Wolverine Weekly: NCAA Championships News and Notes

» The No. 6-ranked Wolverine women will compete in their 17th consecutive NCAA Championships.
» Coming off a decisive Great Lakes Region team title in one of the nation's deepest regions, the Wolverines have their eyes on making the podium as one of the top-four teams at the championships.
» Michigan brings in one of the deepest lineups in the nation, led by sixth-year seniors Avery Evenson and Hannah Meier and Big Ten Freshman of the Year Anne Forsyth

THIS WEEK
Saturday, Nov. 17 -- at NCAA Championships (Madison, Wis.) / 10:45 a.m. CST
Watch: FloTrack Pro | Live Results | Meet Homepage

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For the 17th consecutive year, the No. 6 University of Michigan women's cross country team will battle the country's best for top team and individual honors at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, set for Saturday morning (Nov. 17) in Madison, Wisconsin.

Entering as the reigning Great Lakes Region and Big Ten team champions with one of the deepest and most cohesive lineups in the country, the Wolverine women have their focus fixed on contending for the national title.

Michigan will do battle with, among others, defending champion No. 1 New Mexico and its 2016 nemesis, No. 2 Oregon, as the country's best 31 teams duke it out over the six-kilometer (3.73-mile) circuit of the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course starting at 10:45 a.m. CST.

A live stream of the race -- as well as the men's race set to follow it at 11:45 a.m. CST -- can be viewed on FloTrack Pro, with live results available via Record Timing and NCAA.com. Michigan-specific updates can be found on the program's social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The Wolverines not only enter on a hot streak with two postseason titles already to their names, but as one of the most consistent squads in the nation. Sixth-year seniors Avery Evenson and Hannah Meier have been fixtures near the front of races (though both find their way to the front in different ways), and the addition of Big Ten Freshman of the Year Anne Forsyth to the mix has pushed Michigan to the next level.

While Michigan's power up front is impressive, it is the Wolverines' depth that their national aspirations are built on. Not only were Forsyth (third), Evenson (fourth) and Meier (ninth) all top-10 at regionals in a field that featured five national top-30 teams, but Camille Davre (14th) and Claire Borchers (16th) were both close to the action up front.

With the likes of not only those teams ranked ahead of Michigan -- New Mexico, Oregon, tied-Nos. 3 Boise State and Colorado, and No. 5 Arkansas -- boasting comparably impressive firepower but also those squads ranked directly behind in No. 7 Stanford, No. 8 Villanova, No. 9 BYU, No. 10 Wisconsin and others, the fight for the four-team podium will be hard-won.

The Wolverines' experience will come in handy in such closely contested quarters. Former All-American Evenson and Borchers have both been to two previous NCAA meets, including the 2016 national runner-up year, while Forsyth, Meier, Davre and others have availed themselves well in their first big postseason runs at Michigan. Additionally, Anna West was an All-American a year ago at this meet prior to transferring from Baylor.

The Lineup

Teams are allowed to field a lineup of seven runners from among a declared NCAA postseason roster of as many as 12 runners. The first five runners across the line will combine to constitute a team's score, while the next two are score "displacers" that serve to boost the scores of opposing teams.

In addition to the aforementioned frontrunners Evenson, Forsyth, Meier, Borchers, Davre and West, the lineup could also include, in alphabetical order, Rachel Coleman, Alice Hill, Kathryn House, Jessi Larson, Haley Meier and Faith Reynolds.

• The Wolverines' depth and pack cohesion continued to pay dividends last Friday at the Great Lakes Regional. Crossing with a 22.2-second time spread between their No. 1 and No. 5 runners and with all five scorers in the top-16, the Wolverines were by far the deepest team in the region.

• For more insight on the Wolverines' dominant run at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, click here.

• Emerging as Michigan's "secret weapon" at the Big Ten meet was the true first-year Wolverine Forsyth, who wound up eighth overall as the conference's Freshman of the Year for her efforts. A third-place finish at the Great Lakes Regional showed her Big Ten run was not a fluke, as she could challenge for top freshman honors in Madison. Forsyth is a legacy Wolverine, as parents Ian and Jessica (Kluge) Forsyth both were standout runners at Michigan. Coincidentally, mother Jessica was eighth at the Big Ten meet as a senior in 1994 to lead Michigan to a third straight conference team title.

• With third- and fourth-place runs in her two postseason outings thus far at Big Tens and regionals, Evenson looks every bit the All-American she was when the Wolverines were national runners-up in 2016. Setting the tone early with an aggressive front-running style, her lowest finish this season was eighth at Pre-Nationals, and she has consistently been among the best late-race runners in every competition this year.

• Hannah Meier continues to excel in her first injury-free cross country season since 2016. While Evenson establishes herself at the front early, Meier prefers to charge through the field late with her impressive mid-distance speed. After 11th- and 12th-place finishes at Big Tens and Pre-Nationals, she followed it up with a big 11-spot surge in the final kilometer of the regional to take ninth.

• Borchers continues to be the rock at the center of the Michigan lineup, with her 16th-place finish at Regionals as Michigan's No. 5 runner marking her 13th consecutive race as a top-five runner for Michigan. Her string of performances so far in 2018 hues very closely to her 2017 arc, when she was 15th at regionals and 98th at NCAAs.

The Team, The Team, The Team

• Led by reigning Great Lakes Region and Big Ten Coach of the Year Mike McGuire, Michigan moved up a spot to No. 6 in the final National Coaches' Poll announced Monday (Nov, 12), by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

• Michigan will enter the championships ranked top-10 for the sixth time in the past seven seasons. In the previous six seasons leading up to 2018, the Wolverines have finished top-10 five times and have matched or outperformed their pre-championships ranking five times.

• This marks the eighth year in a row Michigan has been ranked top-10 nationally at some point during the season. Only one other team in the country (Stanford, 24 years in a row) has a longer active top-10 streak than the Wolverines.

• This week marks the 140th consecutive edition of the National Coaches' Poll that has included Michigan in its top 30, a streak surpassed only by Stanford. Among Big Ten teams, Penn State is next on the list with 32 consecutive appearances.

• No Big Ten team is ranked higher nationally than Michigan. Behind Michigan are No. 10 Wisconsin, No. 12 Michigan State, No. 20 Indiana, No. 22 Penn State and No. 27 Minnesota.

• This marks the 16th year in a row Michigan earned a top-30 national rank to start the season. Of those 16 years, Michigan -- No. 13 to start 2018 -- has gone on to outperform its preseason rank at the NCAA Championships in nine of those seasons.

The Course

Name: Thomas Zimmer Championship Course
Distance: Six Kilometers (3.73 miles)