Condence growing, and its showing for women's track

The No. 9 Michigan women's track and field team went into Saturday's Wolverine Open at the Indoor Track Building looking for a confidence boost.

The Wolverines certainly got it.

The Wolverines had their "best meet of the year so far," Michigan coach James Henry said.

Though the meet was unscored, it was clear that the Wolverines were enjoying more success than they had experienced the previous week at both the Meyo Invitational in Notre Dame and at the Cannon Classic in Indianapolis.

Junior Brandi Bentley turned in the top individual performance of the day for the Wolverines.

Bentley won the long jump with an NCAA-qualifying leap of 20 feet, 10 1/2 inches, which ranked as the nation's third-best jump this year.

The jump broke school and venue records.

"It felt great," Bentley said. "My hard work paid off. I feel like I have put in the work all year, and I'm seeing the results."

The record jump comes just one week before the Big Ten Championships in Columbus. "Taking Big Tens is my goal. With a solid week of practice, I feel like I've got a good shot," Bentley said.

Another Wolverine who had a productive day was distance runner Katie McGregor.

McGregor won the mile with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:48.94.

"I did alright," McGregor said. "This was my first time running this event in a while. I was glad to get in under 4:50, but it wasn't a great run. I hope to get better before Big Tens next week."

Among Michigan's other winners were Adrienne Hunter in the 800 meters, Maria Brown in the 60 meters, Marcy Akard in the 3000 meters, Nikki Keith in the shot put and the distance medley relay team, which clocked in at a time of 3:47.8.

Hunter was pleased with her victory in the 800, yielding an NCAA provisional time of 2:09.03.

"I'm happy with my run," Hunter said. "This is the fastest I've ever run, indoors or outdoors. I've still got room to improve before Big Tens, where I'll be running the 600 instead of the 800."

Henry was satisfied with his team's performance, coming off a below-average showing last weekend.

"This was definitely better than last week," Henry said. "It's good to finish up with our best meet of the year.

"We need to use this result for momentum and confidence. If we take confidence from this meet and show some determination, we'll put up a hell of a fight at Big Tens."

02-15-99