Last week, the Michigan women’s track and field team competed against some of the top teams in the nation at the Stanford Invitational with sunny skies overhead. This past weekend, the team went up against another formidable, yet unlikely, foe — the weather.

“The weather was pretty brutal this weekend,” redshirt sophomore Allison Liske said. “It was a big change for us coming from California last weekend where it was 80 and balmy, but we just needed to come and make do with the weather that we had.”

Dealing with cold temperatures and windy conditions, the runners and throwers had to be a lot more cautious than usual during the two-day Eastern Michigan Invitational.

“I think the weather did have an effect more mentally than it did physically on anyone,” Liske said. “All you can do is go out and hope for the best and work your hardest.”

And that’s just what the Wolverines did — grabbing a total of seven first-place victories over the course of the event.

“The weather was a surprising disappointment,” Michigan coach James Henry said. “But I was very pleased and proud of how the young ladies competed under such terrible conditions.”

On Friday, Liske placed first in the shot put, followed closely by freshman Erin Pendleton and junior Emily Pendleton, who placed 3rd and 4th, respectively. But all of Michigan’s throwers agreed that the weather played a role in their field events.

“The wind was a huge deal on throwing,” Emily Pendleton said. “It was really windy and cold, and it’s been a while since I’ve competed in conditions like that, so it was a little bit different. But overall, we all buckled down and we each had decent performances. Granted, for the majority of us, it didn’t go as far as we wanted it to, but there were some good things that happened, and it was a good meet overall.”

Michigan picked up six more first-place victories the following day from the efforts of Emily Pendleton in the discus throw, redshirt senior Christina Solomon in the high jump, redshirt junior Charnee Lumbus in the 100-meter hurdles, redshirt junior Alisha Cole in the 100-meter dash and redshirt senior Shana Vinson in the 400-meter dash.

In addition, the 4x400-meter relay team picked up another victory — the team’s third relay victory in the past five competitions.

“We’ve always had a good 4x4, so we are always trying to make it to the next level and stay consistent,” Vinson said. “Obviously we want a faster time, and we kind of take advantage of that every meet, instead of letting it fall by the wayside. We’re trying to uphold that reputation that we’ve had from previous years.”

With this meet under their belt, the team will now prepare for the most important part of the outdoor season. Although staying healthy and focused during the long outdoor season may have posed a problem to some of the less experienced members on the team, the upperclassmen are confident that the team can post big results in the coming weeks before Big Ten Outdoor Championships on May 14-16.

“Everyone is feeling good,” Liske said. “I think we are ready to hit our big meets before we hit the Big Tens, and I think we’re ready to battle at Big Tens this year. We’re going to put up a bigger fight than we did indoors.”