Michigan
Alex Wilson Invitational
U-M Distance Medley Relay to Take Center Stage at Notre Dame
2/14/2019 5:37:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
» Select members of the University of Michigan women's track and field team will compete at the Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invitational on Saturday, including the perennial All-American distance medley relay.
» The quartet of Alice Hill, Chloe Foster, Aurora Rynda and Hannah Meier will look to run fast enough in the DMR to get Michigan to the NCAA Championships for the 16th time in the past 17 years.
» The full Michigan lineup will be back in action next weekend as the Big Ten Indoor Championships come to Ann Arbor on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22-23
THIS WEEK
Saturday, Feb. 16 -- at Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invitational (South Bend, Ind.), 11 a.m.
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's track and field team will compete on Saturday (Feb. 16) in a Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invitational that will be both a final tune-up for the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Ann Arbor next weekend and the season debut in one of the program's signature events.
The quartet of Alice Hill, Chloe Foster, Aurora Rynda and Hannah Meier will take the track for the distance medley relay at 11:30 a.m. looking to write the latest chapter in a long legacy of success in the event.
The distance medley relay -- where four women run legs of 1,200, 400, 800 and 1,600 meters -- is an institution in Michigan track and field history, having qualified for the NCAA Championships in 15 of the past 16 years and having won the Big Ten title 14 of the past 17. Michigan has won four national titles in the event (1994, 1998, 2005 and 2013), tied for the most in NCAA history with Tennessee.
Of the four women slated to run, only the sixth-year senior Meier has run a leg of at least one DMR at Michigan. Meier was a member of last year's squad that won the Big Ten title, but the 2018 crew was unable to continue a 15-year qualifying streak to nationals -- the longest in the nation at the time.
Only 12 teams nationally will qualify for the NCAA Championships. Currently, the No. 12 time in the country is 11:17.54 by Michigan State, but that threshold is expected to become much stricter in the final two weeks of the qualifying period, which goes through the conference championships.
The Wolverines will not be the only national contender in the race. Last year's national runner-up Stanford, currently ranked No. 6 at 11:04.47, is in the field, as are 2018 NCAA squads Indiana (fourth in 2018), Kansas (ninth) and Notre Dame (12th). In addition to the Hoosiers, conference foes Illinois, Ohio State and Wisconsin will also compete.
Meier will run the anchor 1,600-meter leg for the Wolverines just one week after clocking a 4:34.66 mile that moved her to No. 3 in program history.
Running ahead of her are three women with no more than sophomore eligibility, but with plenty of speed to burn.
Hill is expected to lead off on the 1,200-meter leg. Next to Meier, Hill has turned in the best 800-meter/mile combination of anyone on the team this year with times of 2:09.77 and 4:43.52, respectively.
Hill will hand off to Foster, who was a member of last year's school-record 4x400 relay and is ranked No. 5 in school history at 400 meters in 54.50.
The baton should next go from Foster to Rynda, the true freshman frontrunner who has already established herself among Michigan's all-time greats. Her 2:06.38 clocking for 800 meters is No. 12 in school history and second only to Olympian Geena Gall on the all-time freshman list.
One last baton exchange from Rynda to Meier should put the Wolverines on track to compete for the win and a berth to the NCAA Championships.
In each of the past two years, a time faster than 11:02 has been quick enough to advance to the NCAA Championships. If Hill were to open up with a 3:24.5 leg for 1,200 meters and everyone else were to follow with performances equal to their career bests, the Wolverines would be on pace for an 11:00 final reading.
While the distance medley relay will be the headliner for the Wolverines at Notre Dame, it will not be the only Michigan entrant in action.
The day kicks off at 11 a.m. with prelims in the 60-meter hurdles for Michaiah Thomas, Lauren Rodriguez and Sydney McGinley, followed by the 60-meter prelims for Akili Echols and Torisa Johnson at 11:10. The finals in those events are slated for 12:15 p.m. and 12:20 p.m., respectively.
Following the distance medley relay, Sydney Badger, Audrey Belf, Rachel Coleman and Jena Metwalli will run the mile at 12:40 p.m., right in the same timeframe as Erin Connor in the shot put at about 1 p.m.
The crew of Meg Darmofal, Micaela DeGenero, Carola Jansohn, Lexi Munley, Faith Reynolds and Julia Vanitvelt will run 800 meters at 1:10 p.m.
Echols, Johnson and McGinley are scheduled to close out the day at 1:35 p.m. in the 200 meters.
Wolverine Bites
• Michigan is upholding its reputation as one of the best mid-distance schools in the nation. By the measure of the USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings, which compile the top performances by a team's best four athletes in each event, Michigan has the No. 2 quartet in the country at 800 meters and the No. 7 squad in the mile. The Wolverines -- with Aurora Rynda, Lauren Biggs, Hannah Meier and Alice Hill -- were just narrowly overtaken by conference rival Indiana in the 800 meters. Led by Meier, Michigan has the most sub-five-minute milers of any school in the country with 15.
• Meier is having a season for the ages right now, with her 4:34.66 mile -- good for No. 10 in the country -- flanked by 2:08.67 and 9:20.34 performances at 800 meters and 3,000 meters. The only other woman in school history who has gone sub-2:10, sub-4:35 and sub-9:21 in the same season is eventual two-time Olympian Nicole Sifuentes.
• The true freshman Rynda became the first Wolverine woman in 2019 to earn Big Ten Indoor Track Athlete of the Week honors last month following a scintillating performance at the Simmons-Harvey Big Ten Invitational. She clocked a Michigan-freshman-record 1:29.55 for 600 meters to earn the win and the Big Ten-leading mark in 2019, and came back to run a leg of the Big Ten-leading 4x400 relay. Most recently, she ran a career-best 2:06.38 performance for 800 meters that moved her up to No. 20 nationally.
• In the weight throw event alone, the first two meets of the year at home produced three school records. After Bailey Baker broke the 16-year-old record in the sixth-and-final round at the season-opening Wolverine Invitational, teammate Kayla Deering came back on the very next throw with a mark of 19.53m (64 feet, 1 inch) to break Baker's record. At the Simmons-Harvey Big Ten Invitational, Baker responded by tying Deering's mark to earn a share of the school record. The two are tied for No. 40 nationally. While neither woman broke the record in the third-and-final regular-season home meet or the subsequent trip to Vanderbilt, they both managed to surpass 19 meters for the second and third times this year.
• While it is not an event contested at the NCAA Championships, the 600 meters is run at the Big Ten Indoor Championships -- and Michigan is well-represented at the distance. In addition to the conference-leading Rynda, Chloe Foster is ranked No. 23 nationally, Biggs is ranked No. 41 and Hill is No. 47.
Players Mentioned
