Michigan
NCAA Championships
Meyrer Becomes Back-to-Back Cross Country All-American at NCAAs
3/15/2021 3:12:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
Site: Stillwater, Okla. (Oklahoma State Cross Country Course)
Event: NCAA Championships
Distance: 10 kilometers (6.21 miles)
U-M Result: No team score
Next U-M Event: Season completed
• Complete Results (PDF)
STILLWATER, Okla. -- For the second year in a row in cross country -- and the second time in the past three days including indoor track -- Devin Meyrer claimed All-America honors Monday (March 15) to represent the University of Michigan men's cross country team at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Meyrer covered 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) over the grounds of the Oklahoma State Cross Country Course in 30:27.9 to place 24th overall and first among Big Ten Conference runners in the 237-finisher field, thriving in a race that went out hard from the start.
In combination with his 16th-place finish from a year ago, he is now just the 11th man in school history to earn back-to-back All-America honors in cross country. The current threshold for All-America honors is top-40.
Due to the scheduling quirks caused by the ongoing novel coronavirus COVID-19 global pandemic, he is also the first to earn All-America honors in both cross country and indoor track and field in the same weekend. He ran a school-record 13:40.66 over 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday to earn second-team All-America honors in that event.
The pace was hot right from the start of the race, and Meyrer was able to ride it all the way to All-America status. He established himself in 30th place through the first kilometer and did not deviate more than five spots from that positioning throughout the first seven kilometers.
He started to dial down the pace relative to the rest of the field in the seventh and eighth kilometers, clocking 2:54.6 and 3:16.9 for the 20th- and 19th-fastest splits in the field over that time. He crossed over the two-kilometers-to-go mark in 22nd place for his best positioning of the race to that point.
He was strongest during the ninth kilometer, as his 3:03.8 split was bettered by just seven other runners in the field, and he climbed up to 18th with just 1,000 meters to go. In a field that was so strung out by the early hot pace, his four-spot jump was the 25th-best improvement in the field over that kilometer.
Though he could not hang on to that hard effort all the way through the finish, he did enough to hold on to All-America honors.
With both the indoor track and field and cross country seasons now in the books as of this past weekend, Michigan will now fully turn its attention toward the spring outdoor track and field season. A schedule has not yet been announced for the season.
Michigan Results
24. Devin Meyrer (30:27.9)
Players Mentioned
