Final NCAA Championships Await Michigan's Finn

Thursday, June 6

Austin, Texas

9:38 PM CT

Michigan

NCAA Outdoor Championships

Erin Finn

6/3/2019 11:45:00 AM | Women's Track & Field

By: Kyle Terwillegar

» The collegiate career of University of Michigan women's distance runner Erin Finn will come to a close this Thursday (June 6) as she chases a national title one last time in the 10,000-meter final at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
» Finn will be going for her 10th-career individual All-America honor at 9:38 p.m. CDT live on ESPN2.

THIS WEEK
Thursday, June 6 -- NCAA Outdoor Championships (Austin, Texas), 9:38 p.m. CDT
TV: ESPN2 | Live Results | Live Video | Meet Information

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- For the final time in her illustrious University of Michigan career, graduate student distance runner Erin Finn will represent the Wolverines at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on Thursday (June 6) at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.

In what will be her final collegiate race, Finn will run the 10,000-meter final at 9:38 p.m. CDT in pursuit of the one achievement -- a national title -- that has eluded her in what has otherwise been one of the program's finest careers.

A four-time NCAA runner-up and nine-time All-American, Finn will look to become the first woman in program history to earn double-digit individual (non-relay) All-America honors between both track and field and cross country.

Finn -- who is closing out a sixth season of eligibility granted by the NCAA last summer -- has five individual first team All-America honors to her name on the track. A top-eight finish on Thursday would earn her a sixth, and would tie her for the most individual track and field first team All-America finishes with Wolverine legends Nicole Edwards, Geena Gall and Bettie Wade.

Fans will be able to watch her pursuit of national glory live on ESPN2. Live results are available from Flash Results and the official social media platforms of the program will provide updates throughout the race.

While she may have nearly six years of collegiate history following her into this meet, her journey to Austin in 2019 has been shorter and more uncertain.

Finn has only three meets on her results list this year, a total that still manages to understate how short her run-up to these NCAA Championships has been. She had only a few weeks of full-fledged running on her legs heading into her 16:09.94 run over 5,000 meters at the Stanford Cardinal Classic in mid-April and just three more additional weeks of training before her seventh-place finish in the Big Ten Championships 10,000 meters.

With that race under her belt and an extra couple weeks of fitness gains, Finn showed flashes of her vintage self in a third-place NCAA East Prelims finish in 33:21.56 that saw her run with the breakaway leaders for much of the final 6,000 meters.

After running that most recent race in the heat and humidity of a 90-degree Jacksonville, Florida, day, Finn has a good idea what to expect in Austin with conditions at race time expected to be largely similar.

That 33:21.56 has her seeded fourth overall based only on NCAA Preliminary Round performances, though she is ranked 15th in the field taking into account all performances from the 2019 season.

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