Wolverines Take Aim at Sub-Four Miles in Boston

Friday, January 26

University Center, Mich.

5:00 PM

Michigan

Saginaw Valley State Jet's Pizza Invitational

Connor Mora

Photo by: UM Photography, L. Horwedel

1/24/2018 3:50:00 PM | Men's Track & Field

By: Kyle Terwillegar

» Five Wolverine men will go for sub-four-minute miles at the Boston U. John Thomas Terrier Classic on Saturday.
» Leading the way is Connor Mora, who was one of three U-M men who broke four minutes at this meet a year ago.
» Select sprinters, jumpers and distance runners will also tune-up at the Saginaw Valley State Jet's Pizza Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

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THIS WEEK
Saturday, Jan. 27 -- Boston U. John Thomas Terrier Classic (Boston, Mass. / Boston U. Track and Tennis Center) 3:10 p.m.
Watch Live on FloTrack Pro | Meet Schedule | Live Results

Fri-Sat, Jan. 26-27 -- Saginaw Valley State Jet's Pizza Invitational (University Center, Mich. / SVSU Fieldhouse) 5 p.m. (Fri.) / 1 p.m. (Sat.)
Watch Live | Meet Schedule

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After two home meets to kick off the 2018 season, the national No. 28-ranked University of Michigan men's track and field team will hit the road for the first time this year as select squads will head off to Boston to chase sub-four-minute miles and to Saginaw to gain additional competition experience on Friday and Saturday (Jan. 26-27).

A group of five Wolverine mid-distance runners will race the mile at the Boston U. John Thomas Terrier Classic -- the same meet a year ago when three Michigan men cracked the four-minute barrier -- on Saturday, while select sprinters, distance runners and pole vaulters will compete Friday and/or Saturday at the Saginaw Valley State Jet's Pizza Invitational.

The group competing at Boston includes one of those three men who ran sub-four last year in Connor Mora alongside Aaron Baumgarten, Jack Aho, Chase Barnett and Ryan Wilkie. Mile races begin in Boston at 3:10 p.m. ET, and can be viewed live on the FloTrack Pro webcast of the meet by subscribers of the streaming service. Live results are also available via Lancer Timing, and the U-M track and field social media platforms will be providing live updates.

Sprinters Josiah Carpenter, Stephen Hagen, Vail Hartman, Sierra Hendrix-Williams, Garrett McPeek, Desmond Melson, Desmond Nicholas and Blake Washington; distance runners Christian Hubaker, Garrett McPeek and Lewis Tate; and pole vaulters Kevin Haughn and Isaac Skinner are all in action at Saginaw Valley. Live video will be available for the Jet's Pizza Invitational through SVSU Athletics.

BREAKING FOUR MINUTES IN BEANTOWN
Mora will look to channel the same magic he summoned a year ago when he, Ned Willig and Will Sheeran all ran faster than four minutes for the mile in Boston. Coming off a career-best cross country season that saw him demonstrate tremendous strength through longer races, he will now call on his speed to carry him below four minutes.

Should he one again break the barrier, he will become just the fourth man in U-M history to run sub-four in consecutive seasons, joining Olympians Kevin Sullivan (the current distance coach), Nate Brannen and Nick Willis.

In his only race this season, Mora clocked 1:55.73 in his first-ever collegiate race over 800 meters.

The remaining four Wolverines will look to clock their first-ever sub-four-minute efforts. Baumgarten has come closest at 4:03.52 last January, while Barnett ran 4:03.77 in 2016 and Wilkie posted a 4:05.68 at Boston last season.

Aho ran 4:10.28 in his collegiate mile debut two weekends ago, and has a 4:08.79 to his name outdoors from his junior year of high school. If he manages to go sub-four, he would join Sullivan as the only freshmen in program history to break that barrier. Sullivan went 3:58.00 at the Meyo Invitational in 1994.

The Wolverines have a history of cracking the four-minute barrier for the mile in the city of Boston, dating back to the mid-2000s.

It was at the 2005 Boston Indoor Games where Brannen clocked a blistering 3:55.11 to finish fifth in the elite race and come within hundredths of a second of breaking the then-31-year-old collegiate mile record -- North Carolina miler Tony Waldrop's hand-timed 3:55.0 from 1974. Brannen's performance still ranks him as the eighth-fastest man in collegiate history.

At the same meet the following year, it was teammate and fellow Canadian Mike Woods' turn to shine. Woods crossed the line in 3:57.87, a performance that is surpassed in Michigan history by only Olympians Brannen, Sullivan and Willis.

Fast-forward 11 years to the 2017 Boston U. John Thomas Terrier Classic, where the trio of Willig, Sheeran and Mora ran one of the greatest mile races in Michigan history. Willig crossed in 3:58.09, followed by Sheeran in 3:59.15 and Mora in 3:59.36, marking the first time three U-M men had broken four minutes in the same race. Only once before had even two men simultaneously crossed that threshold, in 1994 when both Sullivan and Scott MacDonald cracked into the threes at the Meyo Invitational.

Below is the full list of sub-four-minute miles in program history, with performances achieved in Boston bolded.

Rank*	Name	Time	Meet	Date
1, 1	Brannen, Nate	3:55.11	Boston Indoor Games	1/29/2005
2, 2	Sullivan, Kevin	3:55.33	NCAA Championships	3/11/1995
x, 3	Sullivan, Kevin	3:55.90	Meyo Invitational	2/4/1995
x, 4	Sullivan, Kevin	3:56.08	Meyo Invitational	2/7/1998
3, 5	Willis, Nick	3:56.55	Meyo Invitational	2/7/2004
4, 6	Woods, Mike	3:57.87	Boston Indoor Games	1/28/2006
x, 7	Brannen, Nate	3:57.96	Meyo Invitational	2/8/2003
x, 8	Sullivan, Kevin	3:58.00	Meyo Invitational	2/5/1994
x, 9	Willis, Nick	3:58.07	Silverston Invitational	2/19/2005
5, 10	Willig, Ned	3:58.09	John Thomas Terrier Invitational	1/27/2017
x, 11	Willis, Nick	3:58.15	Meyo Invitational	2/8/2003
x, 12	Brannen, Nate	3:58.55	Meyo Invitational	2/7/2004
6, 13	Switzer, Justin	3:58.86	Meyo Invitational	2/6/2009
7, 14	Sheeran, William	3:59.15	John Thomas Terrier Invitational	1/27/2017
8, 15	Mora, Connor	3:59.36	John Thomas Terrier Invitational	1/27/2017
9, 16	MacDonald, Scott	3:59.40	Meyo Invitational	2/5/1994
x, 17	Brannen, Nate	3:59.50	Tyson Invitational	2/11/2005
10, 18	Cantin, Jay	3:59.90	Meyo Invitational	2/5/2000
11, 19	Diemer, Brian	3:59.93	Michigan vs. Michigan State	2/12/1983

* KEY = (All-Time U-M Performers Rank), (All-Time U-M Performances Rank); "x" denotes that there exists a superior performance by that athlete

JET'S PIZZA INVITATIONAL PREVIEW
While a majority of the team will use this weekend to rest up for the elite Power Five Invitational on Feb. 2-3 at the U-M Indoor Track Building, several men will be in action getting valuable experience and reps.

Running events start at 5 p.m., with the 60-meter hurdles prelims -- featuring Hendrix-Williams -- second in the order of events after the distance medley relay.

He will double back for the flat 60 meters prelims one event later, along with Hagen and Nicholas.

Hagen and Nicholas will be joined by Carpenter, Hartman, Melson and Washington for the 200-meter prelims.

Also competing on Friday are pole vaulters Haughn and Skinner. The vault begins at 5 p.m. with the women's competition.

Should the sprinters advance from Friday's prelims, they will compete in Saturday's finals, which begin at 1 p.m. Carpenter, Hartman, Melson and Washington will all contest the 400 meters in the middle of the afternoon.

They will be preceded on the track one event earlier by Hubaker, McPeek and Tate in the mile.

NEWS AND NOTES
• The Wolverines checked in at No. 28 in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Team Rankings, down four spots from the preseason. While the men defeated higher-ranked teams in both Ohio State and Arkansas in the Simmons-Harvey Quad last weekend, the National Team Rankings are designed to project how teams might fare in a large NCAA Championships-style field, not in small dual-meet scenarios.

• A large factor in the Wolverines' Simmons-Harvey Quad win was the throws corps -- known as "The Meat Factory" -- of Big Ten Field Athlete of the Week Joe Ellis, Grant Cartwright and Andrew Liskowitz. All-Americans a year ago in the weight throw, Ellis and Cartwright were particularly strong over the weekend in their 1-2 finish in the weight. With Ellis throwing 22.55m (73-11.75) and Cartwright going 22.33m (73-3.25), they became the only pair of teammates in all of collegiate history to both surpass 22 meters in the same meet held in the month of January. In other words: they are picking up right where they left off and are primed for a big season.

• Ellis, Cartwright and Liskowitz all shot right to the top of the Big Ten leaderboard in their season debuts, chief among the several other Wolverines excelling at the conference level through two meets:

Name	Event	Rank
Khoury Crenshaw	60m	9
Taylor McLaughlin	400m	2
Jandon Briscoe	400m	9
Matt Plowman	800m	6
Anthony Berry	800m	7
Chase Barnett	Mile	9
Micah Beller	3000m	5
Billy Bund	3000m	10
4 x 400m Relay		8
Daniel Butael	Triple Jump	4
Andrew Liskowitz	Shot Put	2
Grant Cartwright	Shot Put	3
Joe Ellis	Weight Throw	1
Grant Cartwright	Weight Throw	2

• Ellis, Cartwright and Liskowitz also landed near the top of the national descending order lists in their events, with the weight throwers checking in at No. 2 and No. 4, respectively. Here's the full list of Wolverines who have logged top-50 performance among the full NCAA Division I ranks:

Name	Event	Rank
Taylor McLaughlin	400m	25
Jandon Briscoe	400m	45
Matt Plowman	800m	38
Anthony Berry	800m	44
Micah Beller	3000m	22
Billy Bund	3000m	41
Jacob Lee	3000m	49
Daniel Butael	Triple Jump	21
Andrew Liskowitz	Shot Put	9
Grant Cartwright	Shot Put	15
Joe Ellis	Weight Throw	2
Grant Cartwright	Weight Throw	4