15-9) (849 pts) [New PR] / Place: 2
Javelin / 46.22m (151-7) (533 pts) [New PR] / Place: 9
1500 meter run / 4:39.04 (686 pts) / Place: 2
Players Mentioned
