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September 04, 2012 - Image 44

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The Michigan Daily, 2012-09-04

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6E - Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Michigan Daily- michigandaily.com

6E -Tueday Sepembr 4 201 Th Mihiga Daly micigadaiyco

Michigan earns No.11
seed,firstNCAA Tour-
nament bid since 2001

By COLLEEN THOMAS
Daily Sports Writer
MARCH 12, 2012 - Finally,
the Michigan women's basket-
ball team is going dancing.
In the past 11 years, the Wol-
verines have had three coaches
and multiple disappointing
seasons, but more importantly,
no NCAA Tournament appear-
ances.
But on Monday, that all
changed, as Michigan earned an
at-large berth after going 20-11
this season.r
The Wolverines are the
11-seed in the Fresno region and
will play six-seed Oklahoma in
Norman, Okla. in the first round.
The game tips at 7:30 on Sunday
night.
Michigan hasn't made an
appearance in the NCAA Tour-
nament since 2001 under coach
Sue Guevara, and the team has
made the tournament just four
other times in program history.
As part of Michigan coach i
Kevin Borseth's first recruiting
class, senior guards ,Courtney
Boylan and Carmen Reynolds Seniorg
have experienced all the grow- Dance.
ing pains associated with
rebuilding a program. Just last theyN
season, the Wolverines finished But Bo
third in the Big Ten before losing body o
to the worst team in the league, season
Illinois, in the first round of the markA
conference tournament. They Bors
weren't invited to the NCAA his tea
Tournament, despite a strong excitec
resume. Monda
This year, Boylan and Reyn- pressu
olds got the opportunity to leave tee fac
their mark. "The
"It means a lot to us (to make decisio
the tournament)," Reynolds said. couple
"The room exploded, I mean, we positiv
started crying. It's just so excit- this ye
ing to us. To take that step in whaten
the program our senior year, it but I'm
means so much." Wh
Boylan added: "Our program appear
has changed so much since Bors- after 7
eth came here. We were a part of had no
his first recruitingclass, and to be about
able to leave our footprint on the sured1
program means so much to us." sion.
The Wolverines rode the bub- "It's
ble for the majority of the season, ly," he
and many experts" didn't think thoset

AUan e a theHUKD aiy
guard Courney Boylan and the Wolverines are headed to the Big

Senior Kellen Russell, shown in a match earlier this season, took home his second
St Louis this weekend.
Russell claims second NCAA{
By LIZ NAGLE dance, not one would say they saw
Daily Sports Writer him quit - Russell fought until
the referee raised his arm in vic-
MARCH 18, 2012 - It was the tory.
beginning of March Madness "Most of these wrestlers today
- the Michigan men's basket- are expected to just tell them-
ball team just fell to Ohio in the selves, 'This is just like every
NCAA Tournament, and every- other match,' " said Anthony
one donned Irish-green apparel Robles before the finals on Sat-.
in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. urday.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Kellen Robles, who earned last year's
Russell was wrestling in his last 125-pound national title, despite
moments of glory. being born with only one leg, con-
On Saturday, the fifth-year tinued, "but really, it's not like
senior stepped onto the mat for every other match."
the last time in a maize and blue "This is what they train for
singlet. When he walked off, he year round, what they dream
was a two-time national cham- about. So it's all about who can
pion. come out tonight, perform under
Russell's journey was long the lights for one more match."
and physical. He spent count- But it wasn't just Russell's last
less hours training for a single match that mattered.
moment. But in the last weeks of After three early wins, Russell
his college-wrestling career, Rus- squared off against Ohio State's
sell made history, sought revenge Hunter Stieber in the semifinals.
and passed on a tradition. The Buckeye was Russell's only
Russell is an irreplaceable loss in 72 matches over the last
puzzle piece. Without him, the two seasons.
Michigan wrestling team would Russell reflected on that match
not have been able to complete more than once. He knew his
its 11th-place finish at the NCAA focus wasn't there. But this time,
Championships this weekend. it was.
But with him, the Wolverines Stieber struck first afterscram-
built upon their legacy and added bling to keep a hold on Russell's
Russell's name to the short list of left leg. But in the second period,
Michigan's multiple-time cham- Russell started in the down posi-
pions. tion and scored an early escape.
Just after Russell's final vic- That's when he started to open up
tory, ESPN played a video about and rally a 5-2 win. With a lead,
the challenges that wrestlers he drove Stieber's head into the
encounter. mat, riding him out to advance to
"You make yourself very vul- the finals, where he would face
nerable," said Oscar winner and Iowa's Montell Marion.
former wrestler John Irving. "If In a press conference before
you're tired, everybody knows. If the 141-pound final, someone
you're not as strong or as fast as asked Russell's opponent a telling
your opponent, everybody sees it. question.
If you quit, everybody sees it." "Montell, you've got one more
But Russell didn't make him- match tomorrow night. Does it
self vulnerable, nor did he let any- feel like it could be a fairy-tale
one witness signs of weakness or ending for your career if you.were
exhaustion. Of the 18,919 in atten- ever able to bring it home?"

ADAMGLANZMAN/Daily
-consecutive national championship in
championship
But there are no fairy tales in
wrestling.
Russell had a 3-0 record
against Marion, so he was con-
fident before the match. But it
didn't turn out exactly the way he
planned. Though Russell posted
the first takedown, Marion retali-
ated and kept the score close.
Russell aggressively drove
Marion into the mat while
the Hawkeye tried to earn an
escape. But Marion tied it up in
the middle of the second period.
And after trading escapes, at the
sound of the whistle, Russell was
a single second away from a win
off of riding time.
But 59 seconds was not enough,
and Marion took Russell into sud-
den victory.
"He kind of caught me sleeping
a little bit when he got that take-
down," Russell said. "Going into
overtime, I knew I had the upper
hand."
Again, Russell came out on
top. He took control and brought
Marion down to the mat with 23
seconds left on the clock.
Though his first national title
was an accomplishment in and
of itself, his second-consecutive
crown was just icing on the cake.
Russell's last match as a Wol-
verine finalized his career record
at 134-12 to share the eighth
place on Michigan's all-time win-
ningest wrestlers list with Joe
Pantaleo (1985-89), Airron Rich-
ardson (1995-98) and Greg Wag-
ner (2002-06).
After the championships
ended, the Scottrade Center emp-
tied and the wrestlers parted
ways. But Russell left a two-time
national champion.
"I love watching him wrestle,"
said redshirt sophomore Eric
Grajales. "It sometimes feels like
he's planned out the entire match
beforehand."

would make it this year.
Dylan was confident in the
f work the team put in this
, and believed the 20-win
would help their case.
seth was also confident in
m, but was wary to get too
d or disappointed before
y - he understands the
re the selection commit-
es each year.
e committee has tough
ns to make, and the last
of years we weren't on the
e end of that choice, and
ar we were," he said. "For
ver reason, I don't know,
glad we were."
en Michigan's name
ed on the screen shortly
p.m. on Monday, Borseth
thing but positives to say
his team's season, reas-
by the committee's deci-
a great feeling, obvious-
said. "You go through all
trials together and your

goal is to try to get into the tour-
nament and make some things
happen.
"Every day in practice, these
kids lace up and play just as hard
as anybody I've ever had play for
me. I'm really proud of them,
and (happy) for them to get an
opportunity to finally - I don't
want to say get rewarded, but
get an opportunity to play in the
NCAA Tournament."
Borseth took over the pro-
gram in 2007, turning around
a program that dwelled at the
bottom of the Big Ten for the
previous four years and making
it a competitor in the conference.-
After just his fifth season, his
team is going dancing.
NOTE:I The NCAA Tourna-
ment field features seven Big
Ten teams, a conference record.
They include: four-seed Purdue,
four-seed Penn State, six-seed
Nebraska, eight-seed Ohio State,
nine-seed Iowa, 10-seed Michi-
gan State and 11-seed Michigan.

Team One: Lacrosse gears up for first Division I season

FE
ninety
medal
the m
Unite(
versit
seem j
Sunda
lacros
selves
The
mark t
which

By EVAN QUINN pete at the Division-I level. The
For theDaily announcement that the team
would make the jump to the var-
B. 7, 2012 - One hundred sity level from club status came
y-five years, 138 Olympic last May, providing a rare oppor-
s, an alumni chapter on tunity for the student-athletes to
oon and a President of the pioneer a new chapter in Michi-
d States later, making Uni- gan history.
y of Michigan history can Michigan coach John Paul
like a daunting task. This does not take this opportunity
y, the Michigan men's lightly. Pointing to head football
se team will find them- coach Brady Hoke's invocation of
doing just that. "Team 132," he views this forma-
2012 lacrosse season will tive era for the lacrosse program*
the first in school history in as essential to building future
i the Wolverines will com- success.

"We've embraced the whole
Team One attitude' here," Paul
said. "We're calling ourselves
Team One. I talk to the team about
being Team One all the time. I
thank coach Hoke for setting that
precedent, and as important as it
was for him to instill an under-
standing of tradition in his pro-,
gram, we need to understand the
opportunity we have as-Team One.
There's going to be a Team 132 in
lacrosse one day, and they're going
to look back and remember the
number of teams that have been
through this."
As a varsity team, the Wolver-
ines will face much stiffer' com-
petition. In light of this, Paul is
taking a long-term approach to
coaching his team.
"We've made it our mission this

year to build an elite Division-
I culture," Paul said. "And that
doesn't necessarily mean that
we're winning every Division-
I game, it means we're building
this culture that's going to lay the
foundation for what this program
is going to become."
Junior Sean Sutton expressed
a similar sentiment about the
turbulent transitional phase.
"We expect the competition to
be a. higher level, obviously," he
said. "But we're going to do what
we can control, and that's get-
ting better each and every day.
We have no expectations of wins
and losses right now. We're just
trying to work to get that culture
established, and trying to set the
culturethat will bring us to a great
program some day."

Paul will need serious com-
mitment from his players mov-
ing forward if the Wolverines
hope to have success. The switch
to Division I places new demands
on his players.
Most of the players of the Mich-
igan lacrosse team didn't sign on
to compete at a varsity level, com-
ing to Michigan with the expec-
tation of playing club lacrosse.
Suddenly, thrust into Division I,
their upcoming season includes
many more responsibilities than-
they're used to handling.
It remains to be seen whether
these new responsibilities will
be fulfilled moving forward. So
far, Paul seems pleased with the
team's development. Last Satur-
day, Michigan participated in an
exhibition match against Divi-

sion-III Denison and came out
with a 12-8 victory.
"We had, a lot of young guys
stepping up," Paul said. "We had
guys playing out of position that
had to step up. From the perspec-
tive of guys stepping up in their
roles today, I thought it went really
well."
Regardless of the team's final
record this year, the season will
be a remarkable one due to its his-
toric nature. For the players, this
represents a dream come true.
"(Being a Division-I athlete)
is surreal," said fifth-year senior
Trevor Yealy. "I would have never
guessed it. When I started here,
I would have never thought that
I'd have the opportunity and the
privilege to do this. It's a privilege,
it's an honor, it's exciting."

johi MRun, The University of Michigan
RunLning Clib'
A L L A BILITY LEV ELS WE LCOM EI
Practice Weekdays4:ISPIM Outside of CCRB
Workouts 8:30PM Tuesday Outdoor Track
Racetravel with team for fall cross countav
meetts
Stay in sliape for winter track season
Comnmunity Service * Social Events0 b Optional
Races
For more info contact Will Kane:
Inmrulm president uinicid.edu
WVebsite:'lhttp3: 'mnn ldtbrull in.+re

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