CONFERENCE PREVIEW: What to Watch For in the Big Ten

We’ve run through and previewed the conference championships action at the ACC, SEC, Big 12 and meets beyond the “power five” (with a Pac-12 preview coming soon), meaning it’s the Big Ten’s turn for a rundown.

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In addition to big NCAA champion/collegiate-leading stars like Leah O’Connor of Michigan State, Michael Lihrman of Wisconsin and Brannon Kidder of Penn State, this meet – held at Michigan State Friday through Sunday – features numerous other events that serve as a preview of athletes who will be competing for NCAA titles and All-America honors this June at the NCAA Championships.

We preview some of those events for you below.

But first, the team perspective.

Wisconsin’s men have won two of the past three titles, with Nebraska taking the 2013 crown. Wisconsin appears to have a tough road ahead of it to defend its title, as Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan are all slotted ahead of the Badgers in the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Regional Rankings. Nebraska, meanwhile, is only the narrow No. 1 in the Midwest Region ahead of Illinois.

For the women, Michigan State hasn’t won a Big Ten outdoor crown since the very first year of the meet in 1982, but with home track advantage and the No. 1 rank in the Great Lakes Region, this might be the Spartans’ year once more. They’ll have to take down defending champion Penn State, which is firmly atop the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Take a look at the full regional rankings here. Using these as a guide for the team competition is more accurate than using the National Team Rankings, which are designed only to project how teams might fare at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Now, below is a chronological listing of some of the biggest events to follow as the meet unfolds beginning Friday afternoon.

Men’s Hammer Throw

Friday, 1:30pm ET | Entries

There’s no more explosive way to kick off this preview than with one of the dynamic throwers in the country in Wisconsin’s Michael Lihrman. After breaking the weight throw collegiate record and winning a dramatic NCAA title indoors, he’s carried his momentum into the outdoor hammer throw season.

He currently sits at No. 2 on the collegiate list at 247-0 (75.29m), and is 14 feet ahead of No. 3 defending national champion Matthias Tayala of Kent State (of the MAC).

It will take a Herculean effort to topple Lihrman in the hammer throw, but one of the men who will try is No. 6 Chukwuebuka Enekwechi of Purdue. The Boilermaker was leading Lihrman in the NCAA weight throw final until the final round, but will have a steep road ahead of him with a season-best of 228-10 (69.76m). Also in the field are No. 9 Gian Ferretti of Minnesota and No. 10 Davis Fraker of Illinois.

Women’s Pole Vault

Friday, 1:30pm ET | Entries

As far as the 2015 collegiate women’s pole vault scene is concerned, Sandi Morris of Arkansas and Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin have been in a class of their own at the top, with Megan Clark of Duke occupying the next tier down. In that third tier, however, are 11 women who have cleared between 14-5¼ (4.40m) and 14-1¼ (4.30m).

Near the top of that group are Illinois’ No. 5 Stephanie Richartz and Indiana’s No. 7 Sophie Gutermuth – both of whom are separated by only one centimeter this outdoor season at 14-3½ (4.36m) and 14-3¼ (4.35m), respectively.

Richartz was the third-place finisher at NCAA indoors, while Gutermuth struggled to a 12th-place showing despite entering at No. 7. These two were 1-2 at Big Ten indoors, and Gutermuth was also runner-up indoors in 2014.

Men’s 10,000 Meters

Friday, 8:15pm ET | Entries

Cross country fans will find a number of familiar names in this one. Of those who have run a 10k this outdoor season, the field is led by No. 17 Matt McClintock of Purdue (28:54.77), No. 18 Evan Esselink of Indiana (28:55.98) and No. 21 Kevin Lewis (28:59.62) of Iowa.

They’ll be joined by a few competing in the event for the first time this year. Wisconsin’s Malachy Schrobilgen and Michael VanVoorhis, Michigan State’s Caleb Rhynard and Penn State’s Matt Fischer will all contend with those three for the win.

Women’s 3000-Meter Steeplechase

Saturday, 6:30pm ET | Entries

This will be distance superstar Leah O’Connor’s first final of her scheduled three this weekend, and it comes in the event in which the Michigan State senior is the defending national champion. With a 9:41.88 already under her belt this year – a belt that only includes wins, as she’s 9-0 in finals this year – she could very well follow last year’s trajectory and cruise to a comfortable win without regard for the stopwatch.

She does have two more events this weekend, after all, and will have already run her 1500-meter trials. It depends whether No. 7 Tori Gerlach of Penn State (9:57.47) decides to make a race of it and push the pace. If it becomes a fast-paced affair, watch out for fireworks.

Women’s High Jump

Sunday, 12:30pm ET | Entries

This won’t be the first time Nebraska’s No. 5 Marusa Cernjul, the Maryland duo of No. 7 Thea LaFond and No. 11 Amber Melville, and Illinois’ No. 11 Kandie Bloch-Jones – the 2014 indoor conference champion – have tangled in championship meets this year.

Cernjul might be the highest seed this outdoor season at 6-1¼ (1.86m), but she found herself looking up in the standings at a Maryland high jumper at both the indoor Big Ten and NCAA Championships. Melville took the conference title over her in a tiebreak, while LaFond was fifth and Melville ninth at NCAAs to Cernjul’s disappointing 14th.

Only one centimeter separates Cernjul from LaFond this outdoor season, and only another centimeter separates her from the duo of Melville and Bloch-Jones. The latter, who as a sophomore is the only non-senior of the bunch, was fourth at Big Ten indoors.

Men’s Shot Put

Sunday, 11am ET | Entries

When Stipe Zunic of Florida upset Ryan Crouser of Texas for the NCAA indoor shot put title, it proved that the previously unassailable Longhorn can be wrangled and defeated. Not that either of those men are in this meet, but certainly that thought will be on the mind of the next would-be usurper in Penn State’s Darrell Hill.

The Nittany Lion senior shot putter is on a roll of late, moving up to No. 2 in the country with a Penn Relays-winning heave of 68-2¼ (20.79m) and then improving on it this past weekend with a mark of 68-5¼ (20.86m). Though he still trails Crouser on the national leaderboard by about 10 inches, he does own the No. 2 and No. 3 throws among collegians this year.

Women’s 1500 Meters

Sunday, 1:05pm ET | Entries

This will be the second of three scheduled finals for O’Connor and while she’s not the defending national champion in this particular event (though she is the second-fastest collegiate miler in history and the 2015 indoor mile champion), she is the collegiate leader at 4:11.04.

And she has a recent history of shredding the conference in the mile or its metric analogue. At the indoor Big Ten Championships, she ripped a then-career-best 4:32.29 to win by nearly nine seconds over Shannon Osika of rival Michigan. Guess who’s the No. 2 seed this weekend?

The closest anyone has come to her in an open 1500/mile this year is when Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State ran 4:28.71 – the sixth-fastest collegiate indoor mile ever – and lost by a second and a half at NCAAs.

Seeded third in this event is teammate Rachele Schulist, who is also scheduled to double back for the 5000 meters final less than two hours later.

Women’s 100-Meter Hurdles

Sunday, 1:25pm ET | Entries

This race features a pair of women who could very well find themselves on the line in the same final at the NCAA Outdoor Championships this June in Michigan’s No. 6 Cindy Ofili and No. 11 Devynne Charlton of Purdue.

Ofili is one of five women who have dipped under 13.00 with legal (2.0m/s or weaker) wind, recording a 12.96 to edge out perennial national title contender Tiffani McReynolds of Baylor by .02 for the win. Back in third in that very race was Charlton, just a sophomore this season, in 13.06.

Men’s 800 Meters

Sunday, 2:08pm ET | Entries

Brannon Kidder of Penn State made quite the statement when he upended both reigning indoor national champion Edward Kemboi of Iowa State and then-collegiate-leader Shaquille Walker of BYU at the Payton Jordan Invitational with a 1:45.58.

Considering that performance and the fact that he’s a two-time Big Ten indoor 800-meter champion, it might come as a surprise to learn that he’s not yet captured an outdoor Big Ten title in the event. He’s focused on the 1500 the past two season, finishing runner-up a year ago.

Testing him in the event this weekend are a trio of top-25 runners in No. 22 Daniel Kuhn and indoor 800-meter champ No. 24 Tre’tez Kinnaird of Indiana, as well as indoor Big Ten runner-up No. 24 Joe McAsey of Illinois.

Women’s 5000 Meters

Sunday, 2:49pm ET | Entries

Could Leah O’Connor get the steeplechase/1500/5000 sweep this weekend? If she’s got the first two heading into this race, it may all depend where the Spartans are in the team race. If they’re in a comfortable enough position to win the team title without O’Connor’s assistance (think Dominique Scott of Arkansas at the SEC indoor championships, who scratched the 5k with DMR and mile wins in hand as the team clinch the SEC title), she may not appear at all.

Or, could this be conditioning for a possible 1500-meter/3000-steeplechase double at the NCAA Championships (both of which would have prelims on the Thursday of the meet and finals on the final Saturday of the meet)? Of course, that’s pure speculation, and recent history would prove that’s not the case as she did not run the 1600-meter leg of the DMR at indoor nationals in order to save herself for the mile title. A 1500/steeple double would be orders of magnitude more difficult.

Anyway, back to the race. There’s little chance of a sit-and-kick affair in this one, thanks to the presence of Michigan’s Erin Finn. The sophomore appears to be in good form after missing the end of the cross country season and the entire indoor season with injury, having run a 15:32.88 in a very quick race at Payton Jordan earlier this month for the fifth-fastest time of the collegiate season.

She’s the top seed, followed by No. 8 Rachele Schulist, though her 15:36.33 at the Virginia Challenge was good enough to beat Finn head-to-head by five seconds. Last year, Finn beat Schulist at Big Tens by 13 seconds, 15:48.90 to 16:01.23.

Assuming O’Connor runs, she has a 16:09.46 career-best from the 2013 outdoor season – the last time she’s run the event in a collegiate meet – but that’s likely no indicator of what she’s capable of this season. In winning the Big Ten cross country title this year, she averaged 3:14.4 per kilometer for 6K, which would be a 5K average of 16:12.

Men’s 4×400 Relay

Sunday, 3:45pm ET | Entries

The SEC dominance in this event is well documented – five teams from that conference qualified for NCAA indoors – arguably no conference did better at the meet than the Big Ten.

After a mid-race tussle resulted in both a DQ for LSU and a DNF for Florida, it was Nebraska that ended up in second place in 3:04.83. After winning the first of three sections, Illinois finished fourth in 3:06.58. Rounding out the conference representation was Ohio State in ninth in 3:08.50.

The indoor conference race was particularly exciting between these three teams, as Illinois topped Nebraska by just .02 in 3:07.02, with Ohio State less than a half second back. Fourth-place Purdue was only another second back.

If this race is half as exciting as it was indoors, this will be a very fitting end to what should be an exciting meet.