Canceled: NCAA Championships Await Michigan Distance Medley Relay Team

THIS WEEK
Friday, March 13 -- at NCAA Indoor Championships (Albuquerque, N.M.), 8:45 p.m. MST
TV: ESPN3 | Meet Information | Live Results | Live Stream

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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 17th time in the past 18 years, the University of Michigan women's track and field team will continue its legacy of national excellence in the distance medley relay as the Wolverines compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday (March 13) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The quartet of Alice Hill, Chloe Foster, Aurora Rynda and Meg Darmofal -- fresh off winning the Big Ten Conference Indoor Championships title two weekends ago -- will return to the NCAA Championships one year after finishing sixth at the 2019 edition of the meet, aiming to improve on that result in 2020.

Michigan will take to the track for the distance medley relay final at 8:35 p.m. MST on Friday with an eighth top-eight finish in the past nine years in their sight. The Wolverines also have an opportunity to claim their fifth national title in program history, which would break a tie with Tennessee for the most all-time in the event.

The Wolverines last won this event in 2013, with additional titles in 2005, 1998 and 1994.

The NCAA Indoor Championships will be carried live online on ESPN3 via the WatchESPN digital streaming platform. Live results will also post to the web via Flash Results.

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

Distance Medley Relay Notes

• Michigan will enter the NCAA Indoor Championships ranked No. 8 nationally at 11:02.00, which the team ran to win the Big Ten title last month.

• All four of the women on Michigan's squad have recorded personal records this season, and all four scored individually at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.

• Rynda ran career bests at 600 meters and 800 meters this winter -- winning the Big Ten title in the former and finishing ranked No. 17 nationally in the latter.

• Darmofal ran career bests at 800 meters and in the mile in 2020. She claimed the silver medal in the mile at Big Tens.

• Foster ran career bests at 400 meters and 600 meters this winter and finished sixth at 400 meters at Big Tens.

• Hill clocked career bests at 800 meters and in the mile in 2020. She finished sixth in the mile at Big Tens.

• Michigan will have the advantage of being one of just three teams in the 12-school field whose relay members will not have their attention split between the relay and individual events. Those with individual conflicts may also choose to run only their individual events, leaving a back-up runner in their place on the relay. Six of the seven teams seeded ahead of Michigan have at least one individual-event qualifier who contributed to the qualifying relay time.

• Michigan ran its best of 11:02.00 despite heavy workloads from its component members at the Big Ten Indoor Championships. Rynda was coming off a school-record 1:28.16 over 600 meters, Foster had earlier run a career-best 54.04 at 400 meters, and both Darmofal and Hill ran tough races in the mile preliminaries. All four also had finals to contest the following day.

• Though Michigan has advanced to the NCAA Championships in the distance medley relay in 17 of the past 18 seasons, this will mark the first time in program history that the same team of four runners has competed in back-to-back seasons.