Michigan
Big Ten Outdoor Championships (Day 2)
Shotwell Wins Decathlon Title at Big Ten Outdoor Meet
5/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Site: Champaign, Ill. (Illinois Soccer and Track Stadium)
Event: Big Ten Outdoor Championships (Day 2)
U-M Team Standing: 5th Place of 10 Teams (37 Points) After Day 2
Next U-M Event: Sunday, May 18 -- at Big Ten Outdoor Championships (Champaign, Ill.)
Photo Gallery
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The University of Michigan men's track and field team climbed up the scoreboard on day two of the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, moving into fifth place after earning 25 points from a trio of scoring performances Saturday (May 17). The Wolverines also qualified 13 entries into Sunday's running event finals at the Illinois Soccer and Track Stadium.
Sophomore Frank Shotwell(Medina, Ohio/Medina HS), the 2008 Big Ten indoor heptathlon champion, won the decathlon title with a school record and NCAA provisional score of 7,362 points. Highlighting Shotwell's second day was a first-place finish with a personal-record time of 14.97 in the 110-meter hurdles, good for 875 points, and a personal-record mark of 138-9 (42.29m) in the discus for 711 points. Shotwell also finished second in two events -- the pole vault (15-3, 804 points) and 1,500-meter run (4:37.09, 699).
Shotwell was trailing Minnesota's R.J. McGinnis by 24 points entering the final event, the 1,500-meter run. McGinnis passed Shotwell at the 800-meter mark, but Shotwell was able to stay with his pace and kicked past McGinnis and the rest of the lead group during the final 200 meters to finish second; McGinnis finished ninth. The title was the closest in event history as Shotwell defeated Shawn Colligan (7,361) of Penn State by one point.
Shotwell became the first Wolverine to win both the heptathlon and decathlon in school history. Shotwell's total of 7,362 surpassed the previous record of 7,147 by Sean Clancy in 1993.
Junior Adam Harris(Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton North HS) began the day with a second-place finish in the long jump, leaping a personal best and NCAA Mideast Regional mark of 25-4 3/4 to earn eight points. Harris is the sixth Wolverine is school history to reach the 25-foot mark. Harris' distance was recorded on his first jump of the competition; he did not perform in the finals.
Michigan earned six points in the high jump competition from the effort of junior/sophomore co-captain John Kipf(Monroe, Mich./St. Mary's Catholic Central HS), who finished third with an NCAA Mideast Regional mark of 6-11 (2.10m). Kipf, who had never previously scored at the conference outdoor event, added more than two inches to his previous outdoor personal best.
Rounding out the scoring for the Maize and Blue was junior/sophomore Sean Pruitt(Cato, Wis./Valders HS), who finished eighth in the discus with a mark of 162-10 (49.63m). Pruitt's mark came on his third throw of the preliminaries and held up through the finals.
As for the track preliminaries, Harris qualified for the 100-meter dash final with the No. 1 seed, posting his second fastest regional time of the season (10.32). He also claimed the No. 2 seed in the 200-meter dash with a regional time of 21.14. Harris joined freshman Troy Woolfolk(Sugarland, Texas/Dulles HS), junior Andre Barnes(West Bloomfield, Mich./West Bloomfield HS) and fifth-year senior Stann Waithe(Towson, Md./Loch Raven HS) on the 4x100-meter relay team that posted a regional time of 40.10, the best time of prelims and more than four-tenths of a second faster then the next best team.
Woolfolk will also run in the 100-meter dash final after posting his second best time of the season (10.62) to finish third in his heat and seventh overall.
Three Wolverines advanced to the final of the 400-meter dash after posting regional marks in the preliminaries. Waithe finished first with a time of 46.65 to secure the No. 1 seed and earn his third NCAA Mideast Regional qualifying time in the event. Senior co-captain Andrew Wechter(Shelby, Ohio/Shelby HS) finished third in the event with his fourth regional time this year (46.97), and Barnes finished fifth with a time of 46.84. Barnes posted the third fastest time of the event but finished second in his heat, dropping him to the fifth seed.
Michigan will also send three to the final of the 400-meter hurdles, as senior/junior Dan Harmsen(Rockford, Mich./Rockford HS), who already holds an NCAA regional qualifying time, registered his third in the event, clocking a time of 51.76 to lead the 17-man field. Freshman Carl Buchanon(South Bend, Ind./Clay HS) and junior Rob Fiorillo(Holly, Mich./Holly HS) finished sixth and seventh in the event prelims with times of 52.97 and 52.95, respectively.
Redshirt freshman Nicholas McCampbell(Detroit, Mich./Cass Tech HS) finished fifth in the 110-meter hurdles prelims with a time of 14.45, earning a spot in the final.
Junior Justin Switzer(Waterford, Mich./Kettering HS) took second place in his preliminary section of the 800-meter run with a time of 1:50.52. Switzer stayed in the middle of the slow pack before kicking at the 200-meter mark to finish one step behind Minnesota's Hans Storvick (1:50.25).
Junior/sophomore Sean McNamara(Elmhurst, Ill./York HS) finished fourth in the 1,500-meter run preliminaries with a time 3:56.85. The pace of the race was very slow, as the top finisher in the event was more than five seconds off a regional mark.
The Wolverines will return to the track tomorrow Sunday (May 18) for the third and final day of the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in Champaign, Ill. Men's competition is slated to begin at 12:30 p.m. with the shot put at the Illinois Soccer and Track Stadium.
Team Standings (After Day 2)
1. Wisconsin 50 2. Purdue 48 3. Minnesota 47 4. Iowa 42 5. MICHIGAN 37 6. Indiana 28 7. Ohio State 22 8. Penn State 15 9. Illinois 12 10. Michigan State 11
Event Winners/U-M Finishers (Day 2)
Decathlon 1. Frank Shotwell, U-M 7,362@ 100m Dash (10.96) 870 (1) High Jump (5-10 3/4, 1.80m) 627 (9) Shot Put (41-8 3/4, 12.72m) 650 (3) 400m Dash (49.66) 830 (3) Long Jump (22-3 1/2, 6.79m) 764 (3) Javelin (104-5, 31.84m) 532 (8) 1,500m Run (4:37.09) 699 (2) 110m Hurdles (14.79) 875 (1) Discus (138-9, 42.29m) 711 (1) Pole Vault (15-3, 4.65m) 804 (2)
4x100-meter Relay (Prelims) 1. Michigan 40.10Q# (Troy Woolfolk, Andre Barnes, Stann Waithe, Adam Harris) 1,500-meter Run (Prelims) 1. Craig Miller, Wisconsin 3:52.66Q# 4. Sean McNamara, U-M 3:56.85Q 20. Mark Pokora, U-M 4:11.53 22. Jeff Merrill, U-M 4:15.00 400-meter Dash (Prelims) 1. Stann Waithe, U-M 46.65Q#$ 3. Andrew Wechter, U-M 46.97Q# 5. Andre Barnes, U-M 46.84q# 22. David St. Amant, U-M 49.30 100-meter Dash (Prelims) 1. Adam Harris, U-M 10.32Q# 7. Troy Woolfolk, U-M 10.62q 16. Kyle Terpak, U-M 10.92 18. Shakir Edwards, U-M 11.00 110-meter Hurdles (Prelims) 1. Josh Hembrough, Purdue 13.78Q# 5. Nicholas McCampbell, U-M 14.45q 11. Rob Fiorillo, U-M 14.73 12. Carl Buchanon, U-M 14.82 800-meter Run (Prelims) 1. Hans Storvick, Minn. 1:50.25Q# 2. Justin Switzer, U-M 1:50.52Q 25. Ricky Fleming, U-M 1:54.83 27. Roger Billhardt, U-M 1:55.54 28. Mike Luginbill, U-M 1:57.04 High Jump 1. Ryan Kelly, Iowa 6-10 3/4# (2.10m) 3. John Kipf, U-M 6-10 3/4# (2.10m) Long Jump 1. Kiwan Lawson, Indiana 25-10#$ (7.87m) 2. Adam Harris, U-M 25-4 3/4# (7.74m) 200-meter Dash (Prelims) 1. Anthony Cole, OSU 20.99Q# 2. Adam Harris, U-M 21.14Q# 400-meter Hurdles (Prelims) 1. Dan Harmsen, U-M 51.76Q# 6. Carl Buchanon, U-M 52.97q# 7. Rob Fiorillo, U-M 52.96q# # NCAA regional qualifier % NCAA provisional qualifier @ NCAA automatic qualifier Qq Qualification to Final Round $ Illinois Soccer and Track Stadium record B Big Ten Championships record ( ) indicates place in each decathlon event
Day 1 Results
Q U O T E S
Michigan Junior/Sophomore Co-Captain John Kipf
On the high jump... "It's a great day. I scored points for the team and that's really what I wanted to do."
On the team's field success... "Our team is in a great position. We have a day left and our field events are moving along. We have a great crack at the team championship, and it is great to just add more points to the total."
On his last jump... "Before the last jump Mike Lattany came to mind, his speech and his story came right across my mind. It was down to the last jump and I was the last jumper. A clearance would give me a Big Ten championship and 10 points, but it just wasn't there. But to experience this is good; I'm only a sophomore."
Michigan Sophomore Multi-Events Frank Shotwell
On winning the decathlon... "It's tough to put into words what is going on right now. I just did it for my teammates. Everyone was encouraging me, giving me their best wishes before each event, and I didn't want to let them down. If I let them down then I let myself down."
On being the first to win the decathlon... "It's really good. It shows all of the hard work that Coach K (Dave Kaiser) is putting in to make the weak spots on our team better are paying off. You can see now that we have a really good team."
On the closing 1,500-meter run... "I really started to push with 700 (meters) to go. Roger Billhardt told me before the race to make sure it hurt a little bit, so I wanted to make it hurt and make the others hurt by beating them to the end. (Shawn) Colligan took it out pretty quick, and I think that hurt R.J. (McGinnis) in the end going out that fast. I knew what I could do. Coach K planned it out for me, and I think he will be happy with the win."
Contact: Jeremiah W. Hergott (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
