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Thursday, June 2, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS
Five Wolverines qualify at
NCAA Outdoor East Prelim
They will head to
Eugene, Ore., for
the NCAA Outdoor
Championships
By MATTHEW KENNEDY
Daily Sports Writer
Competing for the first time
since
winning
the
Big
Ten
Outdoor
Championship,
the
Michigan women’s track and
field team had a simple goal in
mind: get as many athletes to the
NCAA Outdoor Championships
as possible.
So
when
the
Wolverines
opened competition at the NCAA
Outdoor East Preliminary in
Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday, they
did just that with five athletes
qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor
Championships in Eugene, Ore.,
on June 9.
In
the
10,000-meter
run,
redshirt sophomore Gina Sereno
— who won the Big Ten Outdoor
Championship in the event two
weeks ago — put up a fourth-
place
finish
overall,
despite
being the No. 22 seed, with a
time of 34:24.10 to qualify for the
NCAA Outdoor Championships
next weekend. The qualifying
process for the 10,000-meter run
consisted of only one run with
the top 12 runners advancing,
thus not allowing much room for
error.
The meet was different than
most in that only a few athletes
took part in it. Just 13 Michigan
athletes traveled to and competed
in the meet, which is just one-
fifth the size of when the entire
team travels.
“It’s a lot different,” said
Michigan coach James Henry.
“It’s not a lot of athletes, so you
don’t feel that team camaraderie,
and our team and athletes are not
in every single event. It’s more of
an individual thing, but we had
a large enough group of ladies
there to feel as much a team as
possible.”
The Wolverines had a quiet
Friday
with
most
Michigan
runners taking part in heats.
The busiest event on the day was
the 3,000-meter steeplechase,
in which the top 12 times
advanced to Eugene. Sophomore
Claire
Borchers
very
nearly
qualified for the NCAA Outdoor
Championships, but finished in
13th with a time of 10:08.47 —
0.6 seconds out of advancing.
Redshirt
Sophomore
Sarah
Zieve
and
fifth-year
Senior
Anna Pasternak also took part
in the event, with Zieve setting a
personal best time.
The next day was completely
different,
though,
with
four
Wolverines advancing to the
Eugene.
In
the
100-meter
hurdle,
senior Cindy Ofili — who holds
the eighth-fastest time in the
world in that event — won her
heat with a time of 12.86 seconds
to automatically qualify for the
NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Arguably the best event of the
weekend for Michigan came in
the 1,500-meter run with three
athletes competing, including
redshirt senior Shannon Osika,
a Big Ten Outdoor champion.
Competing alongside her in the
same heat was fifth-year senior
Devon Hoppe, and in a different
heat junior Jaimie Phelan. All
three runners finished in the
top five of their respective heats,
which gave them all automatic
bids to Eugene.
“I was fortunate enough to
have Jaimie and Shannon to be
able to do everything with – to
warm up with, cool down with,
do all of our runs with,” Hoppe
said. “Even though it’s very
individually focused, we have
to do what we can to make sure
that we all feel supportive as
well.”
The
five
Wolverines
qualifying for the championship
meet is the most since 2009,
and with Michigan’s goal of
getting as many athletes to the
championship as possible now
over, the runners can set a new
goal to focus on: outrun their
competitors.
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Redshirt senior Shannon Osika received an automatic bid to NCAAs for her performance in the 1,500-meter run.
Six clinch spots for
NCAA Championships
By MIKE PERSAK
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men’s track and
field team has steadily improved
under the tenure of coach Jerry
Clayton. This weekend at the
NCAA Preliminary Rounds was
no different, as the Wolverines
had six athletes qualify for the
NCAA Outdoor Championships
— the most since Clayton has
taken over.
Redshirt freshman thrower
Joe Ellis was the first person
to secure his spot for Michigan
on Thursday, which he did on
his final attempt in the hammer
throw. Ellis unleashed a throw
of 68.25 meters, which not only
gave him a fourth-place finish
in the meet,
but also set
a new school
record
for
the
Wolverines.
Ellis
wasn’t
the
only
freshman to
move on for
Michigan. Freshman sprinter
Taylor McLaughlin clinched his
own spot at the NCAA Outdoor
Championships on Thursday in
the 400-meter hurdles, making
him the first true freshman
Wolverine to do so in the last 11
years. McLaughlin finished with
a time of 49.84 seconds, good
enough for a fifth-place finish
overall.
Though Ellis and McLaughlin
weren’t the only ones to have
success this weekend, their
contributions as freshmen give
Michigan bright hope for its
future, and Clayton and his staff
hope to use their experiences as
references for future freshmen.
“Hopefully, in the future,
we’ll be able to bring in this
level of freshmen and they’ll be
able to make that transition,”
Clayton said. “Or we’ll bring
some people in and redshirt
them the first year (like Ellis) to
help them grow in that respect
as well.”
Redshirt
sophomore
Ben
Flanagan
qualified
for
the
NCAA Outdoor Championships
as well in the 10,000-meter
event. Flanagan finished in
sixth-place at the meet with
a time of 30:04.60 in an event
that was extremely competitive
throughout.
Though
most
10,000-meter
runs
tend
to
finish with a large amount
of separation in between the
runners, this particular race
finished with just 2.84 seconds
separating the winner from the
12th-placed finisher.
The Wolverines’ other three
qualifiers for the national meet
are redshirt junior decathlete
Steven Bastien in the decathlon,
fifth-year
senior
distance
runner Mason Ferlic in the
3,000-meter steeplechase and
redshirt junior distance runner
Tony Smoragiewicz.
All six athletes representing
Michigan in the
NCAA Outdoor
Championships
will now turn
to preparation
for the next two
weeks. But for
the Wolverines,
that
doesn’t
necessarily
mean
that
anything will change.
“At this point in the season,
I think consistency is most
important,
because
you’re
going in to new experiences,”
Flanagan said. “For example,
we have a lot of guys going to
nationals for the first time.
It can be challenging (not) to
attempt try to try different
things and feel like you have to
put maximum energy into this
week. But it’s really important to
stay grounded and realize that
everything we’ve done up to this
point is the reason we’ve been so
successful this season, and you
really want to stick to that type
of routine.”
The
NCAA
Outdoor
Championships will not only
serve as the ultimate measuring
stick for Michigan’s qualifiers,
but it will also serve as a building
block for the future.
“If you can get an athlete
to the national level in their
freshman or sophomore year,
it’s a tremendous advantage for
them, especially going into their
later years,” Clayton said. “Of
course, that’s what we want to
do, is build the program.”
“At this point,
consistency is
most important.”