Monday
July 11, 2005
sports.michigandaily.com
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al Hidian ailu
SPORTS
11
Despite loss of top two, 4
program will still thrive
JAMES V. DOWD
ON MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
So what's next for Michigan's vaunted distance
program now that its two stars have departed for the
professional ranks?
While the contributions of Nate Brannen and Nick
Willis are not completely replaceable by any means,
the team might not be in as bad of shape as many
would think. With internationally respected coach
Ron Warhurst - and his history of creating champi-
ons - leading the program, maintaining the Wolver-
ines' success is far from out of reach.
Leading the charge next season will be seniors
Andrew Ellerton and Rondell Ruff, a pair of mid-
dIe-distance runners that has improved immensely
since arriving in Ann Arbor. After being hobbled by
injuries for most of this past year, Ellerton earned
All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Champi-
onships with his fifth-place finish. Just last summer,
Ellerton was one place away from joining Willis in
Athens after finishing third in the Canadian Olym-
pic Trials. Brannen finished fourth.
While Ruff hasn't earned the international attention
that Brannen, Willis and Ellerton have, he has quietly
racked up wins for the Wolverines. Besides running
with Ellerton on the Wolverines' 2005 indoor nation-
al champion distance medley, he ran on Michigan's
championship 4x800-meter relay team at the Penn
Relays, placed fifth in the 800-meter run at the Big
Ten Championships and fifth in the NCAA Mid-East
Regional's 1,500-meter run. During this past outdoor
season, Ruff managed to break the 1:50 second bar-
rier in the 800-meter run, surpassing what has long
proven an enormous mental barrier for track runners
and making the sky the limit for Ruff in his final sea-
son at Michigan. While every one-thousandth of a
second will be increasingly harder to get, Ruff will
likely continue to improve as he has throughout his
entire career in Maize and Blue.
Even more enticing than the proven commodities
of Ellerton and Ruff are the prospects of sopho-
mores Victor Gras and Michael Woods. When the
pair arrived in Ann Arbor, many people compared
it to the arrival of Brannen and professional miler
Alan Webb, because like Brannen and Webb before
them, Gras and Woods are both knocking on the
door of the four-minute mile barrier.
Even though he is entering just his sophomore
year, Woods has plenty of big meet experience.
Woods participated in the 1,500-meter run at this
year's NCAA Outdoor Championships and place
ninth in the 3,000-meter run at the 2003 World Youth
Championships. Gras also has a history of stepping
up at big meets, as he ran the nation's top high school
1,500-meter time during his senior year and placed
second at the 2004 Adidas national high school
championship. Gras also represented France at the
2004 World Junior Championships.
Besides these potential leaders, Warhurst's
squad houses a few sleepers with potential to score
big for the Wolverines in the coming years. Junior
Sebastien Louinis finished seventh in the 600-
meter run at last year's Big ten Indoor Champi-
onships and was part of Michigan's 2005 Big Ten
Outdoor Champion distance medley relay. Since
his high school years, Louinis has always had a
nose for victory, finding that extra gear at the end
of the race to push for the front of the pack. With
another year of Warhurst's tutelage there's no tell-
ing how much Louinis will improve.
The final piece of the puzzle that will make up
for the absence of Brannen and Willis are this year's
incoming freshman. Warhurst inked the top two
finishers in the 2004 Michigan high school state
cross-country championship - Justin Switzer of
Waterford Kettering and John Black of Bloomfield
Hills Brother Rice.
Switzer is perhaps the most talked about runner
from Michigan since Dathan Ritzenhein broke the
national high school record in the 3,200-meter run in
2001. Switzer won the 1,600-meter run in the Michi-
gan high school state meet and placed third at this
year's Nike Outdoor Nationals. This puts him in line
to threaten the four-minute barrier after working out
on Warhurst's watch, giving the Wolverines a chance
to have five sub-four-minute milers. Switzer has also
run 1:53 in the 800-meter run and scored 20 points
a game on Kettering's basketball team - the highest
average in Oakland County.
Black won this year's 3,200-meter run at the
high school state meet, and his attitude will allow
him to continue improving once he reaches Mich-
igan. Black improved his times in'cross-country
and the 3,200-meter run throughout high school,
soaking up whatever advice he could get from his
coaches at Brother Rice. Black is an extremely
coachable athlete that will likely thrive with
Warhurst's advice and the help of teammates with
After the departure of Nate Brannen and Nick Willis, Michigan will look to senior Andrew Ellerton to
help it maintain its position as one of the top programs in the nation.
comparable talent.
From the seniors to the freshman, Warhurst still
has an incredibly deep squad, music to the ears of
anyone concerned about Michigan falling off the map
with the loss of its top-two distance runners. With
Brannen and Willis still training around Ann Arbor,
all the remaining runners will have a great pair of role
models for training.
This next year will be a great challenge for War-
hurst as he tries to make the most of the deep talent
pool that he has in the wings. But looking at.his past
records with scores of NCAA champions and All-
Americans, there's no man better for the job.
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