Michigan
NCAA East Preliminaries
Trio of Wolverine Women Just Miss Qualifying to Nationals
5/25/2019 10:01:00 PM | Women'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: Thu-Sat., June 6-8 -- at NCAA Outdoor Championships (Austin, Texas)
• Complete Results (PDF) | Photo Gallery
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A trio of women from the University of Michigan track and field team came heartbreakingly close to qualifying for the national championships on the final day of the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds on Saturday (May 25) at Hodges Stadium.
True freshman Jessi Larson and redshirt sophomore Kathryn House were the first two women outside the bubble for qualifying to the NCAA Championships at 5,000 meters, while Meg Darmofal was the first woman out of qualifying to nationals at 1,500 meters.
All three were a combined four seconds from advancing to join Erin Finn at the NCAA Championships on June 6-8 in Austin, Texas. Finn will represent the Wolverines at Texas in the 10,000-meter final.
Those three were part of a Michigan effort on Saturday that saw them exceed their combined pre-meet seeds by 67 spots, or 13.4 positions per person. On the weekend overall, including both first-round and quarterfinal competitions, where applicable, the full Wolverine women's contingent outperformed their seeds by an average of six spots per person.
Sitting in 11th and 12th through 3,000 meters of their 5,000-meter race, House and Larson were just holding on as part of a lead group of 14 runners. As the pack broke apart over the next few laps, Larson started to climb through the pack. With three laps to go, she had worked herself up to eighth place, battling for what would ultimately be one of two at-large NCAA qualifying berths for the sixth- and seventh-place finishers in the race.
House then started her own move through the field, working up to 10th with two laps to go. With a lap to go, that's where the two found themselves, with Larson running side-by-side with seventh place.
Despite a strong 77.39-second last lap for Larson and a blistering 74.74 final circuit for House -- fifth-fastest of anyone in the field -- Larson would come up just .83 of a second from seventh-place in 16:26.25, with Larson just behind her in 16:28.71.
They would ultimately finish 12th and 13th overall. One of the top-five automatic time qualifiers from heat one was slower than both Larson and House, explaining why Larson finished top-12 and did not earn one of the 12 nationals berths. The top-five finishers in each heat and the next two fastest overall advanced.
Darmofal came exceedingly close to qualifying for her first NCAA Championships meet as an individual, finishing 13th overall at 1,500 meters and missing out on one of 12 nationals berths by just .46 of a second.
As an early modest pace in her first heat gave way to an increasingly fast finish, Darmofal put herself in position coming around the final turn to make a run at qualifying. After running in the middle of the pack for much of the race, she came off the final turn as the eighth runner in an eight-woman lead group battling for five automatic berths.
She was able to bypass two runners over the final 100 meters, but came up less than a half-second shy of catching Michigan State's Dillon McClintock for the fifth-and-final automatic NCAA berth. Instead, she was left to fend for one of the two "at-large" berths reserved for the two fastest non-auto qualifiers.
Her time nearly held up through the second of two quarterfinal heats, but she was bypassed in the standings by heat two's sixth- and seventh-place finishers.
Still, the performance put a cap on a breakthrough junior season that saw her earn first team All-America honors as the anchor of the indoor distance medley relay team and score at both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten Championships individually.
Full Michigan results can be found below.
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.)
800 Meters
QUARTERFINALS (Contested Friday)
24. Aurora Rynda / 2:20.38 [fall]
PRELIMS (Contested Thursday)
10. Aurora Rynda / 2:05.49Q
1,500 Meters
QUARTERFINALS
13. Meg Darmofal / 4:20.88
PRELIMS (Contested Thursday)
15. Meg Darmofal / 4:20.97Q
29. Micaela DeGenero / 4:25.69
5,000 Meters
SEMIFINALS
12. Jessi Larson / 16:26.25
13. Kathryn House / 16:28.71
24. Camille Davre / 16:41.54
33. Anne Forsyth / 17:03.19
10,000 Meters
SEMIFINAL (Contested Thursday)
3. Erin Finn / 33:21.56 [Advanced to NCAA Championships]
43. Raquel Powers / 36:49.86
400-Meter Hurdles
QUARTERFINALS (Contested Friday)
16. Chloe Foster / 58.61
PRELIMS (Contested Thursday)
10. Chloe Foster / 58.48Q
3,000-Meter Steeplechase
QUARTERFINALS (Contested Friday)
23. Alice Hill / 10:26.37
39. Megan Worrel / 10:38.33
High Jump
Contested Thursday
t14. Claire Kieffer-Wright / 1.75m (5-8.75)
Pole Vault
Contested Friday
t20. Jessica Mercier / 3.92m (12-10.25)
Discus Throw
Contested Friday
33. Bailey Baker / 47.93m (157-3)
Hammer Throw
Contested Thursday
16. Bailey Baker / 60.58m (196-11)
Players Mentioned
