Phelan, Sereno to Race on Final Day of NCAA Championships
6/9/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
June 9, 2017
• Social Media: Facebook | Twitter
THIS WEEK
Saturday, June 10 -- at NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day 4 (Eugene, Ore.), 3:41 p.m. PDT
Meet Information | Live Results
• Saturday Broadcast: ESPN (3:41 p.m. PDT)
University of Michigan women's distance runners Jaimie Phelan and Gina Sereno will look to bring the 2017 outdoor track and field season to a close in style as they chase national titles on the final day on the NCAA Championships on Saturday (June 10) at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Big Ten winner Phelan will take the track first at 3:41 p.m. PDT in the final of the 1,500 meters going for back-to-back first-team All-America honors, while Sereno will look to keep her six-race undefeated streak this outdoor season alive in the national 5,000-meter final -- an event in which she is the two-time defending Big Ten champion -- at 5:25 p.m. PDT.
Both races will be televised around the nation live on ESPN, with digital access to the broadcast available via WatchESPN.
THE SCHEDULE
| Time (ET) | Name | Event | Rank | Watch |
| Saturday, June 10 | ||||
| 6:41 p.m. | Jaimie Phelan | 1,500m | #10 | ESPN^ |
| 8:25 p.m. | Gina Sereno | 5,000m | #5 | ESPN^ |
LEGEND
* = Semifinal, with a final to follow
Scheduled time for final, pending semifinal qualifying results
^ = ESPN/ESPN2 broadcasts are available on TV and via webstream
THE LINEUP
• Gina Sereno will look to extend her winning streak this 2017 outdoor season to seven consecutive races. Should Sereno claim the national title at 5,000 meters -- an event in which she won the Big Ten title and set a career best of 15:49.17 earlier this season -- she would be the first woman to win that event in school history. Historically, this is a distance at which Michigan has achieved great success. Only two other teams in the NCAA have scored more points at the national championships at 5,000 meters than Michigan's 68 points with 13 different scorers. Four times Michigan has finished runner-up in the event, with the most recent being Katie McGregor in 1998.
Among those whom Sereno will battle for the national title are the likes of multiple-time NCAA champ Karissa Schweizer of Missouri, former NCAA cross country runners-up Allie Ostrander of Boise State and Sarah Disanza of Wisconsin; and Indiana's Katherine Receveur, whom she beat twice by a combine .09 for two Big Ten titles this year.
• Jaimie Phelan enters Saturday coming off a fifth-place semifinal performance of 4:11.92 that is not only the fastest time of her personal career but also the fastest time ever run by a Michigan Wolverine at the NCAA Championships. A first-team All-American a year ago with an eighth-place finish, Phelan used the same late-race surge that won her the Big Ten title and qualified her to nationals at the East Prelims.
Phelan's eighth-place finish a year ago is the latest in what is now a four-year span in which Michigan has earned first-team All-America honors; no other school in the country enters with an active streak longer than two. Since 2004, Michigan has won first-team awards in nine of 13 seasons, topped only by Florida State's 10. Like Sereno, however, Phelan has the opportunity to make history as the first national champion in the event in school history, or the first to finish runner-up or third. Three times have Wolverines finished fourth, with the most recent being Shannon Osika a year ago.
She will be running against a tough field featuring multiple former national champions in 2017 indoor winners Karisa Nelson of Samford (mile) and Dani Jones of Colorado (3,000 meters, distance medley relay), as well as 2015 national 1,500-meter champion Rhianwedd Price.
Communications Contact: Kyle Terwillegar
