Michigan
Michigan Open
Wolverines Ready for Season-Opening Michigan Open
8/27/2019 3:52:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
» Friday (Aug. 30) at 10:30 a.m. at Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter, Michigan, will be the lone home competition for the University of Michigan women's cross country team, which is ranked No. 4 in the preseason U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) National Coaches' Poll and will be looking to defend its back-to-back-to-back Big Ten team titles.
» Returning top-50 NCAA Championships finishers Camille Davre and Anne Forsyth headline one of the deepest rosters in the nation, returning from a squad that finished fourth in the nation last fall.
THIS WEEK
Friday, Aug. 31 -- host Michigan Open (Hudson Mills Metropark), 10:30 a.m.
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The pursuit of a fourth straight Big Ten team title and another national podium finish for the No. 4 University of Michigan women's cross country team gets underway this Friday (Aug. 30) as the Wolverines begin their 2019 campaign with the Michigan Open at Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter, Michigan.
This will be Michigan's lone home competition of the 2019 season, though select members of the squad will return to Hudson Mills in October for the Eastern Michigan Fall Classic.
Scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. start following the completion of the men's competition, the non-scored intrasquad race will be contested on a five-kilometer (3.11-mile) course over the gently rolling hills of Hudson Mills Metropark, located just to the north of downtown Dexter, Michigan. The race also will feature unattached competitors.
Later in the season, the women will transition to running the six-kilometer (4.97-mile) distance contested during the Big Ten and NCAA postseason.
Admission to Hudson Mills Metropark is $10, which covers parking for the event. The site opens at 7 a.m. daily. [ More information ]
Things to Know
• Led by reigning Great Lakes Region and Big Ten Coach of the Year Mike McGuire, Michigan will enter ranked No. 4 in the preseason National Coaches' Poll and No. 2 in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Rankings announced Tuesday (Aug. 27) and Monday (Aug. 26), respectively. by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
• The Wolverines have claimed six of the last seven regional titles and are in the midst of the third-longest active NCAA Championships qualifying streak in the nation at 16 years running.
• With a fourth straight NCAA Great Lakes Regional title last fall, Michigan now owns the longest win streak in region history. The top two teams in the region automatically will advance to the NCAA Championships. Though the Wolverines rank behind Wisconsin in the initial regional rankings, they are ahead of the Badgers in the national poll.
• This marks the 17th consecutive year Michigan has earned a top-30 national rank to start the season. Of those 17 years, Michigan has gone on to outperform their preseason rank at the NCAA Championships in 10 of those seasons.
• In addition to its No. 4 rank in the USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll, the Wolverines also checked in at No. 5 in Flotrack's preseason rankings and at No. 8 per The Stride Report.
• Friday (Aug. 30) likely will be the only chance to see many of Michigan's top runners in action in the state of Michigan this year, as the top squad likely will opt out of the Eastern Michigan Fall Classic on Oct. 25 in favor of preparing for the Big Ten Championships the following weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
• Though the Wolverines lost two-time All-American Avery Evenson and scorer Claire Borchers, Michigan enters the season in a position of strength. U-M returns four women -- All-American Camille Davre, Anne Forsyth, Anna West and Jessi Larson -- who finished top-100 at the NCAA Championships, tied for the most of any team in the country.
• That corps of returning scorers will be bolstered by the reintroduction of two-time NCAA scorer Maddy Trevisan to the lineup after an injury-plagued 2018-19 season, as well as the continued development of Alice Hill and Kathryn House.
• Davre and Forsyth were the No. 1 and No. 3 freshmen, respectively, at the 2018 NCAA Championships. Davre's race was a big breakthrough for her after she finished in the teens at both Big Tens and Regionals, while Forsyth was a postseason revelation for the Wolverines after she debuted at Big Tens in eighth place and took third at Regionals.
• West, who was Michigan's No. 6 runner at NCAAs last year, will look to recapture the magic of her 40th-place All-America from her freshman year at Baylor. She ran career-bests at numerous distances on the track in 2019, including at 5,000 meters.
• The Wolverines excelled at the 5,000-meter distance outdoors in 2019. Beyond West, Larson was the first woman out of qualifying for the NCAA Championships at that distance and went on to win the USATF Outdoor U20 Championships title. Kathryn House was just one spot behind Larson on the qualifying list.
• All of Michigan's first-year collegians will compete unattached at the Michigan Open, with this race serving as their first taste of collegiate competition at U-M.
The Course
Name: Hudson Mills Metropark North Course
Distance: Five Kilometers (3.11 miles)
Maximum Elevation: 874 feet
Minimum Elevation: 837 feet
1?? ???? until the 2019 #xcszn gets underway at the Michigan Open!
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack) August 23, 2019
Here's a look at the 5K (3.11-mile) course we'll be running
? Hudson Mills Metropark (Dexter, MI)
? 10 a.m.#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/Nm0sPgVCjf
A Look Ahead
• Saturday, Sept. 21 -- at Indiana State John McNichols Invitational (Terre Haute, Ind.), 9:45 a.m.
• Saturday, Sept. 28 -- at Ohio State Big Ten Preview (Columbus, Ohio), 9:45 a.m.
Players Mentioned
