For the second year in a row and second in school history, the University of Michigan hosted an open adaptive track and field meet. People from all levels of ability: school children with disabilities, adaptive collegiate teams, local adaptive clubs, paralympians and many able-bodied participants came together with one common goal — to compete.
While the collegiate adaptive circuit is still in its infancy, the Miller Family Open provided all the outdoor essentials. Throwing and track events included both ambulatory and seated sections of discus, shotput, javelin, 100-meter, 200, 400, 800, 1500 and 5000. Long jump and high jump were also offered alongside 110 hurdles and a 4×400 meter relay.
One of the Wolverines’ most dominant athletes is freshman thrower Michael Beydoun. Competing under the F63 classification as he utilizes a single leg prosthetic, Beydoun holds the national record in shotput. With just a year of experience under his belt, Beydoun routinely breaks his PR and with it, the national record.
Unfortunately for Beydoun, he came up short in his search for another national record. Opting for the glide technique in favor of the rotational form, Beydoun focuses on using his innate strength to move the shot. However, he didn’t optimally place his right leg under his weight during the glide, resulting in a still-meet-leading 10.34 meter score, 0.22 off his PR.
“There’s a few things that we work on: getting his right leg underneath his hip and focusing on staying grounded on that right leg to put more energy into the implement,” coach Calvin Sullins said. “So nothing I would be doing any different with anyone else. But it’s fun, because he’s getting all these new legs, he’s getting new sockets and he’s getting comfortable with it. …And so he’s just going to continue to get better, and he’ll be a figurehead of the para space very soon.”
With this being the final home meet of the year, graduate multi-athlete Conner Pierce competed for his final time for Michigan.
Pierce, usually seen in the sprints under the F36 classification, opted for the throws as he recovers from injury. As the sole competitor in his classification, Pierce took first place in both shot put and javelin, recording distances of 5.92 and 11.33 meters, respectively.
“I definitely think that this meet is very inclusive in a way that a lot of meets aren’t,” Pierce said, “Some of the Paralympic meets are just for athletes that are classified within the Paralympic system. Here we have athletes who are classified through Paralympics. We have athletes who are classified through Vertis sports and Athletes Without Limits, and we also have the integration of a bodied athletes from the club and varsity teams. This really just goes to show how inclusive Michigan is becoming with who they’re willing to include at this great home meet.”
While conference infrastructures aren’t in place for adaptive sports just yet, integration is a commonly used tool to garner more support.
“Integrating means that more eyes are on the sport, more people are learning about adaptive sports and see what’s possible and opportunities that you can have,” Sullins said. “And that’s going to lead to the growth of the sport. More programs will have a college system, and then maybe one day, we’ll have a governing body over adaptive college sports.”
In any view, the Miller Family Open was a success. Every athlete at every level who wanted to compete had the opportunity to do so. With this inclusivity came a stronger adaptive landscape one event at a time.
