Pair of Wolverines to Compete at IAAF World U20 Championships
7/6/2018 12:24:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
» Rising sophomore Alice Hill (3,000-meter steeplechase) and incoming first-year Wolverine Aurora Rynda (800 meters) will represent Team USA and Team Canada, respectively, in the world's top showcase of young track and field talent.
» Both women will compete in prelims rounds on Tuesday, with Rynda looking to advance through Wednesday and Thursday and Hill aiming to make her Friday final.
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NEXT WEEK
Tue-Fri., July 10-13 -- IAAF World U20 Championships (Tampere, Finland), 9:30 a.m. EEST (Tue.) / 5:13 p.m. EEST (Wed.) / 8:48 p.m. EEST (Thu.) / 8:45 p.m. EEST (Fri.)
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A pair of young Wolverines from the University of Michigan women's track and field team will represent not only their school but also their nations as they start competition at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, next Tuesday (July 10).
Rising sophomore Alice Hill will compete for Team USA in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and incoming first-year Wolverine Aurora Rynda will represent Team Canada at 800 meters as both women take on the globe's top talent in the 20-years-and-younger age group.
Hill, who graduated from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, will contest just her second steeplechase race as a collegian on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. EDT) after taking runner-up honors in the event at the USATF Junior Championships last month. At 10:31.07 in her debut effort, she is already the No. 10 steeplechaser in school history and is seeded 31st out of 42 athletes from 27 different nations.
She will be looking to advance to the final on Friday (July 13), which will be run at 8:45 p.m. local time (1:45 p.m. EDT).
During her first collegiate season, Hill took 15th at the Big Ten Championships at 1,500 meters.
Rynda, a member of the Wolverines' nationally lauded recruiting class who hails from Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario, is ranked in the top half of the field at 800 meters. With spades of international experience already under her belt as the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games bronze medalist at this same distance, Rynda enters the week seeded No. 20 in the 44-woman field comprised of athletes from 28 different countries.
In limited action in 2018, Rynda has clocked 2:05.54 for 800 meters this spring and during the winter ran a world-leading 1:29.64 at the 600-meter distance (considering performances achieved on any track size). Her 600-meter effort would have ranked her eighth among all collegians during the 2017-18 season.
From Tuesday's prelims at 10:40 a.m. local time (3:40 a.m. EDT), she will hope to advance to the semifinals on Wednesday (July 11) at 5:10 p.m. local (10:10 a.m. EDT) and ultimately to the final on Thursday (July 12) at 8:48 p.m. local (1:48 p.m. EDT).
Michigan will look to medal at the IAAF World U20 Championships for the second time in a row, as male hurdler Taylor McLaughlin claimed the silver medal at the 2016 edition of the meet in Poland.
Players Mentioned
