Track and Field Newsletter February 1, 2010

The beginning of the indoor sea-son has come and gone and the Wolverines are in running in

full force these past four meets. We’ve hit the Washtenaw County cir-

cuit the first three weeks, traveling to Eastern Michigan University for the EMU Invitational (Jan. 9), before hosting our rival Ohio State in The Dual (Jan. 16). We hosted our annual Simmons/Harvey Invitational (Jan. 23-24) before hitting the road for the Rod McCravy Memorial (Jan. 29-30) in Lexington, Ky. We didn’t travel far, heading over to

fellow county school Eastern Michigan for the EMU Invitational. Carl Bucha-non and David St. Amant won their re-spective events, with Buchanon taking the 60-meter hurdle title in a time of 8.02 seconds, while St. Amant won the quarter-mile in a time of 50.16. St. Amant was just one of a hand-

ful of Wolverines coasting their way into top times in the 400. Nicholas Neu-mann finished third, clocking 50.82, while Matt Wheeler and James Wade were fifth and sev-enth, respec-

tively. In the 200 dash some underclass-

men saw some action, with Aaron Tay-lor running 22.35 (second), while Matt Campbell was fifth, running 22.83. The distance core was led by senior

Peter Christmas, who took third in the 3,000 meters. In the field events, senior John Kipf

took second in the high jump, clearing 6-08.25, while junior Robert Peddlar grabbed a mark of 22-08.50 to place third. In the pole vault, Austin DeWildt took seventh.Although not exactly the times or marks

that were hoped for, the Wolverines trek on and continue to work hard as the weeks continue. Ohio State was next up for the Maize and Blue.

It wasn’t the ending that we had hoped for, dropping a 92-70 decision to Ohio State in our annual dual meet as we had to relinquish the flag after claiming it outdoors last season.We had several impressive perfor-

Washtenaw County Trifecta...Kentucky Too!Washtenaw County Trifecta...Kentucky Too!

EMU InvitationalEMU Invitational

The DualThe Dual

2010 ScheduleJanuary9 EMU Invitational NTS16 Ohio State L, 92-7022 Simmons-Harvey NTS23 Simmons-Harvey NTS29 Rod McCravy Memorial NTS30 Rod McCravy Memorial NTSFebruary5 Meyo Invitational 4 p.m.6 Meyo Invitational Noon12 GVSU Big Meet 4 p.m.13 GVSU Big Meet Noon20 Silverston Invitational Noon27 Big Ten Indoor TBA28 Big Ten Indoor TBAMarch5 Wilson Invitational 7 p.m.6 Wilson Invitational Noon12 NCAA Championships TBA13 NCAA Championships TBA26 Bayou Classic Noon April2 Tiger Track Classic 5:30 p.m.3 Tiger Track Classic Noon 10 Ohio State Noon16 EMU Invitational 5 p.m.17 EMU Invitational Noon22 Drake Relays 9 a.m.23 Drake Relays 9 a.m.24 Drake Relays 9 a.m.30 Jesse Owens Invitational 6 p.m.May1 Jesse Owens Invitational Noon Stanford Jordan Invite Noon7 Paddock Invitational 6 p.m.8 Paddock Invitational 6 p.m.14 Big Ten Championships TBA15 Big Ten Championships TBA16 Big Ten Championships TBA28 NCAA Regional TBA29 NCAA Regional TBAJune9 NCAA Championships TBA10 NCAA Championships TBA11 NCAA Championships TBA12 NCAA Championships TBA

Peddlar

Kipf

Jerome Singleton2008 Paralympic Gold Medalist

Jerome Singleton, a transfer student at the University of Michi-gan, trains with the track and field team and most recently, broke the world record int the 60-meter dash at the Simmons-Harvey Invitation-al. His mark of 7.34 shattered the previous record of 7.78. The Greenwood, S.C., na-tive won the silver medal in the 100 meter T44 while also helping the U.S. to the gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay at the 2008 Paralympics. Singleton’s accomplishments are quite impressive. He had a great year in 2009, following his Olympic performance. was a silver medalist in the 100 at the VISA Paralympic World Cup, setting a new course record of 11.16. He won the gold in the 100 at the Boiling Point Track Classic in Windsor, Canada, and was a gold medalist in the 200 at the Loterias Caiza International Meetiong for Athletics and Swim-ming. won the bronze medal in the 100 T44 and the silver medal in the 200 meter TFF at the Para-pan American Games in Rio de Ja-neiro, Brazil. A full list of Jerome’s post-high school accomplishments can be found to the side. He transferred to Michigan to complete a dual degree after dou-ble majoring in mathematics and applied physics at Morehouse Col-lege. He will also study industrial engineering while at U of M.

2009: Silver medal, 100m T44; Set new course re-cord 11.16 seconds VISA Paralympic World Cup, Manchester, UK 2009: Gold medal, 100m- Boiling Point Track Clas-sic, Windosor, Canada 2009: Gold medal, 200m- Loterias Caixa International Meeting for Athletics and Swimming, Rio de Janerio, Brazil 2009: Silver medal 100m- Loterias Caixa International Meeting for Athletics and Swimming, Rio de Janerio, Brazil 2008: Silver medal, 100m T44 - Paralympic Games, Beijing, China 2008: Gold medal, 100m; silver medal 200m - Par-alympic World Cup, Man-chester, UK 2007: Bronze medal 100m (T44), Silver medal 200m (T44) ParaPan American Games, Rio de Janiro, Brazil 2006: Gold medal, 100m, Long Jump, High Jump; Bronze medal, 200m - Endeavor Games, Ed-mond, Okla. 2006: SIAC All-Confer-ence All-Academic Team Track and Field;

mances in the meet. Buchanon won the 60 hurdles and Christmas took the 3K. In the field events, Kipf cleared 6-11.00 in

the high jump, winning the event for the third straight year. Peddlar was successful in defending his triple-jump title with a mark of 48-03.50. He also took sec-

ond in the long jump (23-10.50). In the throws, Sean Pruitt was second,

just shy of an NCAA provisional qualifying mark, throwing 63-08.25 in the weight throw. In the shot put, he just missed out on a first-place finish, grabbing runner-up with a throw of 56-05.75.

The annual Simmons-Harvey Invitation-al we honored our former track and field coaches, Red Simmons on the women’s side and Jack Harvey on the men’s. In the first night of competition, Pruitt

grabbed first place in the shot put with a mark of 57-01.50. Peddlar won his third straight event, this time taking the long jump title going 24-01.50.We saw some fresh blood in the pole

vault clearing collegiate-bests. John Greenlee took third, clearing 16-00.75,

while DeWildt followed in fourth, going 15-07.00.Kipf just missed out on first-place in the

high jump, clearing 6-07.50, losing only due to misses.The second day featured just the races

on the track. Neuman and Aaron Taylor were neck-and-neck for us in the 200-meter dash, with Neumann taking the edge by two-hundreths of a second. We grabbed two more of the top six spots in the race as Kyle Terpak took fourth and Troy Woolfolk was sixth.We grabbed second and third in the

400 dash (Campbell and Matt Wheeler, respectively). Buchanon was the top col-legiate runner in the 60 hurdles, running a season-best 7.99.

We hit the road for our first road trip of the season. On Friday night’s events, we didn’t have too much going on but Kipf took third in the high jump and this week he cleared 6-06.00. Joe Strizich cleared 6-00.50.On Saturday, Brandon Fellows won the

Bill Lee Mile Run. His time of 4:06.37 was a career-high for the senior.Buchanon took third inthe 60 hurdles

(8.12) and fifth in the 400, the first time he had ever run the race in his collegiate career. Pruitt threw 56-11.25 in the shot put to

take third, while Bobby April took sixth in the 3k and Sean McNamara was eighth.We ran a season-best 3:14.19 in the

quarter-mile relay, as Campbell, Bucha-non, St. Amant and Wheeler guided us to a fourth place finish.

Simmons/HarveySimmons/Harvey

Rod McCravy MemorialRod McCravy Memorial

Pruitt

Christmas

<<<<Singleton @ Simmons-Harvey

The Spotlight...2010 Team CaptainsCarlBuchanon —Junior —HurdlesCarl Buchanon (South Bend, Ind.-Clay) returns to captain the 2010 squad. The junior

had a tremendous sophomore season in 2009, winning the 400-meter hur-dle title at the Big 10 Championship and garnering first-team All-Big 10 honors. He holds personal-best times of 7.97 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, 14.27 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, and 50.82 in the 400-meter hurdles.

CraigForys —RS Sophomore—DistanceCraig Forys (How-ell, N.J.-Colts Neck) will join Bu-chanon and Shot-well as captains for

the 2010 squad. The redshirt sophomore finished fourth in the 5K with a time of 14:09.33 and seventh in the 3K at the 2009 Big Ten Indoor Championship. Ran an NCAA provisional time of 13:54.48 in the 5K during the indoor season. Forys returns with his eyes on the prize after redshirting the outdoor season last year.

Frank Shotwell —RS Junior—MultisThis redshirt junior has been nothing but outstanding for the Wolverines when it comes to

the multi-events. He won the 2008 Big 10 Decathlon outdoors and the Indoor Heptathlon as a sophomore. His decath-lon title was the first decathlon title in school history, setting an NCAA provi-sional and school record mark of 7,362, a career-best. So far this season, he has set a career-high mark of 15-07.00 in the polevault.

The University of Michigan, as you all are aware, has one of the most legendary and lengthy track and field programs in collegiate history. We intend to preserve and celebrate that history and help our current, and future teams, flourish.

The Athletic Department provides a top rate budget for scholarships, travel and equipment, but we need your help in terms of state of the art training and analysis equipment, treadmills, ice therapy tubs and massage therapy, just to name a few. We need to get our top athletes to post collegiate junior and senior level national championships and we want to showcase our history with quality displays, documentaries and recognition ceremonies we can be proud of.You—our alumni, parents, supporters—are a tremendous resource. We need your skills and we need your financial support. Please

join the Block M “Bell Lap” Booster Club by filling out and returning the form below with any amount of donation that you may with to contribute. Contact head coach Fred LaPlante at : coachfrd@umich.edu or 734.647-8999 for further information, suggestions and questions. GO BLUE!

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A Final Word From Coach Fred...Greetings Wolverine Track & Field faithful,

I guess you could say we’re off to a fast start, as we’ve had four indoor meets before we could get you a season preview or fall update! Fortunately, Amanda Decker, recent EMU grad and “track nut” has stepped in the ring and volunteered her services to help our staff, by putting this one together. (You’ll proabably notice the increase in quality of this communication.) Thank you, Amanda!

Though we did not win this year’s version of the indoor Dual with Ohio State, we did accomplish the milestone of having the first dual track & field meet to be telecast on the Big Ten network.

We have filled the indoor track for both our home meets this season, averaging about 1,200 spectators per contest. Some highlights include Jack Harvey’s return to AA for the invitational named in his and Red Simmon’s honor, Red’s 100th!!! birthday bash(es), Lex Williams’ win in the Kris Eggle 3000m Memorial run, and UM engineering student, Jerome Singleton, who trains with the team, breaking of the world 60m dash record for amputees in the T-44 category of Paraolympians.

Looking ahead we will soon have news on some of our recruit signees for next year, the announcement of our 2010 Hall of Fame Class of our men’s track & field program, and updated information on facility improvements.

We thank you not only for your moral support, but those of you who have joined our “Bell Lap Boosters”.These funds are much needed and we encourgage you to nudge your fellow teammates to get on board and contribute to our future successes.

We will continue to give you our best efforts. Go Blue!

Fred LaPlanteHead Coach

Men’s Track and Field1000 S. State St.Ann Arbor, MI 48109