Michigan Men Return Home for Final B1G Tune-Up

Friday, February 19

Ann Arbor, Mich.

4:00 PM

Michigan

Silverston Invitational

Heath Baldwin (Michigan Photography)

2/16/2021 4:19:00 PM | Men's Track & Field

By: Kyle Terwillegar

THIS WEEK
Friday, Feb. 19 -- Silverston Invitational (U-M Indoor Track Building), 4 p.m.
Meet Central | Live Results | Live Streams | Meet Schedule

• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With the Big Ten Indoor Championships on the horizon for next weekend, the University of Michigan men's track and field team returns to the confines of the world-class U-M Indoor Track Building one last time this winter for the Silverston Invitational on Friday (Feb. 19).

Select members of the squad will face off with opponents from rivals Michigan State and Ohio State starting at 4 p.m. in what will be the final tune-up ahead of the conference meet in Geneva, Ohio, on Feb. 25-27.

Competition on the Wolverines' state-of-the-art 200-meter hydraulic banked track and the surrounding field event areas is expected to conclude prior to 8 p.m.

Entries will not be finalized until after publication, but among those expected to compete are newly minted sub-four-minute miler Tom Dodd, national shot put contender John Meyer, relay All-American Vail Hartman, and Heath Baldwin fresh off his career-best in the heptathlon last week.

Spectators will not be allowed into the facility as a precautionary measure and to allow for more room for participants from separate teams to space themselves out within the building.

Fans will be able to follow along with a live stream of the action on the track as well as five separate streams dedicated to field event coverage. Regular updates will also be provided through Delta Timing's live results page and the official social media channels of Michigan track and field.

Wolverines in the National Rankings

800 Meters - Less than a week after shattering the four-minute barrier in the mile, Tom Dodd will make his NCAA debut at the 800-meter distance. Only five Michigan men have cracked the 1:50 threshold indoors in school history, and only Nate Brannen and Ned Willig have gone both sub-4:00 and sub-1:50 in the same season. Also chasing 1:50 will be Anthony Berry -- who missed the latter by just .19 a year ago.

60-Meter Hurdles - Three-quarters of the nation's third-ranked 60-meter hurdles quartet will be in action on Friday with Josh Zeller, Job Mayhue and Heath Baldwin. Zeller and Mayhue enter fresh off season's best times at SPIRE last weekend, while Baldwin is riding high on the 14th-best heptathlon score in the country after a significant personal best in the event last weekend.

Wolverines in the National Rankings

Name	Event	Rank
Tom Dodd	Mile	16
Oli Raimond	Mile	42
Tom Brady	3000m	19
Nick Foster	3000m	23
Devin Meyrer	3000m	32
Christian Hubaker	3000m	34
Jacob Lee	3000m	48
Devin Meyrer	5000m	19
Tom Brady	5000m	36
James Gedris	5000m	49
Ayden Owens	60H	22
Josh Zeller	60H	31
Cassidy Henshaw	High Jump	47
John Meyer	Shot Put	14
Ayden Owens	Heptathlon	3
Heath Baldwin	Heptathlon	14

Team Notes

• Led by head coaches Jerry Clayton and James Henry, the Michigan men checked in at No. 29 nationally in the latest Track and Field Rating Index (TFRI) from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

• With the truncated cross country season approaching in early-to-mid March, the Michigan distance crew has shown superior fitness in this indoor campaign. Michigan is one of just four schools in NCAA Division I that has had at least one student-athlete run sub-four-minutes in the mile (Tom Dodd, 3:58.47), sub-eight-minutes over 3,000 meters (Tom Brady, 7:58.06 and Nick Foster, 7:59.23) and sub-14-minutes over 5,000 meters (Devin Meyrer, 13:52.83). The others are Washington State, Arkansas and Ole Miss.

• Those performances have spearheaded national-caliber depth at those distances, as evidenced by top-10 showings in the latest Event Squad Rankings from the USTFCCCA. Brady and Foster lead the nation's No. 3 quartet at 3,000 meters, Meyrer is at the head of the country's fifth-ranked 5,000-meter group, and Dodd headlines the nation's No. 7 mile corps.

• The Wolverines also have depth to spare in the heptathlon, as Ayden Owens made his much-anticipated Michigan debut in the event as the No. 2 scorer in school history and the No. 3 performer in the NCAA this winter. Also impressive was Heath Baldwin, who added a whopping 238 points to his career best to settle in at No. 4 in school history and No. 14 nationally with 5,448 points. Along the way, he scored career bests in five of seven events.

• Owens and Baldwin also comprise half of the nation's third-ranked 60-meter hurdles crew in the latest USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings. Owens' 7.87-second time leads a talented group including Josh Zeller at 7.91, Job Mayhue at 8.05 and Baldwin at 8.25.

• John Meyer is carrying the banner for the Michigan field events in 2021, currently ranked top-16 nationally in the shot put and in line for a potential berth to the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career. Meyer was second only to Olympic silver medalist and multiple-time world champion Joe Kovacs at the SPIRE Big Ten Invitational last weekend as he threw a career-best 19.32m (63 feet, 4.75 inches) to move to No. 3 in school history.