Site: Jacksonville, Fla. (Jax Track at Hodges Stadium)
Event: NCAA East Preliminary Rounds (Day 2 of 2)
U-M Result: No team scoring
Next U-M Event: Mon-Sat., June 9-12 -- at NCAA Outdoor Championships (Eugene, Ore.)
• Complete Results (PDF)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Five competitors clinched berths to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the No. 19-ranked University of Michigan men's track and field team on Friday (May 28) as it closed out a successful weekend at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds at Jax Track at Hodges Stadium.
Steeplechasers Joost Plaetinck and Christian Hubaker, 1,500-meter runner Tom Dodd, 110-meter hurdler Josh Zeller and the 4x400 relay team of Roland Amarteifio, Ayden Owens, Vail Hartman and Dubem Amene all secured their spots to compete at the national meet to be held June 9-12 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
They join decathletes Owens and Heath Baldwin and shot putters Andrew Liskowitz and John Meyer to give Michigan nine entries into NCAAs -- the most in a single year dating back in program history through at least 1996.
Of the Wolverines' five berths to the NCAA Championships, none came in wilder circumstances than the 4x400 relay. Running in sixth place with 150 meters left in the anchor leg, Amene started his charge. He started to reel in both Clemson and South Carolina down the homestretch, passed the Gamecocks with less than 10 meters to go, and got Clemson right at the line by 0.03 seconds.
When the dust had settled, Amene had run a blistering 45.59-second closing lap -- redemption from a disappointing individual finish earlier in the day -- and positioned the Wolverines for the first of three at-large berths to the national meet. As they looked on in the first of two remaining heats, the lights went out at the stadium with the runners having only covered 200 meters of the 1,600-meter race. That race was completed under the light of hundreds of mobile-phone flashlights, and without any teams displacing them in the at-large standings.
Things got dicey for Michigan in the third-and-final heat as five teams ran faster than Michigan's time from heat one, but the Wolverines were able to hold on to the final at-large qualifying spot. A disqualification from that heat moved Michigan up to 11th overall and the second of three at-large berths, which was still only made possible by Amene running down South Carolina.
Remarkably, the final margin was a country mile wider compared to the Wolverines' last 4x400 relay experience in 2019, when Hartman anchored the squad to nationals in a lean at the line by 0.005 seconds.
Rewinding to the beginning of the track session, Dodd was the first Wolverine to clinch his berth to nationals as he earned an at-large bid with his 3:39.60 to finish 11th overall. After running the first half of the race near the back of the pack, he made a move at the bell to move up to fifth in a bunched-up pack, setting up a sprint for the finish.
He went wide off the penultimate turn with 300 meters to go, moving up to third place -- within the bounds of the five automatic NCAA Championships berths. Dodd was still fourth coming off the final turn onto the homestretch, but had a big group of five in hot pursuit, potentially in danger of finishing outside the top-seven threshold that would keep him alive for NCAA qualifying.
He ultimately was passed by two runners in the closing meters, but his time -- the equivalent of a 3:57.16 mile -- was enough to push him through to Eugene with one of the at-large berths. Incidentally, he twice ran 3:57 miles at the NCAA Indoor Championships this past March en route to first team All-America honors.
Teammate Nick Foster ran an admirable 3:42.37 for eighth in his heat, and 17th overall.
Dodd kick-started a streak of three straight events on the track program that produced four Michigan qualifiers to the national meet -- including two in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, making Michigan the only school with multiple qualifiers in the event.
Plaetinck was the first to secure his berth as he finished third in the second of three heats to earn an automatic berth in 8:43.12, ultimately placing him eighth overall. He ran near the front throughout, moving up to third halfway through the race. With two laps to go, he was still running third in a strung-out lead group well clear of fourth -- and that pack condensed to within steps of one another with a lap to go, assured of advancement to Eugene so long as they avoided disaster over a barrier. No such calamity occured, and Plaetinck cruised home for his first-ever berth to the NCAA Championships on the track.
Hubaker followed in the next race with a berth of his own, though his required slightly more drama as he got an at-large berth in 8:44.56. Like Plaetinck, he ran from near the front throughout, never falling back farther than fifth once the race got rolling. Two men broke away with 1,000 meters left to go, and Hubaker established himself at the fore of a chase group that ran six men deep, all looking to earn the third-and-final auto berth in the heat or finish fourth/fifth as quickly as possible for an at-large berth. With a lap to go, it was down to a one-on-one race between Hubaker and Syracuse's Aiden Tooker. Hubaker remained just ahead of Tooker for most of the final circuit around the track, but was not able to accelerate off the final barrier quite as well as Tooker beat him to the line. Still, Hubaker ran fast enough to secure his at-large berth by more than a second.
This marks the seventh time in the past 10 NCAA Outdoor Championships that Michigan has had at least one entrant in the steeplechase, and the first time U-M has had two qualifiers since eventual Olympic medalist Brian Diemer and Gerard Donakowski both made the meet in 1983.
Zeller overcame obstacles of his own, both literally and figuratively, to secure Michigan's first berth to the NCAA Outdoor Championships 110-meter hurdles field since 2007. Zeller had to come from behind to earn his at-large berth in an all-conditions career-best 13.60 seconds (+2.4m/s wind).
He was the fifth man over the second hurdle after a comparatively slower start, but moved up to fourth midway through as one of his leading competitors crashed out of the race a couple lanes to his right. Zeller nearly pulled even with the third-place hurdler over the final hurdles, but could not quite catch him -- and his automatic berth to NCAAs -- before the line. Though he needed to wait for the remaining two heats to run before learning his at-large qualifying fate, no other non-automatic qualifier matched his time and he finished ninth overall on the day.
Amarteifio was not quite able to recapture the 2019 form that delivered him to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, as he came up fractions of a second shy of making the 2021 meet. His 51.41-second performance for fifth in his heat was just 0.37 seconds shy of both fourth place and the last at-large berth. He finished 17th overall. Likewise, Amene took 23rd in the 400-meter quarterfinals in 47.69 to improve on his pre-meet seeding by two spots. Both came back at the end of the meet to clinch the Wolverines' 4x400 relay berth to nationals.
High jumper Max Wagner placed tied for 21st with a career-best-tying clearance of 2.11m (6 feet, 11 inches) to conclude his Michigan career. He cleared his first two bars on his first attempts, but could not make it up and over at 2.16m (7-1).
Derrick Simmons closed out his individual season on a high note, placing 18th in the 800-meter quarterfinals -- well above his pre-meet No. 42 seed -- in his first East Prelims appearance.
The NCAA Outdoor Championships will close out the collegiate season for the Michigan men on June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore. The NCAA East Prelims continue for one more day for the Wolverine women.
Full Michigan Results by Event
Q = automatic qualifier to final; q = at-large qualifier to final
400 meter dash
Quarterfinals
23. Dubem Amene / 47.69
First Round
24. Dubem Amene / 46.71q
800 meter run
Quarterfinals
18. Derrick Simmons / 1:50.06
First Round
18. Derrick Simmons / 1:49.74q
44. Thomas Shilgalis / 1:53.52
1,500 meter run
Quarterfinals
11. Tom Dodd / 3:39.60 [New PR] [NCAA QUALIFIER]
17. Nick Foster / 3:42.37
First Round
8. Tom Dodd / 3:43.85Q
20. Nick Foster / 3:44.76Q
30. Oli Raimond / 3:46.54
Steeplechase
Quarterfinals
8. Joost Plaetinck / 8:43.12Q [NCAA QUALIFIER]
11. Christian Hubaker / 8:44.56q [NCAA QUALIFIER]
18. Austin Remick / 8:58.03
10,000 meter run
Semifinals
31. Devin Meyrer / 30:07.89
--. Tom Brady / DNF
110 meter hurdles
Quarterfinals
9. Josh Zeller / 13.60q (+2.4m/s) [New PR] [NCAA QUALIFIER]
19. Job Mayhue / 13.92 (+2.4m/s)
First Round
9. Josh Zeller / 13.68Q (+2.2m/s)
17. Job Mayhue / 13.79Q (+1.4m/s) [New PR]
400 meter hurdles
Quarterfinals
17. Roland Amarteifio / 51.41
First Round
24. Roland Amarteifio / 51.90q
4x400 relay
Quarterfinals
11. Amarteifio, Owens, Hartman, Amene / 3:07.18 [NCAA QUALIFIER]
High Jump
First Round
21. Max Wagner / 2.11m (6-11) [New PR]
43. Heath Baldwin / 2.01m (6-7.25)
Pole Vault
First Round
31. Henry Sheldon / 5.00m (16-4.75)
Shot Put
First Round
1. Andrew Liskowitz / 20.28m (66-6.5) [NCAA QUALIFIER]
5. John Meyer / 19.33m (63-5) [NCAA QUALIFIER]
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