The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com December 5, 2011 - 3B Russell's streak ends,'M' takes 2nd place } Top-ranked that's what champions do," said Michigan coach Joe McFar- Russell's 46-match land. "They come back with a fury, and you don't want to be winstreak snapped that next guy. I think Kellen did in quarterfinalS a great job of refocusing, and I think we saw a different wres- tler out there than we saw (Fri- By LIZ NAGLE day) night." Daily Sports Writer In the semifinals of the consolation bracket, Russell Those who travel far and squared off against Cal Poly's wide to Sin City hope to pick No. 2 Boris Novachkov in a the luck of the draw and return rematch of last year's NCAA home with pockets full of cash. Championship bout, which At the two-day Cliff Keen Las Russell narrowly won. Through Vegas Invitational, the Michi- the third lengthy tiebreaker, gan wrestling team nearly hit consisting of nothing but sin- the jackpot. gle point escapes, Russell and Top-ranked 141-pound Kel- Novachkov defended their len Russell entered the tourna- respective territories with ment after recovering from a resilience. minor tweak in his right knee. Novachkov mustered anoth- He was not expected to miss er escape, which put the pres- a step throughout the tourna- sure on Russell. With just 13 ment. seconds to make an escape, But it seems as his luck ran Russell did just that, and won out. with two seconds of riding No. 9 Michigan placed sec- time, earning his third win over ond, and Russell's 46-match the Cal Poly senior. win streak came to a shocking "Overall, it was one of the end against Ohio State fresh- best matches I've wrestled man Hunter Stieber in the against him," Russell said. "I quarterfinals. Russell failed to was more offensive than I have take home his third Cliff Keen been in the past." championship title, but he man- Redshirt sophomore Eric aged to wrestle his way back Grajales took the cards he through the consolation brack- was dealt against each oppo- et for a third-place finish. nent and traded them in for "Kellen bounced back - the 149-pound crown. His win helped the Wolverines take second place with 116 points, just behind the tournament- winning No. 6 Ohio State team with 129. Grajales, ranked sixth in the nation, captured his first col- legiate tournament title. After a bye in the first round, he pinned California Baptist's Dylan Cata- line in the first period. Grajales moved on with a technical fall in 6:56 on Indi- ana's Taylor Walsh. A month ago, Walsh caught Grajales off guard and scored an upset at the Michigan State Open. But this time, Grajales didn't hesi- tate to make a multifaceted attack. He racked up a 19-4 win with two throws, a body lock, a headlock, three takedowns, locked hands and an escape. "I felt great," Grajales said. "It was a chance to prove myself and show what I'm capable of." Senior Zac Stevens finished fourth in the 133-pound circle after a notable start on Fri- day. In round one, he pinned Nebraska Kearny senior Kazuhiro Fujinawa and later pummeled Western Wyoming sophomore Richard Serna with a 16-0 technical fall victory. Apparently, redshirt senior Justin Zeerip went to Vegas with a figurative rabbit's foot in his pocket. Zeerip pinned his first oppo- Senior Kellen Russell, pictured against Purdue last season, lost to Ohio State freshman Hunter Stieber in the quarterfinals. nent in a mere 28 seconds, entering the third period, but "I thought we were in a posi- before his 8-2 decision in the DesRoches struck back and tion to take control of this tour- second round and 11-1 major eventually forced overtime. In nament, and we let it slip away a decision in the quarters. He the extra periods, Zeerip could little bit," McFarland said. worked his way up the bracket not find a point advantage and He wanted his wrestlers to by his own merit, but made it lost 6-5. learn a valuable lesson: to know into the finals on a medical for- But even with the multiple that they must never give an feit. losses, Michigan had its best opponent an inch of mat. While fighting for the crown, finish at the annual invite since "(To give) nothing less - Zeerip's luck finally ran out as 2007. But was it enough to quell that's when you're going to get well. He had a 5-2 lead against Michigan coach Joe McFar- your hand raised," McFarland Cal Poly's Ryan DesRoches land's lofty expectations? said. VIRGINIA TECH From Page 1B Sugar Bowl for the third time in school history. "I'm proud of our football team and what we've been able to do," said Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer in a teleconference last night. "I think the people we've been able to beat, they didn't seem weak to me. "There's a lot of reasons why you'd like to have Virginia Tech in your bowlgame." Beamer would know - the 25th-year coach is a Virginia Tech graduate and wasthe starting cor- nerback for the Hokies from 1967- 69. He's currently first in all-time wins (251) and bowl appearances (18) for active coaches. During Beamer's tenure at Vir- ginia Tech, the program has been one of the most consistent in the nation, winning 10 or more games in eight straight seasons and in 13 of the past 16. Though he's been around a long time, Beamer knows very little about the Wolverines. He said he's never met Michigan coach Brady Hoke buthas heard good things. "I know (Hoke's) name for the tremendous job he's done in coaching," Beamer said. "I don't know a lot about Michigan. Until recently, I didn't really think us and Michigan would be meeting in a bowl game." There was a similar feeling on Michigan's end. "From the clips on ESPN, they look pretty good," said senior defensive end Ryan Van Bergen. SPOTLIGHT From Page 1B celebratory cooler bath. He's the man Virginia Tech S coach Frank Beamer has never met, but took note of. "I know his name for the tre- mendous job he's done in coach- ing," Beamer said. "(This season) he got them all going in the same direction at a fast pace. And the wins that he had, the way they played and the discipline that they played with - from where he came from he won and he won quickly at Michigan. "Michigan's got a great future in front of it." There's no place like a bowl game to merge the future and present. A month after your last regular season game, you play a singular game that swings momentum for the next season. *Then the Sugar Bowl's spotlight magnifies it all. Defensive coordinator Greg Mattison's Mona Lisa will be under the spotlight: one of the greatest masterpieces of his career, a reclamation project that transformed the No. 107 scoring defense in 2010 into the seventh-ranked unit. Everyone already knows cH UCK BURTON/AP Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer and the Hokies have just two losses in 2011, but both came against Clemson. "I didn't get the chance to watch them too much this season, but obviously we're taking them very seriously. They're going to be very motivated off their loss to Clem- son and they've got plenty of ath- letes, I know that." Michigan has some athletes of its own, too. And there's little doubt that one of the first names Beamer will address in prepara- tion for Michigan will be Denard Robinson. Beamer has never seen the junior quarterback playin per- son, but he's seen plenty of him on television. "What I've seen of him is on the highlight reels, and he's got plen- ty of them," Beamer said. "You understand pretty quickly what a unique and talented athlete he is." The Hokies also have a pretty talented dual-threat quarterback about Denard Robinson. Even a busy coach like Beamer found time to catch highlights. "That guy can go," he said. But will Robinson thrive in maybe his only opportunity to be remembered outside of Ann Arbor? Everyone will learn about Mike Martin and Ryan Van Ber- gen and the Michigan-defense- that-could - a group that played fundamentally sound and smart football and became a respect- able unit instead of a bunch of misfit individuals. Will anything change against an athletic Vir- ginia Tech team? Fitzgerald Toussaint, who made a season out of the past five games, will face a newfound level of pressure. Can he keep up his pace? Forget that Michigan doesn't deserve the spotlight. By no means are the Wolverines - who finished ranked 13th in the final BCS standings - absolutely a better team than No. 6 Arkan- sas or No. 7 Boise State or No. 9 Kansas State. We'll never know. They'll never play those teams. Michigan has its tradition and program prestige to thank for this chance to play No. 11 Virgin- ia Tech (who also should thank its rich history) in a clash of tra- in redshirt sophomore Logan Thomas. Thomas was a second- team All-ACC selection this sea- son, completing 60.5 percent of his passes for 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also car- ried the ball 125 times for an aver- age of three yards per carry and 10 total touchdowns. Robinson, a second-team All- Big Ten selection, mirrors Thom- as's touchdown numbers but has thrown double the amount of interceptions with 14. However, Robinson is a much bigger threat on the ground - he's averaged 5.9 yards per carry off 208 rushes for 16 touchdowns this season. "From what I've seen, that guy can go," Beamer said. Beamer, who has coached sev- eral dual-threat quarterbacks in his career, including Michael ditional powerhouses in a bowl game with equally rich history. Granted, it's not the Grand- daddy of them all. No, Michigan didn't accomplish all of Hoke's goals: win the Big Ten, go to the Rose Bowl. But for the seniors who had only one bowl appearance in three seasons, the spotlight alone is enough. The lights weren't as bright at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, and even then, Rich Rodriguez's shadow was large enough to obscure a 38-point loss to Missis- sippi State, an average SEC team. "It was embarrassing to say the least," Koger said. "I think it was disappointing to just put all that work into a football game and have the outcome that we did last year. "The main thing is to go dowr (to New Orleans) and win the football game." Once Hoke and the Wolver- ines beat Ohio State, it became more than a comeback. Hoke's re-establishing Michigan for what it once was one step at a time. The next is beating the Hokies in front of the nation. Just 10 teams get to play in BCS games and, politics and fairness aside, Michigan's one of them. That means something Vick, said it'll help a little bit that his team is used to playing with running quarterbacks. But when it comes down to it, the Hokies are still going to have to find a way to take down the shifty Robinson. "I think us having that type of guys gives us some experience," he said. "But it all gets back to the players and being able to tackle the guy when you get him there." For Virginia Tech, the Clemson spanking is in the past. The bad taste of its second loss is gone and sugar is all it can taste. And now, the Hokies' focus is solely on Michigan. "We're gonna pay close atten- tion to (Michigan) now," Beamer said. "We're going to get to work on them and try to represent the ACC in the best way possible." GUPTILL From Page 1B Michigan, but Michigan (4-6-2-1, 8-8-2) needed to win in Fairbanks if for no other reason thanto prove that it could. And forget the three flights the Wolverines had to take to get it. Berenson would've taken three more. "You've got to win on the road," he said. "This is an important win to take a lot of pressure off (the team)." With two minutes remaining in regulation, though, the elusive victory appeared in serious jeop- ardy. Of all the bad spots to take a penalty, freshman defenseman Brennan Serville - coming off a career-best two-point game on Friday - picked the worst. Per- haps out of desperation, Serville was sent to the penalty box for boarding. The Wolverines would have to close it out a man down. "I didn't see the hit," Berenson said. "But it must've been a serious hit or they wouldn't have called it (so late in the game)." What followed was likely the strongest penalty kill of the sea- son. It shifted the momentum to Michigan for the overtime period, of which Guptill needed just 57 seconds. "Our team dug in and they killed it," Berenson said of the late penalty. "That was a huge kill - one shot and the game's over." Before the game, Berenson told the Wolverines that it could be another one-goal game, but with fewer goals than Friday's 4-3 Alaska win. In the second period, with the score still knotted atzero, Michigan realized his prediction may be spot on. "(Nanook goaltender Scott) Greenham's making huge save after huge save," Hunwick said. "Halfway through the game, it looked like one goal could do it." Knowing that changed noth- ing for Hunwick. He rose to the occasion, recording his seventh "We didn't want to go home with zero points." career shutout and first away from Yost Ice Arena. Hunwick shared Berenson and Guptill's relief. But he knows the win is simply a small step in the right direction. "Guys are excited," Hunwick said. "We didn't want to go home with zero points. (But) it's a rivalry week. We'll turn our attention to Michigan State." When asked whether the get- away game could serve as a turn- ing point, Berenson wasn't ready to make any more bold predic- tions. But the sigh of relief said it all. With the weight of the world off the team's shoulders, the Wol- verines may again be ready to play "Michigan hockey," the mistake- free style of play that the team reverted to - at least temporarily - Saturday. MARISSA MCCLAIN/Daily Fifth-year senior Ryan Van Bergen said the Sugar Bowl was Michigan's chance to put a "stamp" on its 10-2 season. for Hoke, the program and the senior's legacy. "It kind of establishes nation- al relevance for Michigan as a program," said fifth-year senior defensive end Ryan Van Bergen. "It puts us kind of back on the map so to speak as a national powerhouse. "It's a tremendous opportu- nity to put a final stamp on this year." When he was asked how big a stage the Sugar Bowl would be, interestingly enough, Koger started talking about how differ- ent it would be playing indoors at the Louisiana Superdome. "The lighting will be a little bit different," he said. "It's going to be a great stage." Michigan's back under the spotlight. Front and center. -Rohan can be reached at trohan@umich.edu or on Twitter @TimRohan.