Michigan
Big Ten Indoor Championships
DMR Wins Gold, Two Records Set as U-M Third After Day One of B1G Indoor Championships
2/26/2026 9:52:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
Site: Indianapolis, Ind. (Fall Creek Pavilion)
Event: Big Ten Indoor Championships (Day 1 of 3)
U-M Team Finish: Third Place of 15 Teams after Day 1 (11 points)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Feb. 26 -- at Big Ten Championships - Day 2 (Indianapolis, Ind.), 11:30 a.m.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The University of Michigan men's track and field team set a pair of program records and took the distance medley relay title on Thursday (Feb. 26) at Fall Creek Pavilion during day one of the Big Ten Indoor Championships, sitting in third place with 11 points.
The distance medley relay team of Brendan Herger, Will Barhite, Camden Law and Trent McFarland took home gold with a time of 9:38.72. The squad stayed in front for the first three legs of the relay, keeping the lead position until Washington and Wisconsin pulled ahead with three laps to go. On the final lap, McFarland surged ahead and retook the lead on the backstretch to finish just 0.13 seconds ahead of second-place Oregon.
John O'Reilly and Miles Brown will advance to the 600-meter run finals on Saturday after O'Reilly finished third (1:15.86) and Brown fifth (1:16.32) in the preliminaries. O'Reilly ran a personal-best time, breaking the program record and the U23 Canadian record he set in January.
Sophomore Jake Machiniak will run in Saturday's 200-meter dash finals after posting a personal-best time of 20.87 seconds in the prelims and setting the program record.
A pair of Wolverines finished in the top 15 of the 5,000-meter run, with Nathan Lopez finishing eighth (14:00.55) and Luke Venhuizen finishing 12th (14:10.96). Freshman Luke Alverson finished 16th in his Big Ten Indoor Championships debut.
Neil Howard had a solid first day in the heptathlon, sitting in first after running 6.88 in the 60-meter dash. Howard was the only runner to finish under seven seconds, and his time is 0.10 seconds from the No. 10 mark on the program performers list. The sophomore moved into second after the long jump and shot put, just 44 points behind first-place Victor Tornstrom of Ohio State.
Howard matched his personal best in the high jump, clearing 1.80m (5 feet, 10.75 inches), while Tyler Baker tied his season best of 1.89m (6-2.25). The pair sits in sixth and 13th, respectively, in the overall heptathlon standings. The final three events will be contested on Friday.
Michigan will continue action at the Big Ten Indoor Championships on Friday (Feb. 27), with day two of the meet starting at 11:30 a.m. with the heptathlon 60-meter hurdles. The day two competition will be streamed live on B1G+.
Players Mentioned
