Michigan
Hurricane Invitational
Wolverine Women to Open Outdoor Campaign at Miami
3/14/2019 1:34:00 PM | Women's Track & Field
» The outdoor track and field season begins Saturday for the Wolverine women, who will field a lineup of sprinters and combined-event athletes at the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Flordia.
» Fresh off her All-America performance on the distance medley relay last weekend, Chloe Foster is making her debut in her signature 400-meter hurdles event.
THIS WEEK
Saturday, March 16 -- Miami (Fla.) Hurricane Invitational (Coral Gables, Fla.), noon
Meet Info | Live Results
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- This weekend officially begins the 2019 outdoor track and field season for the University of Michigan women as select members of the squad will take their talents to the Miami (Fla.) Hurricane Invitational on Saturday (March 16).
Newly minted indoor All-American Chloe Foster -- a member of last weekend's sixth-place distance medley relay squad at the NCAA Indoor Championships -- headlines a group of sprinters and combined-event athletes slated to open up their spring campaigns at Cobb Stadium.
Field events get underway at noon, followed by action on the track for the Wolverines beginning at 1:15 p.m. A 4x400 relay will wrap things up for U-M on this outdoor opening weekend at approximately 5 p.m.
Live results will be available through Delta Timing, and updates throughout the day can be found on the official Michigan track and field Twitter account, @umichtrack.
Foster will be making her 2019 debut in her signature 400-meter hurdles event at 3:15 p.m., looking to become just the sixth woman in school history to run faster than 60 seconds in the event during the month of March. She currently is No. 10 all-time in school history in the event at 59.72, and is coming off an All-American indoor season that saw her move to No. 5 and No. 6 in school history at 400 and 600 meters, respectively.
After the 2019 indoor season, Foster also is part of two school-record relay teams: the 2018 indoor 4x400 squad and the 2019 distance medley relay. Also in action in Florida this weekend is one of her record-breaking 4x400 teammates in Julia Hall.
Hall will be running the 400-meter and 200-meter dashes at 1:45 p.m. and 3:40 p.m., as well as the Saturday-finale 4x400 relay with combined-event athletes Theresa Mayanja and Tiana Luton, as well as 400-meter hurdler Jenna Reid.
The Wolverines potentially will have big contingents in both the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles races, with five women entered in both races. Luton and Mayanja could be joined by Michaiah Thomas, Sydney McGinley and Lauren Rodriguez in the shorter race at 1:15 p.m. to kick off Michigan's day on the track, and the latter three are also slated to run alongside Foster and Reid in the longer race.
The full schedule of competitors can be found below, followed by a 2019 outdoor season outlook.
When to Watch the Wolverines
| Saturday (March 16) | Event | Round | Time (ET) |
| Tiana Luton | Shot Put | Final | 12:00 PM |
| Theresa Mayanja | Shot Put | Final | 12:00 PM |
| Tiana Luton | 100 meter hurdles | Final | 1:15 PM |
| Theresa Mayanja | 100 meter hurdles | Final | 1:15 PM |
| Sydney McGinley | 100 meter hurdles | Final | 1:15 PM |
| Lauren Rodriguez | 100 meter hurdles | Final | 1:15 PM |
| Michaiah Thomas | 100 meter hurdles | Final | 1:15 PM |
| Julia Hall | 400 meter dash | Final | 1:45 PM |
| Akili Echols | 100 meter dash | Final | 2:20 PM |
| Sydney McGinley | 100 meter dash | Final | 2:20 PM |
| Michaiah Thomas | 100 meter dash | Final | 2:20 PM |
| Chloe Foster | 400 meter hurdles | Final | 3:15 PM |
| Sydney McGinley | 400 meter hurdles | Final | 3:15 PM |
| Jenna Reid | 400 meter hurdles | Final | 3:15 PM |
| Lauren Rodriguez | 400 meter hurdles | Final | 3:15 PM |
| Michaiah Thomas | 400 meter hurdles | Final | 3:15 PM |
| Akili Echols | 200 meter dash | Final | 3:40 PM |
| Julia Hall | 200 meter dash | Final | 3:40 PM |
| Sydney McGinley | 200 meter dash | Final | 3:40 PM |
| Michaiah Thomas | 200 meter dash | Final | 3:40 PM |
| Luton, Mayanja, Hall, Reid |
4x400 relay | Final | 4:50 PM |
Outdoor Outlook for the Wolverines
• The Wolverines tied three other teams for fifth at the 2018 Big Ten Indoor Championships with 60 points, but face the prospect of having lost all but 16 of those points to graduation. Michigan will be hoping for sixth-year graduate student Erin Finn -- a 10-time conference winner -- to bounce back from injury this winter and reclaim her 2018 title at 10,000 meters, which accounts for 10 of those 16 points.
• The Wolverine women also will be bolstered by the return of two-time Big Ten high-jump champion Claire Kieffer-Wright in her final season of eligibility and the likes of 2019 indoor champions Hannah Meier and Aurora Rynda. Meier was the indoor mile champion and the nation's fourth-fastest miler during the indoor season, while Rynda claimed the conference title at 600 meters and ran on the First-Team All-America distance medley relay.
• In addition to Finn, Meier and Rynda -- who was the No. 32 woman in the country for 800 meters this winter -- the Wolverines will be looking to get some big output from its deep well of distance talent. After finishing seventh in 3,000-meter steeplechase at the IAAF World U20 Championships last summer, Alice Hill will compete in her first full season in the event. Though she did not run the event during the NCAA circuit in 2018, she has the fastest time of any Big Ten competitor and the No. 9 time among all collegians entering the 2019 season.
• Camille Davre will look to recapture the same form that saw her earn All-America honors during cross country, and Anne Forsyth will look to do likewise as the Big Ten Cross Country Freshman of the Year.
• Michigan also will be looking for continued development from the likes of Meg Darmofal, who was fifth at Big Tens in the mile and the anchor of Michigan's All-American distance medley relay; Kathryn House, who has twice finished ninth in Big Ten 5,000-meter finals; and Micaela DeGenero, who has twice scored for the Wolverines in the indoor 800-meter Big Ten final.
• Though she is only a true sophomore, no one in school history has put together quite the resume as Chloe Foster. Already a member of the school-record indoor distance medley relay and 4x400 relay teams, she is individually No. 5 in school history at 400 meters indoors, No. 6 at 600 meters indoors, and No. 10 both in the 400-meter hurdles and 400 meters. She will be chasing Amber Hay's 10-year-old school record of 57.44 in the 400-meter hurdles, having already exceeded Hay's career bests in both the indoor and outdoor 400-meter races and the indoor 600.
• Jade Harrison once more leads the Wolverines in the non-hurdle sprint races, returning from eighth-place Big Ten Outdoor finishes in 2018 in the 200 meters and 4x100 relay. Outdoors, Harrison is ranked No. 5 in school history at 400 meters, No. 6 at 200 meters and No. 6 at 100 meters.
• Joining 2017 outdoor champion and 2018 indoor champion Kieffer-Wright in the high jump will be last year's eighth-place finisher and NCAA East Preliminaries qualifier Katt Miner. The pair will look to give Michigan big points in the high jump come the Big Ten Outdoor Championships. Also in the vertical jumps, freshman pole vaulter Jessica Mercier will look to continue her rapid development after finishing fourth at Big Ten Indoors and moving to No. 4 in school history.
• After a historic indoor weight throw season for Bailey Baker and Kayla Deering that saw them finish their winter careers as co-school-record-holders, they will aim to translate that to the closest outdoor analogue in the hammer throw. They currently are ranked No. 6 and No. 12 in school history, respectively, but are poised for big breakthroughs after having both redshirted the 2018 season to train. Two years of preparation should have them up near teammate Courtney Jacobson, who is No. 2 in school history as a two-time eighth-place finisher at Big Tens.
Players Mentioned
