Michigan
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Trio of All-Americans for Michigan on Women's Opening Day at NCAAs
6/9/2022 11:59:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
Site: Eugene, Ore. (Hayward Field)
Event: NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships (Day 1 of 2)
U-M Result: No team score
Next U-M Event: Saturday, June 11 -- at NCAA Outdoor Championships - Day 2 (Eugene, Ore.), 2:05 p.m. PDT
EUGENE, Ore. -- Three members of the University of Michigan women's track and field team captured All-America honors Thursday (June 9) on the first day of women's competition at the NCAA East Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
All three honorees -- Kayla Windemuller in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Aasia Laurencin in the 100-meter hurdles and Aurora Rynda at 800 meters -- missed qualifying for their respective finals in heartbreaking fashion, but were rewarded for their efforts with second team All-America status.
The trio was a combined 2.5 seconds outside of making Saturday's (June 11) finals. Windemuller was the closest by place, finishing as the first woman out in 13th by just over two seconds in a career-best 9:47.36. Both Laurencin and Rynda finished 15th overall, with Laurencin just 0.17 seconds outside of the top-nine in 13.12 seconds (-0.3m/s) and Rynda just missing an automatic berth by 0.15 seconds in 2:03.85.
Ziyah Holman was 19th at 400 meters in 51.89, earning honorable mention status and missing the All-America second team by 0.13 seconds.
Windemuller ran the best race of her young steeplechase career, running with the lead pack for much of the race en route to the No. 2 spot on the all-time U-M performers list and the third-fastest time in school history.
She was among nine women challenging for five automatic finals berths and two at-large spots with two laps to go in the second of two semifinal races. The pack whittled to eight and started to stretch at the bell, with Windemmuler starting to lose contact with the front in eighth place. She rallied over the final lap to move up to seventh, but ultimately was two seconds shy of the second at-large spot.
The performance brought to its conclusion a breakthrough 2021-22 academic year for Windemuller in which she earned her first-ever All-America honors, won her first-ever Big Ten silver medal, scored four times in Big Ten track competition -- the most of any Wolverine this year -- and finished top-100 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Laurencin also earned her first-ever All-America honor with her 13.12 run in the semifinals, good for 15th overall. The time was the second fastest of her career, even with Texas A&M's Deshae Wise running to the extreme inside of her lane to Laurencin's left flank, taking multiple steps into her lane.
The first-year Wolverine wraps up an impressive debut campaign in Ann Arbor after transferring from Texas, earning a Big Ten silver medal to go along with her All-America honor and her status as the fastest woman in school history not named Ofili.
Rynda was the closest to qualifying by time, proportional to race distance. Running from the front for much of her semifinal race -- the first of three -- she came through the bell in the middle of a pack in about third place. The lead pack slimmed down to three as it barrelled off the final turn onto the homestretch, with Rynda in third -- just outside the two automatic qualifying spots.
Just as she did at Big Tens and the East Prelims, Rynda closed hard, but this time it was not enough as she ran out of room and came up just 0.015 seconds shy in 2:03.85, the second-fastest time of her 2022 outdoor season. Her hold on one of the non-automatic berths slipped away in the second semifinal, as she was edged out of qualifying positioning by a mere 0.005 seconds, and would ultimately slip to 15th overall.
Still, Rynda capped a historic collegiate season that saw her win a pair of Big Ten titles, earn a pair of All-America honors and break a pair of school records, including a Canadian record at 600 meters as she ascended to the No. 3 collegian all-time at that distance. She is now the third woman in school history to earn multiple All-America honors in this event after her second-team honor in 2021, joining Geena Gall and Katie Erdman.
Though none of Thursday's Wolverines advanced on to Saturday's competition, Michigan will still have representation as Corinne Jemison contests the discus final at 2:05 p.m. PDT.
Michigan Results
Q/q = qualified for the next round
400 meter dash
Semifinals
19. Ziyah Holman / 51.89
800 meter run
Semifinals
15. Aurora Rynda / 2:03.85 (Second-team All-American)
Steeplechase
Semifinals
13. Kayla Windemuller / 9:47.36 [New PR] (Second-team All-American)
100 meter hurdles
Semifinals
15. Aasia Laurencin / 13.12 [-0.3m/s] (Second-team All-American)
Players Mentioned
