10- Tuesday, November 3, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com DAN MADWED: MICHIGAN'S NEW GOLDEN BOY After an unexpected run to a gold medal at the World Championships, Madwedis ready for a breakout year. By Ryan A. Podges || Daily Sports Writer COURTESY OF THEMICHIGAN ATHLETICDEPARTMENT Sophomore Dan Madwed won two Big Ten individual championships during his freshman season. H ow unexpected sophomore Dan wed's gold medal summer's FINA World Swi Championships? So unexpected that he even slated to compete in th in which he won. After finishing ninthi world in the 400-meter fr at the meet in Rome, he wa to swim in the preliminary the 800-meter freestyle re give extra rest to one of the a who would swim the event's championship. "It "It was my first time on a tin big-time nation- al relay and tin it was scary," Madwed said. rela "I didn't want to mess up, I didn't want to false start or lose our lead and I had a lot more nerves going into that relay than going into my individual events." Madwed didn't mess up. In fact, he maintained the, cans' lead in the race and less than a second slower th low relay teammate and Mi alum Peter Vanderkaay, whi gold medals in the event fron World Championship meetsz 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Madwed would wina gold for his contribution to the r long as the Americans won championship finals later th was Current Michigan volunteer coach Mad- emeritus and U.S. national coach at this Jon Urbanchek told Madwed that imming a gold medal was guaranteed for the Americans, but as he stood in wasn't the stands with his teammates to e event watch the finals, Madwed remained anxious. Even with Michael Phelps in the leading off, the Americans found eestyle themselves chasing the German s asked team after the first leg. race of "I thought Russia and a couple elay to countries were lookingprettygood," thletes Madwed recalled. "During the final in laps, I started thinking maybe Jon was going to be was my first wrong, butthen Ryan(Chte) e on a big- stepped up. He's an amaz- enational ing racer and watching him .y and it was bring it home for us was just a great feeling." yMadwed said his accom- - Dan Madwed, plishments this Sophomore summer kept him extra moti- vated to stay in shape at home before moving back to Ann Arbor to train for the colle- Ameri- giate season. Michigan coach Mike swam Bottom believes Madwed's experi- Zan fel- ences competing against the world's ichigan best swimmers overseas will help o awns him be more mentally prepared to n three compete during the NCAA season. and the Madwed concurs. "I had always thought of myself 1 medal as a butterflier," he said. "But since elay as I qualified in the 400 freestyle, all of in the these doors have started to open up. at day. It wasn't until I was actually in the water at the World Championships and staying up there with guys I've read about winning gold and silver medals at the Olympics, when I defi- nitely realized, 'Wow, I can actually do this."' He may have just realized it, but it's really no surprise. Madwed started swimming at 10 when his mother signed him up for the swim team to keep him busy during the summer. And it wasn't long before he realized how good he really was. At age 12, in Connecticut, he started breaking state records and qualifying for regional swim meets. Madwed said at that age, he didn't care about records or qualifying times, but enjoyed racing. Without fully knowing it, he was already on a fast track to national and even inter- national success. At 15, he qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. He didn't make the team, but the experience gave him a new perspective on the sport and helped him set new goals. "I was really inexperienced going into the 2004 Olympic trials," Mad- wed said. "I went out swimming as hard as I could and I just died. A while after, I started looking ahead to the 2008 Olympics. By 2006, I was third in the country in 200- meter butterfly and thought, maybe I could make this happen." There was only one problem- Madwed was running out of people who could challenge him in the pool. He was consistently beating every- one at practice and needed faster teammates to train with to take him to the next level. After talking with several coaches and some friends on a national junior team training south with him. His new teammates and coaches in Baltimore provided him a more competitive training environment. "Everyone wanted to know who the kid was that moved his senior year of high school just to swim, so I made friends pretty quickly," Mad- wed said. "Plus, it was pretty fun living with my grandparents. My grandma volunteers and my grand- pa entertains at old-age homes. I know that's ironic, but it was a good experience." His move to North Baltimore clearly paid off during his freshman year at Michigan, where he made his mark quickly. Madwed placed 12th at the NCAA Championships in the 200-yard freestyle, finished as a two- time individual Big Ten Champion and earned All-Big Ten first team honors. The engineering major puts in long hours training with the team and in the classroom. His coaches say he's never satisfied and routinely looks for ways to get faster. But Madwed isn't just one of the hardest workers on the team, he's one of the happiest. "He's got a great sense of humor. He enjoys himself while he does everything, and I think that's a rare characteristic," Michigan assistant coach Dr. Josh White said. "It's really interesting to see how hard he works but he doesn't carry a grudge about it." This season, Madwed says his goal is to help the Wolverines repeat as Big Ten Champions and finish in the top four at the NCAAs. And if the summer taught us anything about him, it's expect the unexpected. COURTESY OF THE MICHIGAN ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT Sophomore Dan Madwed trained at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club in high school. trip, his search for better compe- tition not only took him to a new team but a new state. Just before his senior year of high school, Madwed moved more than 200 miles away from his hometown of Stamford, Conn., to Maryland where he joined the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, Phelps's home training club. Madwed decided to come to Michigan after being recruited by then-Wolverine coach Bob Bow- man, who had coached at North Bal- timore before coming to Ann Arbor. After Madwed committed to the school, Bowman announced he was leaving Michigan to return to North Baltimore, but Madwed says Bow- man's resignation never affected his decision to become a Wolverine. In order for his pareets and younger brother to stay in their houseinStamford,Madwed'sgrand- parents offered to make the move Even with a struggling offense, Blue and Kopmeyer shut down Illini for 'W' Blais and Schmitt win Big Ten weekly awards Goalie posts her sixth shutout of the year, a rookie program record By ANDREW HADDAD For the Daily The Michigan women's soccer team earned its first Big Ten win of the year against Illinois on Sunday thanks to a standout performance from redshirt freshman goalie Haley Kopmeyer and a header in the 74th minute that gave the Wol- verines a - tough 1-0 MICHIGAN 1 win. ILLINOIS 0 The __ victory MICHIGAN came on IOWA 2 the heels of a 2-1loss on Friday against Iowa (1-7-0 Big Ten, 9-9-0 overall) in Iowa City, which was the latest in a frustrating run of ties and close losses. Michigan won despite being outshot by Illinois 21-4, which forced Kopmeyer to make a career high 11 saves. The shutout was her sixth of the season, a record for Michigan rookie goaltenders. It's easy to point to Michigan's shot disadvantage against Illinois (2-5-2, 7-8-3) and its 300-148 shot disadvantage over the course of the season as a sign that the team is lacking in talent. Michigan coach Greg Ryan knows this is partly true, since injuries and the dismissal of a few players forced the Wolverines to have just 6.2 of their allotted 14 scholarships out on the field this weekend. With the lack of depth, the team has struggled in the offensive zone all year. But Ryan notes that the shot deficit is also in part by design. "We use a defensive scheme where the back line drops and doesn't allow anything behind them, forcing the other team to take low-percentage shots outside the box," he said. "Kopmeyer is so rangy. She doesn't have a lot of trouble with those." Even with that massive shot dis- advantage, Michigan (1-3-5, 6-8-5) has been outscored just 25-20 this year. "It's a common strategy around the world," Ryan said. "Teams with less offensive talent have to compensate for it. We drop the back line, don't allow great chanc- es, and counter-attack when we can. Soccer's not about how many shots you have it's about how many solid chances you get, and the way we play is all about that." Senior midfielder Alex Jen- drusch's game-winning goal came off a cross from junior defender Amanda Bowery in the 74th min- ute. It was her fourth goal of the season, which made her the team leader in goals. "If you had told me last year that Jendrusch would be our leading scorer, I would have bet the farm against it," Ryan said. "She's made so much progress since then. If I had to pick the best example of a player whose development the younger ones should try to emu- late, it'd be her." The Wolverines weren't as suc- cessful on Friday against Iowa. Sophomore Kristen Goncalves scored on a breakaway 15 minutes into the game to tie the game at one, but the Hawkeyes scored on a shot from 25 yards out in the 64th minute to steal the deal. It was a tight, defensive game where Kopmeyer was again impressive, making six saves, The Michigan men's soccer team has even more to celebrate after its season-saving upset of No. 12 Northwestern last week- end. Today, the BigTen announced that Michigan redshirt sopho- more goalie Chris Blais and redshirt junior forward Matt Schmitt were named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, respectively. The awards are well-timed, as the Wolverines' victory over the Wildcats could propel the team into postseason play. "We needed this win, and we need next week's win," Blais said after the game. "It was a must- win for all of us if we want to make the NCAA Tournament, so I think that's where the intensity came from." AccordingtotheMichiganAth- letic Department press release, this marks the first time the Wol- verines have claimed both awards sinceformergoalie PatrickSperry and former forward Jake Stacy wononOct. 6,2008. Blais recorded four saves in his sixth shutout of the year, and Schmitt scored the game's lone goal to preserve the win. Schmitt's award comes after the Muskegon native has battled back from a sports hernia injury sustained in the offseason. He's finally hitting his stride, scoring his first and second goals of the year in the Wolverines' last two games. Michigan's regular-season finale is this Saturday against Ohio State in Columbus. SAID ALSALAH/Daily Freshman goalie Haley Kopmeyer had 11 saves in Michigan's shutout victory. including a couple of very diffi- cult ones. According to Ryan, the defense played very well overall, but a few defensive lapses cost the Wolverines the game. Ryan said there was a lack of pressure on the ball before the second goal, some- thing the Michigan defense nor- mally does well. "Other than that, it was just a great shot right in the corner," he said. "There was nothing Kopmey- er could do about it." The Wolverines play just one more game this season, against Penn State on Nov. 8. A Big Ten championship might be out of 4 reach, but despite the team's medi- ocre record, the season was one of great progress for Michigan. In the face of many problems in the last few years, the program is just now beginning to use all of its allotted scholarships. But this year, Michigan has shown great resilience. It was proven that it can play against quality competition, forcing five ties against Big Ten opponents and suffering several close loss- es. And that is an important step for the program asuit seeks to climb the Big Ten ladder in the future. 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