Michigan
Big Ten Outdoor Championships
Michigan Women Claim 2023 Big Ten Outdoor Title, Sweep Big Ten Season for Sixth Time
5/14/2023 9:45:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
Site: Bloomington, Ind. (Billy Hayes Track & Field Complex)
Event: 2023 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships (Day 3 of 3)
U-M Result: First of 13 teams (139 points)
Next U-M Event: Wednesday, May 24 -- at NCAA East Preliminaries - Day 1 (Jacksonville Florida), Time TBA
• Complete Results (PDF) | Photo Gallery
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Five individuals took home Big Ten titles and the Wolverines scored points in 16 events on Sunday (May 14) as the University of Michigan women's track and field team won the 2023 Big Ten Outdoor Championship trophy behind 139 points at the Billy Hayes Track and Field Complex on the campus of Indiana.
The top finish is the second women's Big Ten title under Kevin Sullivan as program director and the first outdoor title since 2016. It also marks the sixth time in program history that the Wolverines have claimed both the indoor and outdoor titles in a single season, as Michigan also took home the title at the 2023 indoor championships in late February.
With athletes entered in nineteen of the Big Ten Championships' twenty-one events, the Wolverines ended Sunday (May 14) with points in sixteen events, all contributing to the team's first-place finish of 139 points. Heading into the final day of competition, the Wolverines were projected to finish second, behind Ohio State, but instead finished the three-day competition a whopping 16 points ahead of OSU.
Ziyah Holman cemented her Michigan legacy with three school records, a Big Ten meet record and 22.6 points towards Michigan's 139 total. Individually, Holman raced in the 200 and 400 meters, setting school records in both races. She ran a school-record time of 23.08 to claim a second-place finish in the 200-meters, which secured eight points for the Wolverines. In the 400-meters, Holman ran head-to-head with three of Ohio State's heavy hitters -- Alyssa Marsh, Bryannia Murphey and Jaydan Wood. Holman rose to the challenge, however, and her final kick on the home stretch was enough to beat Marsh by almost a full second. Holman's 50.90 time in the event, which came in her second race of the day's action, was a career-best, a Big Ten meet record and a program record. She now holds five 400-meter Big Ten titles across indoor and outdoor competition.
Aasia Laurencin, Savannah Sutherland and Nikki Stephens further established Michigan's hurdle-dominance, with Laurencin and Sutherland winning Big Ten titles in the 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles. Laurencin entered Sunday's 100-meter hurdle event finals coming off of a career-best time of 12.95 in preliminaries. She topped that performance in finals, winning the event in a time of 12.85 to claim the third-best all-time mark for Michigan and her first Big Ten title. Sutherland excelled yet again in her strongest event -- the 400-meter hurdles -- and won the event final in 55.75 seconds. She ran a cool, calm and collected race, finishing almost a second ahead of Iowa's Paige Magee to earn the second-fastest time in U-M's program history and her first individual Big Ten title. Stephens also had a successful race in the 400-meter hurdles, taking third place to secure an additional six points towards the team score. Stephens' time of 57.11was a career-best and the third-best time in program history.
Corinne Jemison had a career day, winning her first Big Ten title in the discus throw. Jemison entered the event ranked fifth among a deep field of throwers and rose to the occasion, throwing over 54 meters on her first five throws. She already had the title in hand heading into the sixth and final throw, but her closing throw was the showstopper: a heave of 58.08 meters (190 feet, 7 inches) that broke her own school record and set a new career-best. She ended with a five-foot lead over Wisconsin's Josie Schaefer.
Also in the field, Riley Ammenhauser and Nadia Saunders saw top-five finishes in the triple jump, with Ammenhauser finishing third and Saunders finishing fifth. Ammenhauser kicked off her six jump series strong with her best jump of 13.07 meters (42 feet, 10.75 inches) on her first jump. The school record-holder and indoor Big Ten champion secured six points for the Wolverines with the performance. Saunders rose to the occasion, leaping a career-best 12.84 meters (42 feet, 1.5 inches) to take fifth. Cate Visscher and Mia Manson finished tied for thirteenth in the pole vault, both clearing 3.81 meters (12 feet, 6 inches).
In the distance events, Michigan picked up points in both the 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters. Sam Tran and Anna Juul ran an extremely strategic race in the 1,500. Each took turns in the lead, with Juul taking the lead in early laps and Tran later briefly holding the lead. With a lap to go, the entire field became extremely packed, and Tran and Juul got boxed in and had to fight hard to overcome their competitors. Tran finished fifth with a time of 4:22.32 while Juul finished sixth in 4:23.37. Combined, they contributed seven points to the team total. Samantha Saenz and Ericka VanderLende also picked up crucial points for Michigan in the 5,000 meters, with Saenz taking third for six points and VanderLende earning five points with a fourth-place finish.
Aurora Rynda became a three-time 800-meter Big Ten Champion on Sunday, after winning the event previously in 2021 and 2022. Rynda took over the race in the bell lap, perfectly accelerating off of the last turn to hold off a challenge from Penn State's Rachel Gearing in the final 100-meters. She won with a time of 2:05.95 and contributed ten points towards the team score. Rynda is now a ten-time Big Ten champion, including relay titles.
The 4x100 was the first relay of the day for the Wolverines, and Laurencin, Sutherland, Holman, and BreeAna Bates got the team's momentum rolling with a third-place finish. Their 44.12 mark was just two-hundredths of a second behind the school record and garnered six points for Michigan.
Michigan's final event of the day was an exhilarating 4x400-meter relay, with a team made up of Stephens, Sutherland, Rynda and Holman. All four runners had already competed, and scored points, heading into the race. The quad fought hard in the race, facing Ohio State's stacked team of sprinters in Bryannia Murphy, Yanique Dayle, Alyssa Marsh and Jaydan Wood. Hanging in the race, the Wolverines sat in second heading in the final handoff from Rynda to Holman. OSU's Wood had a significant lead at the beginning of the final lap, but Holman chased her down and managed to close a nearly three-second deficit down to a one-second difference, with Michigan finishing second closely behind the Buckeyes. Michigan's time of 3:30.52 was a school record by nearly three seconds. Holman ran a time of 50.37 in the final leg -- faster than the individual 400-meter school and meet record time she ran just an hour before.
The 2013 Big Ten Outdoor champions will continue the postseason at the NCAA East Preliminaries later this month in Jacksonville, Florida, May 24-27.
Players Mentioned
