Women's track aims for three-peat

By James Mercier

For the Daily

If the Michigan women's track and field team was getting used to relaxing, a glance at the schedule must have felt like a cold shower. A red-letter date appeared - Feb. 26-27, the date of the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Minneapolis, which meant that it was time to get to work.

Yesterday's practice at the Indoor Track Building had a different feel to it than earlier workouts.

"I expect the conference meet to be a dogfight," Michigan coach James Henry said. "We've practiced accordingly this week. The intensity level went up."

The Wolverines, who are two-time defending Big Ten champions, know that a third straight title will not come easily.

"We think we can win, but there are probably four other teams in the conference that could win as well," junior sprinter Ashlie Wilbon said. "We'll have to have a lot of great performances."

"In all my time here at Michigan, this is the most competitive the conference has been," Henry said. "We could end up anywhere from first to fifth. The top five teams could only be separated by five to 10 points."

Last week, Michigan followed a low-intensity week of practice with a dominating performance at home in the Silverstone Invitational, a tune-up event for the Big Ten Championships. Even though many Wolverines did not compete in their normal events, the team still ran away with it, taking first place in nine events.

Although the competition in the Silverstone Invitational was not strong, the event provided Michigan's team with a chance to improve upon season-best times, which affect seeding in the Big Ten Championships.

"We came out of it unscathed," Henry said. "That was the most important thing, with the Big Ten meet only a week away. We also had some runners post personal bests. You want to come away from a meet with positives, and we did.

"The event helped our seeding for this weekend - we're seeded well. Our performances put us in a good position, but we still have to perform. We've had a successful season, but this is the big show. Everything we've done won't mean anything if we can't perform when the curtain comes up," Henry said.