2016 Season Preview: Men's Track & Field
12/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Dec. 22, 2015
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2016 OUTLOOK
Coming off the team's most successful track season since 2009 and the best cross country season since 1998, U-M is poised for a strong season on the track and in the circle. Michigan returns nine scorers from the indoor Big Ten Championships last winter, where a fifth-place finish marked the new best under head coach Jerry Clayton. That performance sparked a pair of All-America finishes from fifth-year senior Derek Sievers (shot put) and senior/junior Steven Bastien (heptathlon).
In addition to that pair of returning Wolverines, U-M brings back nearly all of its sprinting talent. Assistant coach Steven Rajewsky guided current seniors Chris Maye and Codie Nolan to a one-two conference finish in the 60-meter dash last year, and coached Codie Nolan to qualify for 100-meter dash in the NCAA Outdoor Regional, along with John Spooney and returner Khoury Crenshaw. Highly touted freshman Taylor McLaughlin, who head coach Clayton called the "standout" of the 2015 recruiting class, provides an exciting addition to the roster, and there is no question the sprinting group will be a key scoring component for the Wolverines this year.
The Wolverines' balanced roster is bolstered by the historically strong middle-distance and distance event groups. Under the guidance of Sullivan, U-M was the only school to score in all of the middle-distance and distance events and has the depth to do that again thanks to two-time conference champion Mason Ferlic and 2015 conference scorers Ben Flanagan, Tony Smoragiewicz and Brennan Munley. Transfer Jonny Phillips and freshmen Ben Hill and Garrett McPeek are among those who will add competitive depth to the group this year.
STUDENT-ATHLETES TO WATCH
Mason Ferlic -- Michigan's most elite distance athlete, Ferlic is coming off a cross country season which saw him finish as the individual Big Ten runner-up and the NCAA Great Lakes Regional champion. He led U-M in all five meets in which he competed and in 18 consecutive races to conclude his cross country career dating back to the 2013 postseason.
Ferlic captured his first conference titles on the track in 2015, winning the indoor 5,000-meter crown and adding a 3,000-meter steeplechase title in the outdoor season. Already with three All-America honors under his belt, Ferlic will look to add to his impressive resume with his final season in Maize and Blue. He is also a three-time USTFCCCA All-Academic honoree, with a pair of Capital One Academic All-America honors to his name. Ferlic is an aerospace engineering major, one of several in the middle-distance and distance event areas, and is set to graduate this year.
Steven Bastien -- The lynchpin to U-M's multi-event success, Bastien was a welcome addition to the Wolverine roster last year. He was the first major transfer under Coach Clayton, coming from Samford University, and found immediate success in Ann Arbor, earning Michigan's first-ever All-America honor in the heptathlon (eighth place) last March. His point total of 5,664 points at the NCAA Championships set a new program record, up from the then-record 5,525 points he scored at the Big Ten Championships.
Bastien redshirted during the outdoor campaign last spring and has two full years of eligibility remaining, including this season. The local product of Saline, Michigan, has the opportunity to further his indoor records even more and re-write the program's outdoor record book as well. If last year's All-America finish is any indication, the best is yet to come for Bastien and the Wolverines.
Derek Sievers -- Sievers is U-M's top returning thrower after earning his second career second-team All-America honor in the shot put last year with an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He broke the program record in that event (19.50-meters; 63-11.75 ft.) at U-M's own Simmons-Harvey Invitational and had a podium finish at the indoor Big Ten Championships, placing third.
He scored in the shot put at the outdoor conference meet as well and went on to qualify in both the shot put and discus during the outdoor NCAA Preliminary Rounds. A native Michigander from Byron Center, Sievers is majoring in movement science in U-M's School of Kinesiology.
Chris Maye -- Once a football walk-on, Maye has transformed himself into one of the top sprinters in the Big Ten Conference, as he proved last winter. Maye led the charge of a one-two finish for U-M in the 60-meter dash. Maye ran a personal-best time of 6.86 to win the Big Ten title, barely outpacing teammate Codie Nolan's time of 6.87 seconds. He, Nolan and Khoury Crenshaw will be grouped with freshman Taylor McLaughlin and will be tasked with continuing U-M's rapid upward trajectory in the sprinting events.
Maye, enrolled in the School of Kinesiology, is one of many Wolverines who spend much of their free time volunteering at C.S. Mott's Children's Hospital. He is another native of the Great Lakes State and will be a key factor in the competitive depth expected from this year's crop of U-M sprinters.
Left: Steven Bastien // Right: Mason Ferlic
KEY COMPETITIONS
INDOOR
Iowa State Classic (Fri-Sat., Feb. 12-13), Ames, Iowa
The Lied Recreational Center at Iowa State will play host to one of the top running meets of the indoor season again this winter and it will provide an ideal final test for the Wolverines two weeks before the conference meet. In 2014, this meet played host to 22 percent of the national field in all distance and middle-distance events at the NCAA Championships and the competition was elite again last year. U-M sprinters, middle-distance and distance athletes will be provided the opportunity to compete against the nation's to begin the championship phase of the indoor season.
OUTDOOR
Battle of the Blues/Stanford Invitational (Fri-Sat., April 1-2), Durham, N.C./Palo Alto, Calif.
The Battle of the Blues meet was born out of a pre-existing dual meet between North Carolina and Duke. The Stanford Invitational remains among the premiere distance meets during the outdoor season, creating the most academically elite competition weekend on U-M's schedule. The Wolverines will enjoy competing with the Blue Devils and Tarheels, who are also among the nation's best in the classroom and on the track. Across the country, distance athletes will run with much of the same competition they'll see in Florida for the NCAA Preliminary Rounds and many others from the west region as well.
2015 RECAP
U-M met its goal of earning a top-five conference finish during the indoor season last winter (fifth place) on the strength of two conference titles from Chris Maye (60-meter dash) and Mason Ferlic (5,000-meter run). Those titles were a reflection of greater strengths in U-M's team as the Wolverines had a one-two finish in that 60-meter final and were the only team to score in each distance and middle-distance event. Later in the outdoor season, that manifested into three NCAA Preliminary Round qualifiers in the 100 (tied most in the country) and Ferlic leading the charge for the NCAA Outdoor Championship qualifying, earning bids in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 5K.
The throws and field events also proved to be strong points for the Maize and Blue. Aside from scoring in the shot put, javelin and discus at the outdoor conference championships, U-M set indoor (Derek Sievers) and outdoor (Cody Riffle) shot put records. Sievers placed 11th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in that event and joined Steven Bastien, who twice broke the program's heptathlon record and finished eighth at nationals, in earning All-America honors. Ali Arastu broke a 28-year-old record in the 400-meter run, and though injuries slowed U-M's team success in the outdoor season, the Wolverines still four individual bids to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
Players Mentioned
