Michigan
NCAA East Preliminaries
Liskowitz, 4x400 Relay Close Out East Prelims with Nationals Berths
5/25/2019 11:22:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
Site: Jacksonville, Fla. (Hodges Stadium)
Event: NCAA East Preliminaries (Day 3 of 3)
U-M Result: No Team Scoring
Next U-M Event: Wed-Fri., June 5-7 -- at NCAA Outdoor Championships (Austin, Texas)
• Complete Results (PDF) | Photo Gallery
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Thrower Andrew Liskowitz and the 4x400 relay team put exclamation points on a strong weekend for the University of Michigan men's track and field team at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds on Saturday (May 25) as they both clinched berths to the NCAA Championships.
Liskowitz kicked off the final day at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium with a runner-up finish in his signature shot put event, and the quartet of Desmond Melson, Ian Davis, Alex Schwedt and Vail Hartman closed out the day with a dramatic NCAA berth of their own.
Including Liskowitz and the relay, Michigan finished the weekend with five qualifiers from the NCAA East Prelims onto the NCAA Championships. They will be joined by hammer thrower Joe Ellis and the 400-meter hurdles duo of Taylor McLaughlin and Roland Amarteifio. Also qualifying for nationals previously was decathlete Jack Lint.
Those six will represent Michigan at the national championships in Austin, Texas, on June 5-8, seeking to earn national titles and All-America honors.
The relay team clocked a season-best 3:07.31 -- good for the eighth-fastest time in school history -- in a finish between anchor runner Hartman and Mississippi State that the timers had to drill down to the thousandths of a second to sort out the results. A timely lean at the line by Hartman gave Michigan a .005 advantage.
Melson and Davis put Michigan into fourth place through two of four legs, and Schwedt would hand off to Hartman in fifth after a strong 47.31 leg.
While Hartman was initially overtaken by Mississippi State's Cameron Crump during a blazing 46.31 leg, he battled with him throughout the final 400 meters until they were running side-by-side with less than 100 meters to go. Neither man would give an inch as they ultimately both leaned at the finish, with the taller Hartman able to lean his torso farther forward than Crump to edge out the Bulldog for fifth and, as it turned out, the berth to nationals.
The result in their heat, the second of three, put Michigan in position for the second of three at-large qualifying spots. The Wolverines would have to wait until heat three concluded to know their final fate, hoping that not more than four teams would run faster than they did.
As fate would have it, top-seeded LSU was forced to drop out of heat three on the final leg as their anchor pulled up with an injury, opening the door ever wider for the Wolverines. With the Tigers out of the race, exactly four teams ran faster than Michigan's 3:07.31, and pushed Michigan into the NCAA Championships.
The performance was something of an upset for the Wolverines, as they entered the weekend seeded No. 23 of 24 teams in the field and competed without individual NCAA Championships qualifiers McLaughlin and Amarteifio, both part of the relay team that qualified to this meet.
With a runner-up finish in his signature shot put event, Liskowitz will be appearing at his fifth-consecutive NCAA Championships, including both indoors and outdoors, dating back to his redshirt freshman season in 2017.
After opening up with a solid first-round heave of 18.73m (61 feet, 5.5 inches) -- a mark that, if he had not improved on it, would have netted him the 12th and final berth to NCAAs -- Liskowitz posted the qualification clincher on his second attempt.
He stormed to the lead with a toss of 20.04m (65-9), all but guaranteeing him a return trip to nationals. Liskowitz would foul on his final throw, and was overtaken as the leader.
The mark bodes well for the three-time second team All-American, as it was the third-farthest throw of his career. Between both the East and West Preliminaries on Saturday, Liskowitz's throw was the fourth-best of anyone in the country.
Ben Hill also posted a top-20 finish for the Wolverines at 1,500 meters, taking 18th overall. Running in the fastest of the two quarterfinal heats, Hill posted a time of 3:51.58 for 10th in his race.
Full Michigan results can be found below.
The Wolverines will turn their undivided attention to preparing for the NCAA Championships on June 5-7 in Austin, Texas. Check back to MGoBlue.com in the coming days for more coverage.
Full Michigan Results by Event
Q = Automatic qualifier into quarterfinal; q = non-automatic qualifier into quarterfinal; w = wind-aided performance (Wind readings greater than +2.0m/s are considered "wind-aided" and are not eligible for record purposes.)
1,500 Meters
QUARTERFINALS
18. Ben Hill / 3:51.58
PRELIMS (Contested Thursday)
14. Ben Hill / 3:47.85q
5,000 Meters
SEMIFINAL
30. Isaac Harding / 14:45.76
36. Jack Aho / 14:45.76
10,000 Meters
SEMIFINAL (Contested Thursday)
32. Devin Meyrer / 30:31.82
110-Meter Hurdles
PRELIMS (Contested Friday)
43. Job Mayhue / 14.25 (-0.6m/s)
400-Meter Hurdles
QUARTERFINALS (Contested Friday)
3. Taylor McLaughlin / 49.94 [Advanced to NCAA Championships]
10. Roland Amarteifio / 50.46 [Advanced to NCAA Championships]
PRELIMS (Contested Thursday)
2. Taylor McLaughlin / 50.29Q
14. Roland Amarteifio / 51.12Q
3,000-Meter Steeplechase
QUARTERFINALS (Contested Friday)
14. Lewis Tate / 8:52.34
17. Joost Plaetinck / 8:56.63
4x400-Meter Relay
QUARTERFINALS
11. Melson, Davis, Schwedt, Hartman / 3:07.31 [Advanced to NCAA Championships]
High Jump
36. Max Wagner / 2.06m (6-9)
Shot Put
2. Andrew Liskowitz / 20.04m (65-9) [Advanced to NCAA Championships]
Discus Throw
Contested Friday
42. Manning Plater / 49.31m (161-9)
Hammer Throw
Contested Thursday
7. Joe Ellis / 68.79m (225-8) [Advanced to NCAA Championships]
22. Manning Plater / 61.30m (201-1)
Players Mentioned
