Ofili, Finn Earn Academic All-District Nods
5/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
May 26, 2016
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Senior co-captain Cindy Ofili and junior/sophomore Erin Finn of the University of Michigan women's track and field team were voted to the Capital One Academic All-District 5 team for track and field / cross country, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced Thursday (May 26).
Ofili has finished her schoolwork toward a degree in elementary education and will complete her necessary student teaching credits this fall, while Finn is a rising academic senior with a sparkling grade-point average who is nearing her degree in biochemistry. Both athletes will advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America team ballot, from which first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be announced later this month.
In addition to her success on the track, Finn also competes for the U-M cross country program, which finished sixth in the nation last fall after a runner-up Big Ten Conference finish and an NCAA Great Lakes Regional title. The Big Ten individual champion and Athlete of the Year, Finn went on to collect all-region honors with a fifth-place effort before running to a 19th-place finish at the NCAA meet. In that race, she ran nearly 4,000 meters of the 6,000-meter race with no shoes on after her heels were clipped about 2,000 meters in. She was also among U-M's 13 academic all-conference honorees for the fall.
Finn is redshirting the outdoor track season, but she and Ofili combined for 51 points (36 points indoors and 15 outdoors) during the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor championships, helping U-M sweep the conference meets for the first time since 2003. Michigan scored its most points at the indoor conference meet since 2009, reached the 100-point plateau at both meets, and boasted All-America honors in four of five events at the NCAA Indoor Championships (3K, 5K, 100-meter hurdles, distance medley relay).
Owner of five Michigan records, Ofili earned her first NCAA championship this winter, taking the 60-meter hurdles crown in 7.89 seconds (No. 6 all-time, NCAA) to break the final program standard formerly held by her sister, five-time national champion Tiffany (Ofili) Porter. When she won the 100-meter hurdles title in a facility-record 12.91 at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships last month (May 15), she became the second woman to ever three-peat the event in the Big Ten and the first since 1993, and she wrapped up her fifth career conference crown. She also scored in the 100-meter dash and was named Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year after her impressive season that included an undefeated mark in 100-meter hurdles races, her signature event. Ofili leads the nation with a season-best time of 12.66, good for No. 4 in the world this year. Her PR of 12.60 is tied for No. 4 in collegiate history and earned her an NCAA runner-up finish in 2015.
Ofili became the first athlete in Michigan history (male or female) named to the Bowerman Award watch list, for which she is still among the top-10 vote-getters, and other accolades this season include the NAACP Michigan Chapter Wilma Rudolph Award and the Bob Ufer Quarterback Club Senior Award. She and her sister are two of five women in the history of the Drake Relays to repeat event wins in the 100-meter hurdles, and after adding five this season, the younger Ofili has now garnered 12 Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week honors.
Finn has already met the Olympic standard in both the 5,000- (15:23.16) and 10,000-meter (31:51.84) races, having opted to redshirt this outdoor season while she pursues her goal of international competition at the U.S. Olympic Trials this summer (July 1-10). Her 5K time broke her own program record, and the 10K time would have eclipsed that record as well had she been competing for U-M instead of running unattached at Stanford's Payton Jordan Invitational (May 1). In fact, that 10K time is No. 6 in NCAA history, No. 3 among American collegians and the fastest time ever recorded by a native Michigander.
Indoors, Finn became the first U-M athlete to earn first team (top-eight) All-America honors in the 3K and 5K during the same NCAA Championships meet after her pair of runner-up finishes in those two races. Her national-level performance came after she swept the Big Ten 3K and 5K titles, the fifth and sixth of her career. Finn has one year of cross country and two full years of track and field eligibility remaining.
The Wolverines traveled 13 athletes from the women's program and 33 total to Jacksonville, Florida, this week for the NCAA East Preliminary Round. Events began today, with the 10,000-meter run scheduled for a 9 p.m. gun, featuring Big Ten champion Gina Sereno.
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
