Canceled: Michigan Throwers Set for NCAA Indoor Championships in New Mexico

THIS WEEK
Fri-Sat., March 13-14 -- at NCAA Indoor Championships (Albuquerque, N.M.)
Friday, March 13 -- Shot Put, 7:05 p.m. MST | Live Results
Saturday, March 14 -- Weight Throw, 2 p.m. MST | Live Results
TV: ESPN3 | Meet Information | Live Results
Live Stream: Day 1 | Day 2

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COVID-19 Update: On Thursday, March 12, 2020, the NCAA canceled the Division I men's and women's 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- For the third indoor season in a row, the University of Michigan men's track and field team will be represented at the national championships in both throwing events as Andrew Liskowitz and Manning Plater are set to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday and Saturday (March 13-14) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Liskowitz will be making his third consecutive trip to the NCAA indoor meet in the shot put, while Plater is appearing in his first NCAA Championships competition as part of the weight throw field. Both men will compete inside the confines of the Albuquerque Convention Center as the NCAA indoor track and field season reaches its conclusion this weekend.

Entering as the top seed in his event, Liskowitz will go for Michigan's first indoor shot put national title starting at 7:05 p.m. MST on Friday. Plater will take his turn in the weight throw the next day at 2 p.m. MST Saturday, as he looks to extend Michigan's streak of top-eight finishes in the event to four straight years.

The NCAA Indoor Championships will be carried live online on ESPN3 via the WatchESPN digital streaming platform, though the broadcast is expected to primarily focus on track events. Live throw-by-throw results in Liskowitz's and Plater's events can be found via Flash Results.

Updates will be provided throughout the weekend on the team's official Twitter account, @umichtrack.

Andrew Liskowitz (Shot Put)

• With his indoor school-record 21.02m (68-11.75) to decisively defend his Big Ten Conference title two weekends ago, Liskowitz also rocketed into the 2020 NCAA lead as the only man to surpass 21 meters so far this winter. He surpassed 20 meters on two other throws.

• In addition to leading the NCAA, Liskowitz is ranked No. 4 among all American shot putters in 2020 and No. 15 in the world. Among collegians all-time, he ranks 19th.

• A win for Liskowitz would be the first NCAA indoor title in a field event for the Wolverines. Michigan has twice had national runners-up in field events in Liskowitz's former teammate Grant Cartwright (2017 weight throw) and Jim Stokes (1978 pole vault). A top-eight finish for Liskowitz would give the Wolverines their first first-team All-American in the event.

• Though Liskowitz is the national leader in the event, his opposition for the title is expected to be stiff. Among the top challengers are 2019 indoor national runner-up Adrian Piperi of Texas and two-time first-team All-American McKay Johnson of California, both of whom also logged multiple throws farther than 20 meters on conference weekend.

• This will mark Liskowitz's sixth consecutive NCAA Championships between the indoor and outdoor seasons. He was the lone freshman at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships and has not missed a nationals meet since.

Manning Plater (Weight Throw)

• Plater is one of the most improved weight throwers in all of NCAA Division I during this 2020 indoor season. His career best of 21.97m (72-1) to claim the bronze at the Big Ten Indoor Championships two weekends ago represents a 12.78 percent improvement over his best from a year ago. That year-over-year change is the largest by any NCAA Championships qualifier in this event and is the 22nd-largest percentage change of the 282 throwers who ranked top-500 at the end of 2019 and returned for 2020.

• In six weight throw contests this winter, Plater has not finished lower than third and has earned victories in half of those competitions. In those six outings, he has notched head-to-head victories over former NCAA champion David Lucas of Penn State and Minnesota's trio of Kieran McKeag, Kaleb Siekmeier and Jon Nerdal, all of whom are in the NCAA Championships field.

• On conference championships weekend, when nearly all of the nation's top competitors were vying for their respective conference titles, Plater checked in at No. 7 on the list of the weekend's best throwers.

• Plater has thrived in high-pressure situations this season, with his best throws often coming in the final three rounds of competition. In his six meets, his throws in the first three rounds of those competitions averaged 20.32 meters in distance; that average jumped to 21.07 meters for his final three rounds at each meet. His fifth round in particular has been especially strong, as he has averaged 21.61 meters on those attempts.

• Though this will be Plater's first appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, he will be looking to maintain a streak of excellence that predates his NCAA debut. Michigan has posted top-eight finishes in the weight throw in each of the past three seasons by Joe Ellis and Grant Cartwright. No other team has more than a two-year top-eight streak in the weight throw at present.