The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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2024-25 YEAR IN REVIEW BY JOHN BORTON S avannah Sutherland settled into the blocks, muscles tens- ing, ready to be unleashed by the starter's pistol. This was it — her final race in a Michigan uniform, at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Talk about saving your best for last. Sutherland blew away the field in the 400-meter hurdles at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field, but she did far more than that. The Wolverine senior ran the race better than anyone ever did it — at Michigan, in the NCAA Cham- pionships, at the collegiate level, or in her native Canada. Her blazing 52.46 rewrote the record books, stamping an exclamation point onto a U-M career littered with best-ever marks, championships and All-America distinctions. She's The Wolverine's Female Athlete of the Year, for the immaculate ending to a sizzling senior season. "That's really special," Sutherland said, upon learning of the award. "I rep- resent Michigan with a lot of pride, and I promote that in a lot of my interviews, how the block M and Michigan as a whole just mean a lot to me. To be able to have such recognition is re- ally an honor, because there are so many amazing female athletes, and athletes in gen- eral, at the university. To be considered at such a high level is really humbling, and some- thing I'm very proud of." It didn't have to play out that way, and not only because of the vagaries of any given event in any sport. Sutherland considered not competing for Michigan this final year, and pursuing a professional running career instead. In the end, she chose one more run in Ann Arbor, and made as much of it as perhaps any com- petitor ever has in maize and blue. "Ultimately, I decided to come back for my senior year," she said. "I had what felt like some unfinished business in the NCAA. I really wanted to finish out on another national championship. I wanted some more school records, and I also wanted to get the national re- cord. That was some- thing on my radar at the be- ginning of the season. I knew it was a lofty goal. I knew it was going to be very difficult. "I believed I was capable to doing it, but for everything to have come together in that exact moment, for it FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR SAVANNAH SUTHERLAND BEST FOR LAST Savannah Sutherland Scripts The Perfect Ending At Michigan 26 THE WOLVERINE ❱ AUGUST 2025 Sutherland won the national championship in the 400-meter hurdles in a national record-shattering time of 52.46— in her final race in a Michigan uniform — at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. It was her second title in three years. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY