Michigan
NCAA East Preliminaries
Wolverine Women Ready to Battle for NCAA Berths
5/24/2022 1:00:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
THIS WEEK
Thu-Sat., May 26-28 -- at NCAA East Preliminaries (Bloomington, Ind.) | Meet Central
Thursday, May 26 -- at NCAA East Preliminaries, 6 p.m.
TV: IUHoosiers.com | Live Results | Live Video
Saturday, May 28 -- at NCAA East Preliminaries, 1 p.m.
TV: IUHoosiers.com | Live Results | Live Video
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's track and field team will be battling for berths to the NCAA Championships this Thursday (May 26) and Saturday (May 28) in Bloomington, Ind., as it kicks off the national postseason with the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds.
Eighteen Wolverine entries will contend with the NCAA East Region's best in 13 events to be among the 12 qualifiers per event who will advance to the national championships at Oregon, scheduled for June 8-11.
Women will compete at the NCAA East Prelims on Thursday and Saturday, with the men set to go Wednesday (May 25) and Friday (May 27) to reflect the schedule layout that will be used at Oregon.
Track events shorter than 3,000 meters will feature two rounds of qualifying, and longer events will only include one round. Field events will be conducted in a truncated one-round format, wherein the vertical jumps continue only until a clear top 12 has been determined and the horizontal jumps and throws will conclude after only three qualifying rounds.
Big Ten silver medalist and three-time conference champion Ziyah Holman (400 meters) headlines the Michigan contingent to Indiana's Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex, who all qualified for the East Prelims by virtue of being among the top 48 individuals or top 24 relay teams declared to compete in their respective events.
Holman, multiple-time Big Ten champion Aurora Rynda (800 meters) and Alice Hill (steeplechase) will be aiming to return to the NCAA Championships for the second straight season.
They will be joined by school-record pole vaulters Jessica Mercier, Brooke Tjerrild and Mia Manson; shot put school record-holder Corinne Jemison and Amanda Schaare in both the shot put and discus; and Big Ten medalists Kayla Windemuller (steeplechase), Aasia Laurencin (100-meter hurdles and Ameia Wilson (long jump).
The delegation also includes U-M first-year record-holders Riley Ammenhauser (triple jump) and Savannah Sutherland (400-meter hurdles); Big Ten scorer Sam Tran (1,500 meters); and both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.
Thursday for Michigan will start at 6 p.m. and include first-round qualifying action in the 100-meter hurdles (6 p.m.), 1,500 meters (6:30 p.m.), 400 meters (7:25 p.m.), 800 meters (7:50 p.m.) and 400-meter hurdles (8:20 p.m.). Nationals berths will immediately be at stake in the long jump (6 p.m.), pole vault (6:30 p.m.) and shot put (7 p.m.).
Saturday action begins at 1 p.m. with the discus, followed by a track program that will begin at 5 p.m. with the quarterfinals of the 4x100 relay. That program also will include decisive quarterfinals in the 1,500 meters (5:15 p.m.), steeplechase (5:40 p.m.), 100-meter hurdles (6:15 p.m.), 400 meters (6:50 p.m.), 800 meters (7:05 p.m.), 400-meter hurdles (7:25 p.m.) and 4x400 relay (8:45 p.m.). Meanwhile, qualifying in the triple jump is set for 6 p.m.
Both days of competition will be streamed online for free via IUHoosiers.com.
Live results will be provided through Flash Results. Updates will be posted to the official Michigan track and field social media channels throughout the day.
Notes
• Ziyah Holman, Aurora Rynda and Alice Hill will be looking to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the second straight season. Rynda earned second team All-America honors last season, while both Holman and Hill were honorable mention.
• Aasia Laurencin also is seeking a return trip to nationals, though it would be her first time as a Wolverine. While competing for Texas before transferring to Michigan this past fall, she qualified to the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100-meter hurdles.
• 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships qualifiers Aurora Rynda and Jessica Mercier are aiming to clinch berths to the outdoor championships.
• Among those currently seeded in the top 12 -- the cutoff for advancing to the NCAA Championships in each event -- Ziyah Holman is ranked No. 5 at 400 meters, Ameia Wilson is No. 8 in the long jump, Aaisa Laurencin is ranked No. 12 in the 100-meter hurdles and Kayla Windemuller is No. 12 in the steeplechase.
• Entering on the bubble are No. 14 Corinne Jemison in the shot put, No. 14 Brooke Tjerrild in the pole vault, and No. 18 Savannah Sutherland in the 400-meter hurdles.
• Ziyah Holman is the strongest challenger in the group, entering with the No. 5 rank in the NCAA East Region and the No. 17 NCAA spot overall with her 51.75 that earned her the silver medal at Big Tens. Though that performance came up 0.03 seconds shy of a fourth straight Big Ten title, it was still the second-fastest time of her career despite difficult windy conditions, and it is faster than she was running at this time last year when she advanced to nationals. Nor was the narrow Big Ten loss necessarily a red flag; in 2008 when Tiffany Ofili lost out on what would have been a fifth straight sprint hurdles title at Big Ten Outdoors, she bounced back and went on to win the NCAA title a month later.
• Aurora Rynda is coming off a dramatic come-from-behind title defense of her 800-meter crown at the Big Ten Championships, but she will have her work cut out for her to reclaim her qualifying spot at the NCAA Championships. After missing some time in the middle of the outdoor season, she made the qualifying threshold for the East Prelims by two-thirds of a second and enters this weekend as the No. 36 seed of 48 competitors. She ran her career-best 2:01.34 at this meet a year ago, and may need to show similar form to advance again this time.
Players Mentioned
