Michigan Men Ready for NCAA Outdoor Championships

» UPDATE: Due to a forecast for inclement weather, all of the events in which Michigan men are competing on Wednesday have been moved up at least two hours earlier. See the full schedule below.
» Six entrants from the University of Michigan men's track and field team will battle the nation's best at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas, from Wednesday through Friday (June 5-7).
» Seniors Taylor McLaughlin (400-meter hurdles) and Joe Ellis (hammer throw) will close their legendary Michigan careers with their final run at national titles and All-America honors.
» Returning to the NCAA Championships are Andrew Liskowitz (shot put) and Jack Lint (decathlon).
» Making their first NCAA appearances are Roland Amarteifio (400-meter hurdles) and the 4x400 relay team of Desmond Melson, Ian Davis, Alex Schwedt and Vail Hartman.

THIS WEEK
Wed-Fri., June 5-7 -- NCAA Outdoor Championships (Austin, Texas)
Meet Information
Wednesday, June 5 -- Day 1, 12 p.m. CDT
TV: ESPN2 | Live Results | Live Video
Thursday, June 6 -- Day 2, 1 p.m. CDT
TV: ESPNU/ESPN2 | Live Results | Live Video
Friday, June 7 -- Day 3, TBD
TV: ESPN | Live Results | Live Video

• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Five individuals and a relay team are set to represent the University of Michigan at collegiate track and field's premier meet this week as they travel to Austin, Texas, for the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships from Wednesday through Friday (June 5-7) at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

Three-time outdoor All-American Taylor McLaughlin and outdoor All-American Joe Ellis will lead the Wolverines in the final NCAA competitions of their respective Michigan careers, joined by two-time outdoor All-America Andrew Liskowitz, two-time NCAA Outdoor qualifier Jack Lint and NCAA Championships newcomer Roland Amarteifio.

Also in the lineup for the Wolverines is the 4x400 relay team of Desmond Melson, Ian Davis, Alex Schwedt and Vail Hartman -- all making their NCAA Championships debuts.

McLaughlin and Amarteifio will contest the 400-meter hurdles, while the throws corps is well-represented with Ellis in the hammer throw and Liskowitz in the shot put.

Lint will compete in the two-day, 10-event decathlon competition.

Between the six entries, they all will compete during Wednesday, Thursday and/or Friday sessions. Fans can tune in live to the ESPN family of networks on all three days, and can also log on to ESPN3 online to view live streams of the field events.

When to Watch the Wolverines

Wednesday (June 5)	Event	Round	Time (CDT)	Follow
Jack Lint	100-meter dash	Decathlon	12:00 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	Long Jump	Decathlon	12:40 PM	Watch	Results
Joe Ellis	Hammer Throw	Final	1:00 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	Shot Put	Decathlon	1:55 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	High Jump	Decathlon	3:10 PM	Watch	Results
Roland Amarteifio	400-meter hurdles	Semifinal	6:00 PM	ESPN2	Results
Taylor McLaughlin	400-meter hurdles	Semifinal	6:00 PM	ESPN2	Results
Andrew Liskowitz	Shot Put	Final	6:40 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	400-meter dash	Decathlon	6:26 PM	ESPN2	Results
Melson, Davis, Schwedt, Hartman	4x400 relay	Semifinal	7:18 PM	Watch	Results
Thursday (June 6)	Event	Round	Time (CDT)	Follow
Jack Lint	110-meter hurdles	Decathlon	1:00 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	Discus	Decathlon	1:50 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	Pole Vault	Decathlon	3:00 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	Javelin	Decathlon	5:30 PM	Watch	Results
Jack Lint	1,500 meter run	Decathlon	9:26 PM	ESPN2	Results
Friday (June 7)	Event	Round	Time (CDT)	Follow
Roland Amarteifio #	400-meter hurdles	Final	8:57 PM	ESPN	Results
Taylor McLaughlin #	400-meter hurdles	Final	8:57 PM	ESPN	Results
Melson, Davis, Schwedt, Hartman #	4x400 relay	Semifinal	9:51 PM	ESPN	Results

# = Pending advancement from Wednesday's semifinals

Each of the Wolverines advanced to Austin by way of finishing among the 12 qualifiers in their respective events at the NCAA East Prelims two weekends ago. Michigan has had five or more qualifiers to the national meet in each of the past four seasons and has advanced at least one to NCAAs every year dating back to 2002.

Michigan's six entrants will be going for both team and individual accolades. Should they finish top-eight in their events, they will have the opportunity to score as many as 10 points toward Michigan's team total (10 for first, down through 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for the top eight) and earn first team All-America honors.

Second team All-America honors will be bestowed upon those placing ninth through 16th, with the remainder of the field earning honorable mention awards.

In addition to the wall-to-wall coverage on the ESPN family of networks, live results are available from Flash Results. Stay tuned to the official social media platforms of the program for the most up-to-date information throughout the weekend.

Event-by-Event Breakdown

400-Meter Hurdles
Three semifinal heats of eight competitors each. The top two finishers in each heat will qualify for the eight-man final, which will be rounded out with the two fastest semifinalists who were not top-two in their heats.

With both McLaughlin and Amarteifio entered in the 400-meter hurdles, Michigan is one of just five schools with multiple entrants in this event at nationals.

McLaughlin has twice finished fifth at NCAAs in 2016 and 2018, and is looking to improve on that for 2019. Seeded eighth overall based on performances from the NCAA Preliminaries two weekends ago and ranked 10th in the field based on overall 2019 performances, McLaughlin has the potential to become just the sixth man in school history to finish top-eight at NCAA Outdoors in the same event three different times, and the first to do so in a sprints or hurdles event. He clocked a season's best 49.94 in just his third meet of the year in the 400 hurdles at the East Prelims, and is rounding into the same national-contending form he has displayed in years past.

Amarteifio, after running a career-best 50.46 at the NCAA East Prelims, will enter as the No. 19 seed with the 23rd-fastest time in the field overall in 2019. Having run career-best times in three of his last four postseason races, he could make the jump up into top-16 All-America territory. If both McLaughlin and Amarteifio were to reach that threshold, it would mark the first time in school history with multiple All-Americans in the event.

Hammer Throw
Two flights of 12 throwers in the trials. Each thrower gets three preliminary throws in the trials to qualify for the final, which will consist of the nine individuals with the best marks. The final will take place directly after the trials.

Big Ten runner-up Ellis is back at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to close his stellar collegiate career after missing the meet entirely in 2018. Not content with simply returning to the meet, he is also striving to return to the first team All-America status he achieved in 2017 when he took eighth overall. Based on throws at the NCAA Preliminaries he enters with the No. 10 seed overall, and his season's best mark of 70.88m (232 feet, 7 inches) also ranks him 10th in the field overall. Regaining strength after an injury earlier this season, he is looking to return to the form that saw him heave a school-record 73.80m (242-1) this time a year ago -- a mark that would put him squarely in the hunt for the national title. He is looking to join the pre-Great Depression-era quartet of Michigan national champions in the event -- Roderick Cox (1933), Holly Campbell (1930), Wilford Ketz (1928) and Harry Hawkins (1926) -- as a champion in his own right. Those four also are the only others in school history to twice finish top-eight nationally in the event, a list Ellis could join Wednesday (June 5).

Shot Put
Two simultaneous flights of 12 throwers in the trials. Each thrower gets three preliminary throws in the trials to qualify for the final, which will consist of the nine individuals with the best marks. The final will take place directly after the trials.

Making his third straight NCAA Outdoor Championships appearance, Liskowitz has gone from being the only freshman in the field in 2017 to being just one of three men in the field this Wednesday with three NCAA Outdoor berths to their names. Not only does he have experience on his side, he also has recent results to back it up. Starting with a season's best 20.23m (66-4.5) in an upset of reigning Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs in April, Liskowitz has exceeded 19.90m in four straight meets and has topped 20 meters in two of them. His 20.04m (65-9) at the NCAA Prelims seeds him No. 5 in the field, and his season's best ranks him No. 7 in the field overall. Should he break through for his first-ever top-eight NCAA finish for first team All-America honors, he would be the first Michigan man to do so since Dave Owen won the national title in 1957.

Decathlon
Student-athletes will compete in 10 different events over the course of two days. Their performance in each event will correlate with a standard point value; the better the performance, the more points they earn. Points are cumulative through all 10 events, with the highest score winning at the end.

No event at the NCAA Championships is more grueling than the two-day, 10-event gauntlet that is the decathlon. Lint, who qualified for the meet in 2017 but was unable to finish, is ready to make the most of it in what will be the final competition in a brief -- but impactful -- Michigan career. The graduate transfer from Virginia was the silver medalist in come-from-behind fashion at the Big Ten Championships last month, and is primed for another breakthrough performance. Just this outdoor season alone, he has achieved new personal records in five of the 10 events in the decathlon, as well as a new overall personal-record score of 7,596. That score has him seeded 11th overall in the field. With hot weather predicted that will aid him in the majority of his events, another improvement on that mark -- and a jump into the top-eight for first team All-America status -- could very well be forthcoming.

4x400 Relay
Three semifinal heats of eight teams each. The top two teams in each heat will qualify for the eight-team final, which will be rounded out with the two fastest semifinalist teams that were not top-two in their heats.

The quartet of Desmond Melson, Ian Davis, Alex Schwedt and Vail Hartman shocked the NCAA East Region two weekends ago when they went from the No. 23 seed in the 24-team field to the 12th and final qualifier to the NCAA Championships. Positioned well by strong legs from Melson, Davis and Schwedt, a lean at the line by Hartman gave Michigan the advantage by .005 seconds in a literal photo finish over Mississippi State for the final berth to nationals.

They Michigan foursome is hoping for lightning to strike twice as it enters NCAAs seeded No. 23 of 24 teams in the field with its 3:07.31 performance at the Prelims. If they can improve up into the top 16, they would become Michigan's first second team All-America squad since 2012. A top-eight finish would be Michigan's first since 2008.