MICHIGAN ATHELTIC COMMUNICATIONS Chad Shepard | Men’s and Women’s 2016 MICHIGAN MEN’S TRACK & FIELD Cross Country and Track and Field 734-386-0372 | phone [email protected] | MGoBlue.com QUICK HITS -- The Big Ten’s Medal of Honor and Postgradu- BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS ate Scholarship recipient Mason Ferlic is the lone SITE: LINCOLN, NEBRASKA (ED WEIR STADIUM) Michigan athlete defending his title at this year’s TV: BIG TEN NETWORK (AIRS 5/15 AT 6 PM CDT) Big Ten Championships (steeplechase) STREAM: BTN2GO (AIRS 5/15 BEGINNING AT 1:40 PM CDT) -- The Wolverines return eight scorers and 18 total athletes who competed at the 2015 edition of the Outdoor Big Ten Championships NOTES -- Mason Ferlic’s NCAA-leading steeple time set at Stanford (May 1) came in under the Olympic The University of Michigan men’s track and field team begins the championship phase Standard of 8:30 of the outdoor season this weekend with the 2016 Outdoor Big Ten Championships on Friday, Saturday and Saturday (May 13-15) at the Huskers’ Ed Weir Stadium on the -- In each of the last two indoor championship campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. This marks Nebraska’s meets, U-M was the only program to score in first time hosting the outdoor conference meet since joining the conference in 2011-12, each of the middle-distance and distance events although it hosted the indoor meet in 2012. (800m, Mile, 3K, 5K, DMR) Multi-events begin at noon CT on Friday (May 13) and when things cool down, the 10K races will close events out, tentatively scheduled for 7:30 p.m., although those PROGRAM HISTORY races could be delayed for a later start time, when the weather has cooled more. First Year ..................................................................... 1893 The decathlon resumes at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday (May 14), while the 3,000-meter Big Ten Member ........................................................... 1896* steeplechase closes things down at 6:30 p.m. Sunday (May 15) events begin at 1:30 Big Ten Team Titles ..................................................... 57 p.m. with the men’s shot put and events on the track pick up at 1:55 with the 4x100- Big Ten Indiv. Titles ..................................................... 16 meter relay, wrapping up with the 4x400-meter relay at 4:45 p.m. NCAA Top 10 Finishes ................................................. 33 NCAA Titles ................................................................. 45 Now in his third year, head coach Jerry Clayton has guided the Maize and Blue to consecutive top-five conference finishes during the indoor season, and this past * = Charter Member February at the SPIRE Facility in Geneva, Ohio, U-M finished fourth, just two points shy of a runner-up finish. LAST 5 YEARS AT THE B1G CHAMPIONSHIPS YEAR............................................................................. PLACE The Wolverines have parlayed the momentum they built in the fall, when the team 2015............................................................................... 10th^ won the Big Ten Cross Country Championship, into the program’s best indoor season 2014............................................................................... 9th^ since Ron Warhurst retired in 2009. Now, the team looks to tie a bow on the season 2013............................................................................... 10th with their first year of top-five conference finishes during both the indoor and outdoor 2012............................................................................... 9th season since that very same season. Another focus for U-M is sending this weekend’s 2011 ............................................................................... 9th 11 competing seniors out on a high note. ^ = Under Coach Jerry Clayton WOLVERINES AMONG THE BIG TEN’S BEST The Wolverines below are ranked top-5 in the Big Ten this year in their respective COACHING STAFF Name (Specialization) events (all ranks according to TFRRS) Head Coach ................ Jerry Clayton (Throws, Jumps, Multi) Asst. ........................... Kevin Sullivan (Mid-D & Distance) ATHLETE EVENT TIME/MARK RANK Asst. ............................ Steve Rajewsky (Sprints & Hurdles) McLaughlin 400m H 51.00 3 Vol. Asst. .................. Shean Conlon (Pole Vault) Ferlic 3K Steeple 8:28.77 1 Vol. Asst. .................. Dusty Lopez (Distance) Mora 8:50.61 3 Vol. Asst. .................. Stephen Saenz (Throws) Ferlic 5,000m 13:37.56 2 Beller 13:56.31 4 Flanagan 10,000m 29:13.72 2 FOLLOW U-M TRACK & FIELD Ellis Hammer 66.06m; 216-9 ft. 4 : www.MGoBlue.com Web Bastien Decathlon 7,417 points 2 : @umichtrack Twitter Long Jump 7.51m; 24-7.75 ft. 5 Facebook: www.facebook.com/MichiganMensTrack Stephens Jr. Triple Jump 15.10m; 49-6.5 ft. 4 A MICHIGAN FIRST AND SPECIAL FATHER/SON RECORD MID-D AND DISTANCE EXCELLENCE RETURNS Steven Bastien became the program’s first-ever All-American in the Heptathlon in 2015, UNDER SULLIVAN and he repeated the feat this year with another 8th place finish indoors. Bastien owns The most decorated athlete in program history, Kevin the Michigan records in the Hep (5,810) and Dec (7,417). He and his father Gary, an All- Sullivan has returned the Michigan middle-distance American in 1979-80 at Eastern Michigan, own the father/son U.S. Decathlon combined and distance programs to national prominence in score record of 15,261 points, as documented by Frank Zarnowski. his short time back in Ann Arbor. Aside from helping Mason Ferlic tally three Big Ten titles in the last three RECORDS CONTINUE TO FALL championship meets, Sullivan has ensured U-M to be The Wolverines have set 52 marks or times that rank among the all-time top-10 the only program to score in every mid-d and distance performances at Michigan under Jerry Clayton, including 10 this outdoor season alone. event at the last two indoor Big Ten Championships. He On record watch this weekend will be the Hammer (Joe Ellis) and Decathlon (Steven also produced five NCAA Outdoor Regional qualifiers Bastien, while Mason Ferlic owns the No. 2 times at U-M in the 5K and steeplechase, last spring with seven total entries. about 10 seconds off the 5K record and six seconds off the steeplechase record, both of which were held by Olympians and current U-M Men’s Track and Field Hall of Famers. COACHING STAFF In his short tenure leading the University of Michigan, Clayton has made the Wolverines a force again in the Big Ten conference. A Big Ten alum and Midwest native, he took over the U-M program after spending the previous 15 seasons at Auburn University. One of the nation’s top field event coaches, Clayton’s work has produced 16 NCAA individual cham- pions, 39 international team competitors, 24 qualifiers for the U.S. OlympicTrials and 33 participants Jerry Clayton in Olympic Games and World Championship competition. He has coached athletes to NCAA titles Head Coach in seven of nine field events as well, with All-America honors in all nine events. Overall, Clayton has coached 89 NCAA All-American student-athletes. He has had 158 athletes qualify for the NCAA Throws Track and Field Championships and 115 individual conference champions. 3rd Season In two-plus seasons, the Maize and Blue have claimed three conference titles under Clayton and broken eight program records. He also produced the program’s first-ever All-American in the hep- tathlon, Steven Bastien, who now owns the program standard in that event and became a back- to-back American this winter. Clayton has coached U-M to consecutive top-five idnoor conference finishes, and this winter in Alabama, all five competing Wolverines left the NCAA Championships with All-America honors in hand. In 2015, Clayton helped guide 10 Wolverine athletes to the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, and in his first season at U-M, he helped 13 student-athletes advance to the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, including eight field event athletes. A native of Rushville, Ill., Clayton was a two-time NCAA qualifier in the shot put at Illinois, where he earned his bachelor of sciences degree in physical education in 1980. Clayton and his wife, Becky, a former three-time All-American long jumper at the University of Illinois, have two sons: Zach and Nick. Zach played on Auburn’s 2010 national championship team, while Nick is a 2013 graduate of the Air Force Academy and has been selected into the pilot’s program. Steve Rajewsky Kevin Sullivan Assistant Coach Asssistant Coach Sprints/Hurdles Head Coach - Cross Country 3rd Season Mid-Distance and Distance 2nd Season A proven winner, Rajewsky has been part of 17 conference title-winning The most decorated athlete in Michigan teams as an athlete and coach, and history, Sullivan has brought his alma he has brought that championship mater back onto the map of nationally elite pedigree to the U-M sprinters in his distance and middle-distance programs two short years with the program, pro- since his return to Ann Arbor. ducing the program’s first conference title winner since 2009 in the 60m In his two seasons, U-M has been the only dash (Chris Maye, 2015). school to score in every middle-distance and distance event (800, Mile, 3K, 5K, Rajewsky coached three Wolverines to the NCAA Preliminary Rounds in the 100-meter dash last spring. U-M tied for the NCAA DMR) during the indoor Big Ten championships. He pushed Mason lead and was the only school in the NCAA East Region to accom- Ferlic to his first career Big Ten title (2015 indoor 5K) and Ferlic took plish that feat last spring (Nolan, Spooney, Crenshaw). off, sandwiching the outdoor 3,000m steeplechase (2015) and another Five of the top six 60m dash times and two of the top 10 100m indoor 5K title (2016) around a Big Ten cross country runner-up finish dash times in U-M history have been recorded during Rajewsky’s and NCAA Great Lakes Regional individual title. This indoor season, tenure, and freshman Taylor McLaughlin broke the 400-meter U-M broke the school DMR record held by the 2004 indoor NCAA dash record (46.42) on his way to a bronze medal at the Big Ten Championship squad which featured three Olympians, and went on to Indoor Championships during the winter.