Wolverine Women Ready to Host Big Ten Indoor Championships

Friday, February 22

Ann Arbor, Mich.

10:50 AM

Michigan

Big Ten Indoor Championships

Tickets

Wolverine Women Ready to Host Big Ten Indoor Championships

2/20/2019 6:35:00 PM | Women's Track & Field

By: Kyle Terwillegar

» UPDATE: Tickets for both days of the Big Ten Indoor Championships are officially sold out. No tickets will be available for purchase at the door.
» The University of Michigan will welcome the best student-athletes and teams from around the conference for the Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 22-23).
» This will mark the first championship meet held in the new state-of-the-art U-M Indoor Track Building and the highest-profile indoor meet held in the state of Michigan since the 1983 NCAA Championships.
» Among those in action this weekend include the defending Big Ten-champion and nation-leading distance medley relay team, national top-50 ranked Hannah Meier, Aurora Rynda and Chloe Foster, and school record-holders Jade Harrison, Bailey Baker and Kayla Deering.

THIS WEEK
Fri-Sat., Feb. 22-23 -- Big Ten Indoor Championships (U-M Indoor Track Building)
Meet Central | Live Results | Heat Sheet
Friday, Feb. 22 -- Big Ten Indoor Championships, 10:50 a.m.
Saturday, Feb. 23 -- Big Ten Indoor Championships, noon

• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Watch Live on FloTrack: Live Stream
Watch Live on BTN Plus: Day One | Day Two

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In what will be the highest-profile indoor track and field meet in the state of Michigan since the early 1980s, the University of Michigan women's track and field team will welcome some of the nation's best to the world-class U-M Indoor Track Building for the 2019 Big Ten Indoor Championships on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 22-23).

The Wolverine women will look to capture the conference team champion crown it last wore in 2016 and earn multiple event titles along the way in front of the hometown fans for the first championship meet to be held at the University's new indoor facility.

Beginning Friday at 10:50 a.m. and Saturday at noon, the meet -- held on Michigan's hydraulic-banked 200-meter track -- is expected to produce the most national-caliber performances of any competition held in the state of Michigan since the 1983 NCAA Indoor Championships were held at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Of the 18 individual and relay events to be contested this weekend, eight feature student-athletes or teams who have posted performances in 2019 that are superior to the all-time best times or marks achieved in meets held in the state of Michigan -- also known as "All-Comers Records." Among those eight is the nation-leading Michigan distance medley relay.

Friday's action will include action in the combined events (men's heptathlon and women's pentathlon), six field event finals (three for each gender), qualifying rounds for most track events, and the day-one finale track finals in the 3,000-meter run and distance medley relay.

Saturday will cap off the championships with the conclusion of the men's heptathlon, the remaining six field-event finals and finals on the track in nine different events -- ultimately concluding in the presentation of the Big Ten team champion trophies.

Michigan will be defending its event title in the distance medley relay, and also has a Big Ten leader in true freshman Aurora Rynda in the 600 meters. Sixth-year senior Hannah Meier, ranked No. 2 in the conference in the mile, will look to defend her twin sister Haley's 2018 title.

Numerous Wolverines are in position to score for the Wolverines as top-eight finishers in their individual events. Event winners are awarded 10 points for their team, with each placer through eighth also accruing team points (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1). The team with the most points at the end of Saturday will be crowned the champion.

Follow the Championships

Those who were unable to secure tickets into the U-M Indoor Track Building can keep up with all the action online via live streams, live results and social media updates.

Both days of the championships will be streamed online via the subscription services on FloTrack and Big Ten Network Plus. In addition to the main presentation of the meet that will be carried on both services, the FloTrack platform will also provide unprecedented coverage by featuring an additional five streams dedicated only to action in the field events.

Live results for the meet will be available from Delta Timing.

Updates throughout the meet on Michigan's competitors can be found on the official @umichtrack accounts on Twitter and Instagram.

Wolverine Bites

• The distance medley relay team of Alice Hill, Chloe Foster, Aurora Rynda and Hannah Meier combined for one of the most historic performances in collegiate history at the Alex Wilson Invitational on Saturday. The quartet combined to run 10:54.47 for the fastest time in the country this year and the fastest in the history of the Big Ten. It also earned them National and Big Ten athlete of the week honors. They will have their hands full this weekend with Indiana and Wisconsin both under 11 minutes this year, and Ohio State just above 11 minutes. Michigan has claimed the DMR title in 14 of the past 17 seasons.

• Meier will also be in pursuit of the Big Ten mile title her twin sister Haley -- who no longer has eligibility -- claimed in 2018. She is ranked No. 2 in the conference and No. 10 in the country, and will look to continue a run of recent success for Michigan in the event that has seen a Wolverine woman capture the title nine times since 2002. Her DMR teammate Hill, as well as Meg Darmofal and Anne Forsyth, will look to give Michigan three scorers for the second year in a row.

• Meier's DMR teammate Rynda is also looking to stand atop the podium in an individual event, as she leads the conference at 600 meters. Just a freshman, Rynda's 1:29.55 clocking ranks her sixth nationally and another such performance could make her the first Michigan freshman to win the event since Katie Erdman in 2003. DMR teammate Foster, ranked seventh in the event, is also looking to rack up more points for Michigan.

• Rynda and Foster also will look to set another relay school record in the 4x400 event. Ranked fifth in the conference, the Wolverines -- Foster, Rynda, Julia Hall and Jade Harrison -- clocked 3:39.67 for the program's fastest regular-season performance in mid-January. Foster, Hall and Harrison were members of the squad that set the school record at 3:37.88 at last season's Big Ten Championships.

• Harrison, the school record-holder in the indoor 400 meters, will look to put some points on the board for the Wolverines both at 400 and 200 meters, where she's ranked Nos. 7 and 8 in the conference, respectively.

• Cross country All-American Camille Davre leads the Wolverines in the longer events, where she is ranked 10th in the conference at 3,000 meters. Kathryn House, who just missed scoring at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships a year ago, is ranked No. 9 at 5,000 meters.

• Returning as a scorer from a year ago at 800 meters is Micaela DeGenero, who upset higher-seeded runners to finish sixth in 2018. She'll be joined at that distance by sixth-ranked Lauren Biggs.

• Co-school record-holders Bailey Baker and Kayla Deering will be looking to make their mark in a hyper-competitive weight-throw field that includes 10 of the top 42 throwers in the nation. The duo is currently tied for 13th, and will need to fight to make the nine-woman final.

• Pole vaulter Jessica Mercier has a chance to put points on the board for the Wolverines in her collegiate championship debut. The true freshman is currently ranked No. 10 in the conference.

• High jumper Katt Miner will look to recapture the same postseason magic that landed her on the scoring podium at the 2018 Big Ten Outdoor Championships and got her to the NCAA East Preliminaries. She is currently ranked No. 13 in the conference.

When to Watch the Wolverines

Friday (Feb. 8)	Event	Meet	Time (ET)
Theresa Mayanja	60 meter hurdles	Pentathlon	10:50 AM
Theresa Mayanja	Pentathlon	Final	10:50 AM
Theresa Mayanja	High Jump	Pentathlon	11:40 AM
Sydney McGinley	60 meter hurdles	Prelims	1:05 PM
Lauren Rodriguez	60 meter hurdles	Prelims	1:05 PM
Michaiah Thomas	60 meter hurdles	Prelims	1:05 PM
Theresa Mayanja	Shot Put	Pentathlon	2:00 PM
Meg Darmofal	Mile	Prelims	2:35 PM
Anne Forsyth	Mile	Prelims	2:35 PM
Alice Hill	Mile	Prelims	2:35 PM
Hannah Meier	Mile	Prelims	2:35 PM
Theresa Mayanja	Long Jump	Pentathlon	3:15 PM
Julia Hall	400 meter dash	Prelims	3:20 PM
Jade Harrison	400 meter dash	Prelims	3:20 PM
Jenna Reid	400 meter dash	Prelims	3:20 PM
Jessica Mercier	Pole Vault	Final	3:30 PM
Lauren Biggs	800 meter run	Prelims	4:05 PM
Micaela DeGenero	800 meter run	Prelims	4:05 PM
Faith Reynolds	800 meter run	Prelims	4:05 PM
Julia Vanitvelt	800 meter run	Prelims	4:05 PM
Jeryne Fish	Long Jump	Final	4:45 PM
Chloe Foster	600 meter run	Prelims	4:50 PM
Carola Jansohn	600 meter run	Prelims	4:50 PM
Aurora Rynda	600 meter run	Prelims	4:50 PM
Theresa Mayanja	800 meter run	Pentathlon	5:15 PM
Bailey Baker	Weight Throw	Final	5:30 PM
Kayla Deering	Weight Throw	Final	5:30 PM
Briana Nelson	Weight Throw	Final	5:30 PM
Jade Harrison	200 meter dash	Prelims	5:50 PM
Audrey Belf	3000 meter run	Final	6:35 PM
Rachel Coleman	3000 meter run	Final	6:35 PM
Camille Davre	3000 meter run	Final	6:35 PM
Jena Metwalli	3000 meter run	Final	6:35 PM
Michigan, TBD	Distance Medley Relay	Final	7:05 PM
Saturday (Feb. 9)	Event	Meet	Time (ET)
Finals on the track begin at 1:25 p.m. for the women. Michigan participants in the 200, 400, 600, 800, mile and 60 hurdles will be determined by who qualifies from Friday's preliminary rounds.
Erin Connor	Shot Put	Final	1:45 PM
Briana Nelson	Shot Put	Final	1:45 PM
Katt Miner	High Jump	Final	2:00 PM
Kathryn House	5000 meter run	Final	4:15 PM
Madeline Trevisan	5000 meter run	Final	4:15 PM
Anna West	5000 meter run	Final	4:15 PM
Michigan, TBD	4x400 relay	Final	4:55 PM