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NEW STUDENT EDITION

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 7E

Women's basketball looking to
have abanneryear in 2011-2012

Swimmers win 35th Big Ten title

By DANIEL WASSERMAN
Daily Sports Writer
March 23, 2011 - As I watched
the Michigan women's basket-
ball team throw its season away
last Thursday, the irony of the
situation began to creep up on me.
The Wolverines were losing to an
undersized team from Ypsilanti
who were wearing green jerseys
and playing some of its best bas-
ketball of the season - on Saint
Patrick's Day. In my mind, Michi-
gan was not losing to Eastern
Michigan, but to the Luck of the
Irish.
How else could someone
explain what was happening?
As one of the last teams to miss
the NCAA Tournament, the Wol-
verines were expected to contend
for the WNIT title. The players
seemed to be focused and ready to
go that week in practice, talking
about hanging the first women's
basketball banner in program his-
tory up in Crisler Arena.
But somehow, some way, I
found myself listening to senior
guard Veronica. Hicks after the
game as she described her last
game wearing the maize and blue.
In a season full of surprises, this
had to be the biggest one.
Michigan started off the sea-
son predicted by no one to finish
in the top three of the Big Ten,
yet it finished third for the first
time since 2001. At one point, the
Wolverines beat three-straight
ranked opponents, which includ-
ed their 2-0 start in conference
play. Perhaps most importantly,
they swept that team down south
for the first time in program his-
tory.
But with the highs came the
lows. Michigan lost to Detroit
Mercy early in the season, and
to Big Ten bottom feeder Minne-
sota twice. The Wolverines' slide
toward the end of the season,
though, is what ended up costing
them a spot in the NCAA Tourna-
ment. In the Big Ten Tournament,
Michigan received a first-round
bye for the first time since 2001,
yet lost to last place Illinois in its
first game of the tournament.
That loss pretty much sealed
the Wolverines' fate, putting
them on the outside looking in
on the NCAA Tournament. The
WNIT would have to be enough,
as Michigan would extend its
10-year absence from the Big
Dance.
Thanks to the Eagles, though,
Michigan's season is officially
caput. The season ended before it
should have, but I, the usual pes-
simist, am not worried. At all.
Michigan graduates only one
senior - Hicks. Granted, that
one senior is a huge one to lose,
considering Hicks is one of just
five Wolverines in program his-
tory with 1,000 points, 200 assists

and 150 steals. Perhaps more
importantly, Hicks was the team's
unquestioned leader and the emo-
tional backbone - every single
player leaned on her for support,
on and off the court.
After Hicks' last game in
Crisler, her post game speech
moved many people to tears,
includingherteammates. "Ronni"
leaves the program having never
made an NCAA Tournament, but
the team she left behind has a
great chance to do so.
Consider how much the Wol-
verines improved this year, even
with their incredible youth. Then
consider how much better all of
those players will be after another
six months of offseason basket-
ball.
Michiganwill returnatalented
nucleus of young players who can
only go up from here. Juniors
Courtney Boylan and Carmen
Reynolds will step intothe leader-
ship role that Hicks left behind, as
at one point or another this season
they each carried the team. Reyn-
olds was inconsistent throughout
the season, but she is still atop
Michigan's all-time 3-point per-
centage chart at 43-percent in her
career. Boylan lit a fire under the
Wolverines midway through the
season in her first career start,
showing flashes of brilliance as
starting pointguard.
Sophomore guard Jenny Ryan
has the potential to be the Wol-
verines' best all-around player
and even earn All-Big Ten honors
- her only weakness is a sporadic
jump shot. Sophomore guard Nya
Jordan will finally be healthy, and
she will step into to the slasher
role the Wolverines so desperate-
ly needed late in the season when
Jordan missed due to injury. And
6-foot-4 sophomore guard Kate
Thompson used her height and
wicked jump shot to create seri-
ous mismatches from the perim-
eter.
Sophomore center Rachel Shef-
fer developed into a legitimate
offensive threat late in the sea-
son, as she ended up as the Wol-

JAMES WEAVER/Daily
verines' second-leading scorer.
Sophomore forward Sam Arnold
will most likely remain the Wol-
verines' post player off the bench,
as she can score in bunches from
both the center and forward posi-
tions.
Redshirt freshman Kendra
Seto will also geta chance to play,
as she sat out this year due to
NCAA transfer rules.
Seto averaged 10 points per
game in her freshman year at
Vermont and was named one of
the Top-20 high school basketball
players in Canada her senior year
of high school.
All of the inexperience, dearth
of height, and poor pre-season
expectations were tied together
by the mad man at the helm -
coach Kevin Borseth. He took a
supremely young team and led
Michigan to its first winning
record in the Big Ten in 10 years.
He might be angry on the side-
lines and seem crazy to the out-
siders, but his players love him
and he knows how to get the best
out of them.
Obviously, most of this is spec-
ulation, but something tells me
this team is headed in the right
direction.
Nothing confirmed this more
than the courts of the CCRB on
Monday night. Among the regu-
lars were six Wolverines, prac-
ticing for next years' campaign
less than a week after their sea-
son ended. It was 9:00 p.m. on a
weeknight and the young Michi-
gan players wanted nothing more
than to dominate a game of pick-
up basketball.
Michigan will miss Hicks, but
the team she left behind has the
potential to go far. Remember,
this is a program that has made it
out of the first round of the NCAA
Tournament just twice. Ever.
There have not been a lot of great
teams in this program, but the
future is bright in Crisler.
As long as the Wolverines
don't run into any Saint Patrick's
Day leprechauns, the outlook, for
once, is optimistic.

By ANDREW BAUSCHELT
Daily Sports Writer
Feb. 27,2011 - Before the Big
Ten Championships began on
Wednesday, Michigan coach
Mike Bottom said that his team
would be "going crazy" if they
were to win the team's 35th Big
Ten Championship.
Don't be too quick to check
the team into an asylum, but,
on Saturday, the Wolverines did
complete the feat.
The ninth-ranked Wolver-
ines led every day of the four-
day event in Minneapolis and,
following the blueprint that led
them to success throughout the
Big Ten regular season, the team
received huge contributions
from both veteran and rookie
swimmers.
"I think that before the meet,
we're always entertaining all
these exciting thoughts about
what can happen," Bottom said
after the win. "I know I'm beat,
and I'm sure our guys are beat,
too. This was a four-day battle
and our guys were able to step
up and make things happen."
Michigan swam to a fast start
on Wednesday with its bread
and butter - the relay teams.
The Wolverines placed first in
the 200- and 800-yard relays to
set the tone for the rest of the
relay events, which are vital
opportunities to grab points.
Both teams were able to repeat
as champions of the respective
events and Michigan extended
its conference championship
win streak in the 800-yard free-
style to eleven victories, dating
back to2000.
With the lead after day one,
the Wolverines continued their
strong performances with two
huge performances from two
freshman swimmers in their
first Big Ten Championship
performances. Kyle Whitaker
swam to a first-place finish in
the 200-yard individual medley,
with junior Dan Madwed not
far behind in second. Whitaker
swam the third-fastest time in
Michigan history and also guar-
anteed himself a NCAA appear-
ance.
"Kyle Whitaker is one of those
guys who, when he steps up to
the blocks, he believes," Bottom
said. "He believes in himself, in
his team, and it was clearly evi-
dent in his performances this
weekend."
Not to be outdone, fellow
freshman Sean Ryan provided

the Wolverines with soother
individualevictorywin the500-
yard freestyle. But this particu-
lar event was much more than
just another individual win for
the squad.
Junior Dane Vanderkaay had
built a near body-length lead
over the competition going into
the final 200 yards of the race
and Ryan came right up behind
him and provided Michigan
with a thrilling fight for first
between the two Wolverine
swimmers in the homestretch.
"Vanderkaay, on the outside,
was the rabbit that didn't die,"
said Bottom, who was named
Big Ten Coach of the Year after
the meet. "He got caught by our
own guy (Ryan); it was more
about pulling (Ryan) as opposed
to beating him."
Thursday night finished the
same as the night before for the
Wolverines with a 400-yard
medley relay win. This was the
fourth consecutive relay title
and second consecutive for
senior captain Neal Kennedy
and provided Michigan with a
guaranteed top spot going into
the Day Three, leading No. 14
Indiana by just eight and a half
points.
Then, familiar faces like Mad-
wed and Whitaker brought the
Wolverines success in day three
- but two performances from
another first-time Big Ten com-
petitor may have proved to be
the highlight of the day. Sopho-
more Sean Fletcher won his first
Big Ten title in the 100-yard but-
terfly and gave Michigan a boost
in the 100-yard backstroke as
well.
"I was ecstatic," Fletcher said
of his performance. "I wasn't
expecting anything special in
the backstroke, maybe top 16,
going into it. But I was really
happy with a third-place finish."
Whitaker continued his stel-
lar rookie campaign with a win
in the 400-yard individual med-
ley, becoming the third different
Michigan swimmer to win both
individual medley events in the
past three years. He joins for
mer Wolverine swimmers Tyler
Clary, who won both events
in 2009 and 2010, and James
Vanderkaay, who won in 2008,
to accomplish that feat.
In the 200-yard freestyle,
Madwed was looking for a
three-peat and got it, providing
the Wolverines with another
individual victory and a sense of
relief for himself.

"I was really nervous going
into the race," Madwed said on
Friday. "But like we always say,
it's good to be nervous because
that means you're expecting
something good."
Michigan had a 57-point lead
over Indiana going into the final
day of events at the University
Aquatic Center and needed just
a few more clutch performances
to bring the trophy back to Ann
Arbor. Needless to say, the Wol-
verines got those performances.
Ryan brought the Michigan
faithful a huge performance in
the 1650-yard freestyle, giving
the Wolverine long-distance
team two wins at Big Tens. And
sophomore Ryan Feeley and
Vanderkaay also gave the Wol-
verines valuable points with sec-
ond- and fourth-place finishes in
the event.
For Madwed, he may look
back on the final day of this Big
Ten Championship for years to
come. Madwed obliterated both
his own Big Ten Championship
record and the Michigan school
record in the 200-yard butterfly.
Madwed was swimming with
the rest of the pack, including
Freshman Swimmer of the Year
Whitaker, for the first150 yards
before turning on the gas and
rolling to a record-breaking win,
putting an exclamation point on
the event for the Wolverines.
"I was planning on doing
that," Madwed said of starting
out with the pack. "Usually I
take it out a little too quick and
I don't have enough to come
home. I thought I would mix it
up and see how it goes."
It may have been the school's
35th Big Ten Championship but
it was arguably one of the more
meaningful ones for the Wolver-
ines.
"I think this year, with this
team, this was our focus meet,"
Bottom said. "This team needed
this victory to take it to the next
level. I think we still have some
left in the tank (for NCAAs) but
this is what we came to do."
In a fitting end to Big Ten
competition, the Wolverines
beat the only team that pre-
vailed over them in conference
dual-meets, beating Indiana by
a final margin of 74 points. As
the team prepares for NCAA's in
a month, the feeling of this win
will stay with these swimmers
for a while.
"It is just like a dream," Ryan
said after the meet. "You can't
dream anything better."

Athletes display talent, skin at Mock Rock

" On Field Hockey: 'M' will be back with
a vengeance next year after early exit

By MATT RUDNITSKY
Daily Sports Writer
Nov. 14,2010 - Don't get used
to seeing the Michigan field
hockey team bow out in the first
round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Wolverines only have five
seniors on their roster and are
led in scoring by a freshman -
Rachel Mack, this season's most
valuable player in the Big Ten
Tournament.
Mack's 16 goals put her one
shy of Michigan's freshman
record, and she can only expect
to improve on her already stellar
numbers. She was also selected
to the the All-Big Ten second
team - an impressive feat for
such a young player.
"She had a really lovely year,"
Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz
said. "She's a talented, skilled,
polished player, and we knew
that. That's why we recruited
her. We were hoping she'd give
us some firepower up front and
she certainly did come through
for us, as we expected. She's a
hardworking player with a great
attitude, and we just expect her
to get better and better."
Michigan's seniors - Vanessa
Sekhon, Meredith Way, Zara

Saydjari, Alicia Mayer and Paige
Laytos - were essential to the
team's success and will certainly
be missed, but the team's sev-
enteen non-seniors will have no
trouble filling the void.
"The junior class doesn't get
the recognition it deserves." Way
said. "I don't have any fear that
they won't be able to step up and
fill into (the senior class's) shoes
and lead this team next year
because they were already lead-
ers this year, despite the fact that
they were just juniors."
Michigan's junior class, which
Pankratz also praised, consists
of key defenders Bryn Bain and
Hannah Dawson, as well as mid-
fielder/forward Jess Allen.
The squad's two goalies - red-
shirt freshman Haley Jones and
redshirt junior Christi Barwick
- will also be back. The Wol-
verines' two-headed monster
in net allowed just 39 goals in
22 games, good for a 1.71 goals
against average.
And despite the heartbreaking
end to their season, the Wolver-
ines' campaign was nothing to
scoff at.
The team outshot its oppo-
nents by 95 on the year en route
to Big Ten regular season and


tournament titles, a 15-7 record
and the No. 8 seed in the NCAA
Tournament.
For a team who has exactly
half of its roster filled by under-
classmen, that has to be consid-
ered a success.
When asked about the team's
prospects for next year, Way
didn't hesitate to agree that the
team is more than capable of
improving on this year's success.
"Oh, we absolutely can," Way
said. "Jess (Allen), Bryn (Bain)
and Hannah (Dawson) are the
most competitive people I know,
and the whole team has come to
a point now where there is no
more losing. Our mentality used
to be: I hope we don't lose, as
opposed to this year, which was:
We will not lose this game. All
of the girls have gotten a taste of
what winning is like again, and
I don't think they want it to go
away."
Michigan will be back next
year, and it should be even bet-
ter than it was this year. And it's
already pretty good.
So if you don't think that the
Wolverines have a reason to
smile after having their hearts
broken, you aren't paying atten-
tion.
C

By ANNA ROZENBERG
Daily Staff Writer
Feb. 17, 2011 - Avatar aliens,
"Thriller" dancers carrying
glow-sticks and Harry Potter-
wannabes rapping about Quid-
ditch took the stage at last night's
annual "Mock Rock."
Hosted by the Student Athlete
Advisory Council at Hill Audito-
rium, Mock Rock showcased 20
varsity and club varsity sports
teams that performed original
skits to raise money for charity.
This year's funds - so far esti-
mated at more than $100,000 -
will go to the Child and Family
Life program at C. S. Mott Chil-
dren's Hospital, the Michigan
Autism Partnership and Student
Athletes Leading Social Change.
LSA senior Taylor Day, one of
four event chairs for the SAAC,
said in an interview before the
event that the "biggest underly-
ing goal is to raise money for our
three charities."
The SAAC has been fundrais-
ing since December, and student-
athletes raised their own money
prior to the event. Donations are
also still being accepted.
Current Cincinnati Bengals
linebacker Dhani Jones, a Uni-
versity alum, was the event
emcee. SAAC asked Jones to host
Mock Rock in order to spark fun-
draising for the event.
Each Mock Rock judge -
including new Michigan football
head coach Brady Hoke - had a
connection to the University.
"Wethoughtit would be agreat
way to get him involved and make
him feel welcome," Day said.
Other judges included Jan
Brandon, wife of University Ath-
letic Director Dave Brandon, Dan
Sygar, Letterwinners M Club
president and a University alum,
and Elise Ray, an Olympic bronze

medalist and University alum.
Before the event began, the
auditorium filled with student-
athletes waiting for their turn
to perform. LSA freshman and
Michigan wrestler Jordan Smith
said he was enthusiastic about
going on stage.
"We're going to be really
funny. Probably the best one out
there," Smith said, of the wres-
tling team's act.
Smithsaidthe teammembers put
togethertheir skitinabout an hour.
"Itwasrigorousthough,"hesaid.
But other teams,like the Mich-
igan Marching Band, spent mul-
tiple days practicing each week
for the past month to prepare.
The work paid off as the band
took first place for their "Barbie
and Ken" Michigan-themed skit.
Engineering senior Kristen
Angonese, a member of the Mich-
igan Marching Band, expressed
her excitement after the show.
"The last couple years we've
been doing really well, but it's
nice to finally win," she said.
other performances were the
men's rowing team's Pokamon
skit, which included elaborate
costumes and girls dressed as
elements carried across the stage
during the Pokemon battles.
Many skits included partial
nudity. The men's swimming
and diving team ended with each

member in a skimpy Speedo dur-
ing their "Somewhere Overthe
Rainbow" skit.
"I hope our (football) players
don't come out in what they had
on," Hoke said while judging the
men'sdwimmingand divingskit.
LSA senior and Michigan
football player Ryan Van Bergen
said the football team had three
practices a week to prepare for
the event. The team finished in
second place with its "Hidden
Talents" song and dance act.
"We found a place for every-
one who wanted an opportunity
... kind of a hodge-podge of every-
body," Van Bergen said, adding
that many of the players have hid-
den musical talents.
University alum and former
Michigan football player Zoltan
Mesko, who is a player with the
New England Patriots, was also a
judge at the event.After the show,
Mesko said he enjoyed the expe-
rience and would definitely par-
ticipate as ajudge in the future.
"I thought there (were) some
surprises," Mesko said. "There
were a lot of non-dancing acts."
ESPN analyst Adam Schefter,
a University and Michigan Daily
alum, also judged the teams at
Mock Rock. It was "a great night
for a great cause," he said.
"You can see a lot of work went
into this," Schefter added.
rv