Michigan
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Zeller Marches to NCAA Championships 110 Hurdles Final
6/8/2022 10:42:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
Site: Eugene, Ore. (Hayward Field)
Event: NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships (Day 1 of 2)
U-M Result: No team score
Next U-M Event: Friday, June 10 -- at NCAA Championships - Day 2 (Eugene, Ore.), 6:42 p.m. PDT
EUGENE, Ore. -- Hurdler Joshua Zeller delivered on his status among the pre-meet favorites on Wednesday (June 8) as the University of Michigan men's track and field team competed on the first day of men's action at the NCAA East Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
Zeller in the 110-meter hurdles was the only one of Michigan's four semifinal entries who advanced to compete for national titles in Friday's final-round action, though true freshman Miles Brown earned the third All-America honor of his young career without advancing from Wednesday's 800-meter semifinals.
Steeplechaser Christian Hubaker and 400-meter sprinter Dubem Amene earned honorable mention status with their respective finishes, but are not considered All-Americans per the guidelines of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Zeller clinched Michigan's first finals berth of the weekend as he was a narrow runner-up in his heat with a time of 13.45 seconds (-0.2 meters-per-second [m/s] wind reading) to qualify automatically.
He came off the final hurdle among three men who were virtually tied for the two automatic qualifying spots and was able to use his signature closing speed and strength to secure his advancement to the final.
Zeller, the seventh-fastest collegian of all time in this event, will have his first showdown with NCAA leader and No. 4 all-time collegian Trey Holloway of Florida State. Both men have broken 13.20 this season, setting the stage for potentially just the fourth-ever occurrence of multiple sub-13.20 men in the same race in collegiate history.
Zeller also will chase Michigan history, looking to become the first man in school history to finish better than third place. Four men, most recently Thomas Wilcher in 1985, have won bronze at NCAAs for the Wolverines, but none have claimed gold or silver.
Zeller will return to the track Friday (June 10) at 6:42 p.m. PDT on ESPN2.
Though he did not ultimately advance in a hotly contested 800-meter semifinal, Brown notched the third All-America honor of his burgeoning career with a 16th-place finish in an outdoor career-best 1:47.99. He was seven spots from advancing, but only just over a half-second away.
Brown found himself coming off the final curve at the back of a group of six men battling for two automatic qualifying spots with 100 meters to go. Just as he did to medal at Big Tens and qualify for NCAAs, Brown surged in the final straight, but was unable to gain enough ground and finished fifth in the heat. He finished the race still alive for one of three non-automatic qualifying berths, but was eliminated by the end of the next race.
The hard finish was enough to deliver him to second team All-America status -- the first such honor for Michigan in this event since 2007 -- by just 0.03 seconds over a runner from a later heat. That second-team honor is added to a resume that already includes a first-team indoor distance medley relay award and a matching indoor second-team 800-meter plaudit.
Brown remained No. 6 in school history with the performance, though he became the sixth in school history at sub-1:48.00.
Hubaker could not quite reprise his All-America status from the 2021 edition of the championships, as the Big Ten bronze medalist finished 21st in 8:48.91. Hubaker was running near the front of the pack in the first half of his semifinal heat, but he gradually began to fall back in the pack as the race reached its closing laps.
It marked the final collegiate race for the sixth-year competitor who twice competed at NCAAs, once medaled at Big Tens and ranks among Michigan's all-time fastest steeplechasers.
Amene also struggled to recapture the form he flashed to qualify to nationals from the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, clocking 46.68 to take 23rd overall. The performance caps a breakthrough sophomore campaign in which he broke the indoor school record, earned a pair of indoor All-America honors and won a pair of Big Ten silver medals.
Michigan Results
Q/q = qualified for the next round
400 meter dash
Semifinals
23. Dubem Amene / 46.68
800 meter run
Semifinals
16. Miles Brown / 1:47.99Â [New PR] (Second-Team All-American)
Steeplechase
Semifinals
21. Christian Hubaker / 8:48.91
110 meter hurdles
Semifinals
4. Joshua Zeller / 13.45Q [-0.2m/s]
Players Mentioned
