For freshman Stann Waithe it took one meet. For junior Rondell
Ruff it took almost three years. But both achieved their first
collegiate victories at Saturday’s Jack Harvey Invitational
at the Indoor Track Building.
With potential Olympians Nate Brannen and Nick Willis sitting
out, Ruff and Waithe, among several others, had the opportunity to
headline the meet. And they rose to the occasion, giving the
Michigan men’s track and field team a good jumpstart for the
season.
With the absence of Brannen, last year’s indoor national
champion, Ruff was able to push his way to the front in the
800-meter run — a race that displayed the depth of the widely
acclaimed Michgan middle- and long- distance program. Freshman
Sebastien Louinis and senior Dan Cooke took third and fourth in the
event, respectively.
Waithe seized the opportunity to show Michigan fans why he was
picked to bolster the less-prominent sprinting program. He edged
out senior teammate Francis Legasse Jr. for the win.
With the first intercollegiate meet of the year under their
belts, the Michigan coaching staff and runners are ready to attack
the season.
“This meet is a kind of evaluation for where you are, from
(the meet), we get a little solid ground after break,”
associate head coach Fred Laplante said.
For other runners, the meet served as somewhat of a return to
glory.
Senior Brian Turner won the mile, his first victory since the
2001 season, and junior Sean Moore won the 3,000-meter run.
After an illustrious high school career, including numerous all
state accolades, Moore has struggled to perform at the level he had
hoped he would at college. Saturday’s race was a starting
point in his personal quest to show what he can do.
“I feel like I am coming off three bad seasons, and I am a
lot more committed to prove something to myself and my
teammates,” Moore said. “It felt pretty good, but a lot
of guys sat out, so it is not much of a confidence
booster.”
Andrew Ellerton also bounced back from a disappointing
cross-country season to win the 600-meter run. Entering the final
lap, Ellerton was in third, but the sophomore pushed his way to the
front, winning by half a second.
Freshman hurdling standout Jeff Porter took third in the
60-meter hurdles, with a time of 8.13 — almost a tenth of a
second faster than his performance in last month’s Maize and
Blue Intrasqaud Meet.
Although Porter expressed discontent with his performance, it is
no small achievement to gain a tenth of a second between a meet,
especially coming off of winter break. Last winter, Porter ran a
7.81, the fastest time by a high school hurdler. Such a time might
put him in contention for the Big Ten Title. Porter has made a
fluid adjustment to collegiate 42-inch hurdles, which are three
inches higher than those in high school competition.
Though there was no team score for the meet, Michigan, as
expected, established itself even without its star runners. The
Wolverines will have another shot at Eastern Michigan and others
next Saturday at the Eastern Michigan Invitational.