Wolverines Finalize 2016 Schedule
10/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Oct. 28, 2015
• 2016 U-M Men's Track & Field Schedule
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's track and field program announced its 2016 schedule on Wednesday (Oct. 28), featuring a competitive slate of 11 regular-season indoor meets and 14 outdoor meets, in addition to the Big Ten Championships and NCAA postseasons.
Highlights from the indoor season include trips to Nashville, Tennessee, for the Commodore Invite (Jan. 15-16) and Vanderbilt Open (Jan. 29-30) and Ames, Iowa, for the Iowa State Classic (Feb. 12-13). Competitive outdoor meets include the Battle of the Blues event (April 1-2) in Durham, North Carolina, and the Tiger Classic (April 8-9) in Auburn, Alabama, among others.
Now approaching his third season at the helm of the Maize and Blue, head coach Jerry Clayton is optimistic about the challenging slate he and his staff have put together for the upcoming campaign.
"During the indoor season, we are going to get our people to very highly competitive meets, and we are also trying to go see some of the larger tracks," explained Clayton, "because that is the direction today that you need to go. We are definitely going to be on a lot of 300-meter tracks this year. We are trying to get to the best facilities against the best competition, especially with respect to running events."
Michigan will begin the season at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, with Early Bird Invitational (Dec. 4), and overall U-M will have three competitions under its belt by the time the program hits the road to South Bend, Indiana, for a the first two of three events at Notre Dame: the Quad Challenge (Jan. 23), closely followed by the Meyo Invite (Feb. 5-6).
Not long after, the Wolverines get an early look at the site of the Big Ten Indoor Championships by traveling to Geneva, Ohio, for the SPIRE Collegiate Invitational (Feb. 12-13). That same weekend, the top-performing sprinters, middle-distance and distance athletes will head to Ames for the Iowa State Classic, a meet which Clayton thinks can sharpen his top athletes on the track.
"Our trip to Iowa State will probably be the highlight during the indoor season for the runners," said Clayton. "It gives us what we are looking for in terms of competition level and the format of the meet, so we are excited about that challenge for our athletes, especially the distance group."
"We will take a group of primarily field event athletes to Geneva (Ohio) on that weekend as well, and that juncture of the season is where we really want to line things up because that's the last big weekend of competition before Big Tens. The championship phase of the season will start with the Iowa State meet, two weeks before the indoor conference meet."
The team will return to the SPIRE Institute two weekends later for the Big Ten Indoor Championships (Feb. 26-27), with the NCAA Championships hosted by Samford University coming in another two weeks (March 11-12) in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Pac-12 vs. Big Ten Challenge will signify the beginning of the competitive outdoor season in Tempe, Arizona, where U-M and other Big Ten representatives go head to head with their rival conference from the west.
A trip to Texas Relays (Marcy 30-31) for multi-event athletes and the Stanford Invitational (April 1-2) for distance runners will provide U-M's split squad with top competition in each event area, and the Wolverines also compete in the Battle of the Blues (April 1-2) that weekend. The meet will be a highly competitive one between Duke University, the University of North Carolina and U-M in Durham, North Carolina. This meeting brings together the best in the nation on the track, as well as in the classroom, where all three institutions are academically elite.
"[The University of North Carolina] came up with this concept and invited us to join the dual meet they had already put in place with Duke," said Clayton.
"We had shown interest in competing with those schools anyway, so it worked out well. We think it is something unique, and we are excited to see how it goes this year."
As the regular season winds down, so does the academic year. Careful scheduling allows U-M to take care of all academic work, before the schedule ramps up to close out the season.
"This year there is a challenge because the weekend of Penn Relays, we are in finals," explained Clayton.
"We have tried to make some adjustments there to make sure we are meeting our priority, which is having all of our kids succeed on their exams and getting everything done in the classroom. As a result of that, we have been able to find some good quality competitions that fit. We will definitely take a pretty good group out to compete at those meets in early May."
After a weekend in California and a trip to Columbus, Ohio, for the Jesse Owens Track and Field Classic, U-M will compete at Penn and Relays during the last weekend before May (April 28). Two local meets and a distance trip to the Payton Jordan Invitational (May 1) in Palo Alto, California, close out the regular season, and U-M will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Big Ten Outdoor Championships (May 13-15).
Once again, the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds (May 26-28) will be held in Jacksonville, Florida, and the NCAA Championships (June 8, 10) will be hosted by the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
