Last season, the Michigan women’s track and field team clinched their first Big Ten Indoor Championship since 2016. In their first event since the win, the non-scoring Wolverine Invitational provided the team an opportunity to showcase what created that success. And with 10 podium finishes, the Wolverines did just that.
Michigan started slowly with sixth and seventh-place finishes in the weight throw by freshman thrower Elizabeth Tapper and sophomore thrower Trinity Franklin, respectively. But the Wolverines found their footing in multiple field events soon after.
Graduate pole vaulter Cate Visscher came in third place, clearing 3.80 meters, while freshman pole vaulter Kaitlin McHale closely followed with a fourth-place finish, clearing 3.65 meters.
Michigan rode on this momentum to close out the field events. Sophomore jumper Gabi Newman came first in the high jump with a height of 1.68 meters, matching her personal best, while senior thrower Corinne Jemison threw 16.18 meters in the shot put, earning her a second-place finish. The strong finishes from the younger members of the team demonstrate the promising capabilities of the newer class, while also highlighting areas the Wolverines can improve on as a whole.
“Even though there’s a lot of work to be done, I’m still very thankful for where I’m at,” Jemison said. “I need to work on taking cues and then fixing things during a meet and I think that today I did a little better on that than I have in the past.”
Coming off of a second-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, senior sprinter and hurdler Aasia Laurencin placed just sixth in the event. However, in the prelims, she placed fifth with a personal best of 7.55 seconds.
“This meet does not matter,” Laurencin said. “January is like a training month for me … Honestly, I’m so happy I’m faster than I was last year because the standard is way higher now.”
And while Laurencin improved her time, the most successful finishes came from the distance runners.
Coming off of a strong cross country season, graduate distance runners Samantha Saenz and Kayla Windemueller placed third and fourth, respectively, in the mile run, setting the tone for the rest of the distance events. They were followed by multiple podium finishes closed out by graduate distance runner Samantha Tran in the 3000 meters.
“We’ve got a long history of being really strong on the women’s distance side and (associate head coach Mike) McGuire always has his girls ready to go,” track and field director Kevin Sullivan said. “So you put that all together and they’re a very competitive group and that leads to good performances and a lot of first-place finishes.”
Closing out the invitational was the 4×400 meter relay team composed of senior distance runner Amber Gall, graduate distance runner Cassie Kearney, freshman hurdler Sidney Green and sophomore distance runner Trinity Henderson. The group finished in second place, further displaying the strength of Michigan distance runners and closing the invitational on a positive note for the team.
With multiple impressive finishes from athletes across the board, the Wolverines are clearly prepared for the upcoming season. However, with its next invitational set to have four Big Ten teams and to be scored, Michigan must also focus on cleaning up the smaller issues to create more well-rounded success. And if the Wolverines can do that, they may be able to take the first steps in replicating the same ending they found last season.