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 1 MJOVE UNI VERSTY OF M ICHIAN Pilates, Yoga, Dance, Swim, Strength & Conditioning classes and so many more! Held conveniently in the UM Rec Sports facilities Get Your Move On! I Bring in this coupon for $1 $Ioff I any Fall 2012 U-Move Fitness class when you register in person in the U-Move Fitness office! 0 www.kines.umich.edu/umove - u-move@umich.edu - 734.764.1342 .