2B - April 14, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 28 - April 14, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, the night Superman fell On the horizontal bar, the full-twisting double back release requires the gymnast to release both hands and perform two backflips and a 360-degree twist above the bar before regrasping the bar. All of this is to say: Gymnastics is unlike almost any other sport on campus in that you or I could never execute any of the skills involved. Any of them. You can throwa javelin. Not far - but you can throw a ZACH javelin. You HELFAND can catch a football. You can make a jump shot. You can swim and run and kick and swing. You cannot do a full-twisting double back release. I couldn't even do a swing around the bar. And that is precisely what has made Sam Mikulak the best athlete on campus for the past four years. He has the individual titles: seven of them now, tied for the most in NCAA men's gymnastics history. He has won three all-around titles. He has been a part of two team national titles. This alone makes him one of the most successful Michigan athletes of all time. But it's the way he has done all of this - in skills that most others can't even dream of performing - that ismost impressive. And his command of these skills is unmatched in college gymnastics. The full-twisting double back release isn't Mikulak's alone or even his trademark skill. There is now a skill on the pommel horse officially called the "Mikulak." This skill isn't like that. But it's Mikulak's mastery of it - of all his skills, really - that sets him apart. ALLISON FARRAND (LEFT) AND ADAM GLANZMAN (RIGHT)/Daily Senior gymnast Sam Mikulak, star of the Michigan men's gymnastics team, fell to the mat Friday, but he recovered and the Wolverines took the title the next night. Golder called the "domino effect." "One guy goes up and misses, and then the next guy misses," Golder said. "It's really hard to get turned around sometimes." And then Michigan had its lowest score of the night on the horizontal bar, and Mikulak was up to turn it around as he always does, and then he dropped his feet down too low and held onto the bar too long, and he missed the bar and disaster struck. Now, everything was in question. "He never misses," Golder said of Mikulak. But Mikulak had just missed. Oklahoma was now within striking distance of Michigan's team score. Stanford's excellent freshman Akash Modi was now .100 off Mikulak's once unassailable all-around lead. The Wolverines watched Mikulak's routine from yards away. When he fell, some put their hands over their heads. Some turned away. Remember that depth? Next up: Hub Humphrey, a junior from Kalamazoo, Mich. who only competed on the floor. He was coming in cold. The dominoes were falling. Could Humphrey stop gravity? He hit his routine. The dominoes stopped. Then Tristian Perez-Rivera hit too, and so did Syque Caesar, and so did Stacey Ervin, who was competing with a torn bicep. All that was left was Mikulak, and it was all over then for Oklahoma and for Modi and for anyone else. Sam Mikulak had fallen. And now it was over because he got back up. Helfand can be reached at zhelfand@umich.edu or on Twitter @zhelfand. After the national championship meet on Friday, a meet that would determine the team champion and the all-around champion, Mikulak estimated that he had gone two months without missingthat trick. And that was why it was such a shock to everyone at a raucous Crisler Center Friday when Sam Mikulak - star of collegiate gymnastics, defier of gravity, master of the full-twisting double back - released the bar and performed two backflips and a 360-degree twist and then missed the bar and fell to the mat. For Michigan, repeat national championships are rarer than positive rushing plays in a football game. The men's gymnastics team entered Friday with a chance to become the school's first repeat champion in any sport since the trampoline team (seriously) in 1969-70. So how did Michigan reach this point? "Our first two years went horribly," Mikulak said, referring to the 2011 and 2012 seasons. "We lost too many times." In two years, they recognized, the team would be loaded with upperclassmen - 19 of 25 gymnasts on the roster this season are juniors or seniors. So they regrouped, and they started a mantra, "MGymDynasty," which they plastered all over social media. This wasn't just a struggling team's plan to improve. This was a strategy for dominance. Michigan wanted multiple championships. "We let every single team out there know that this is what we're going for," said Syque Caesar, a graduate student and the first Michigan athlete to win three national championships. "Sure, other teams might laugh at it, but it was a tangible element." Michigan's secret is its depth, a product of its experienced roster. In postseason team competition, five gymnasts must compete in each of the six disciplines. All five scores count. One low score can tank the meet. The Wolverines went 30-0 this season because little separates their best gymnasts from their worst. Mark Williams, the coach of Michigan's top challenger, Oklahoma, said he knew his gymnasts would have to hit on all 30 of their routines Friday to have a shot at Michigan and the championship. The Sooners, though, were less than perfect on the parallel bars, and Michigan was nearly flawless on the pommel horse, the trickiest of the six disciplines. One rotation in, Michigan just needed to hold on. Mikulak went last in all the rotations. Each time, his presence either added an exclamation point to a successful rotation or stopped the bad momentum before it spread. He stuck his pommel horse landing. He had a solid routine on rings. When Michigan showed its first cracks on the vault, Mikulak stuck the landing. Michigan coach Kurt Golder, usually reserved, gave a big fist pump. On the parallel bars, no one had stuck a double pike to that point. Mikulak did, of course. He scored a 16.050 - tied (with himself) for the highest score of the night. The only worry was what Michigan loses to Buckeyes By MINH DOAN showed exactly why, tallying DailySports Writer six on the day. "Our mistakes defensively Coming out of the locker usually come from room at halftime of Ohio State's inexperience," Paul said. annual "Showdown at the Shoe," "Where one guy is out of position which and we don't communicate with took place MICHIGAN 6 each other." before the OHIO STATE 15 While the second half was a Buckeyes' train wreck for the Wolverines, spring football game Saturday, the first went much better. the Michigan men's lacrosse The game started with the team found itself tied with Ohio teams trading pairs of goals, State, 6-6. including one from freshman Butwith 1:40 gone in the attacker Ian King, his team- second half, Buckeye attacker leading 24th of the year. Carter Brown rifled a shot into Michigan then raced out the back of the net. to a 5-2 lead with goals from And then Ohio State scored sophomore Kyle Jackson, again. And again. And again. sophomore midfielder Riley And the Wolverines (1-3 Eastern Kennedy and redshirt freshman College Athletic Conference, David Joseph. Joseph, especially, 4-9 overall) were unable to showed offhis speed as he carried answer. the ball down the field, outran his The Buckeyes (2-0, 5-6) defender and beat the goalie with scored nine unanswered goals a bounce shot. in the second half en route to a But Ohio State came back dominant 15-6 victory. with a three-goal run of its Ohio State's second-half own, tying the score, before offensive outpour wiped away freshman midfielder Mikie what was a good first half for Schlosser rounded out the Michigan. Wolverine scoring with a rifle The nine-goal run by the from the point. Buckeyes was highlighted by "We were just playing pretty attacker Jesse King's 23rd and good lacrosse in the first half," 24thgoals of the season, leading Paul said. "We were varying the team in scoring. King is our shots, and we were clearing 10th in points nationally, and very well." While there weren't many Wolverines who could say they had a good game, freshman goaltender Robbie Zonino was phenomenal in the cage. Zonino had 15 saves, many of them acrobatic, even though Ohio State dominated most of the offensive posessions. "Robbie played great," Paul said. "He had a couple clearing mistakes, but he saved us a lot of times, which is what a good goalie should do." One of the biggest themes of Michigan's season has been inconsistency. After playing one good half and one bad half last week against Fairfield, the Wolverines repeated that same performance this week.With the four-team ECAC Tournament looming, Michigan will have to curb the inconsistency if it wants a chance to win the conference title. "Last year, at this time, we lose a game and we had nothing to play for other than pride," Paul said. "This year is different, and anything can happen in the ECAC. Exlusive coverage of all 27 varsity sports Check MichiganDaily.com throughout the week CHAMPS From Page 1B Though st competition on hardest events horse - the We the early lead anc back. Mikulak pa with a score of event - good eno first. Michigan a of 14.950s from junior Nick Hunter and senior Matt Freeman on its way to a total score of 75.100. "Pommel horse is the most difficult event to perforn said. "But I h confidence in thi actually our me event, and that's you go out and st, horse and hit i takes the pressur Added Mikula very confidentr team, and we wan one out of the way, and we did it with a bang. And that's just the way you want to start the National Championship." arting the On its third rotation of the one of the night, vault, Michigan made - pommel uncharacteristic errors that olverines took seemingly opened the door for d never looked competitors to get back into aced Michigan contention. But the Wolverines 15.600 in the slammed that door shut on the tugh to tie for next rotation, parallel bars. ilso got a pair Mikulak once again led Michigan with ascore of "Once Stacey .050 - only .050 less than hit, we knew we the NC record, set had it." by Mikulak *himself two weeks ago at the Big o on," Golder Ten Championships. Graduate ave a lot of student Syque Caesar and s team. That's Hunter, with scores of 15.200 ost consistent and 15.050, respectively, also very rare. So if contributed to the overall score art on pommel of 75.95 - the highest of any ke we did, it team competing. e off." "You know you're going to k: "We have a have adversity, and we talked pommel horse about this quite a bit, and you nted to get that just have to handle everything," Golder said. "We had that fall onrvault'and the rest of the guys stepped up and we moved to the next event (parallel bars), and we hita grand slam and a home- run." The Wolverines sealed the championship with perhaps their best performance of the night in the sixth and final rotation on floor exercise. Junior Hub Humphrey, participating in his first event of the night, set the tone for Michigan with a score of15.15. Junior Stacey Ervin, competing despite a torn bicep, topped Humphrey's routine with a score of 15.30. But Ervin, too, was upstaged, as Mikulak's 16.05 was the highest on the night on floor exercise by .50 points. "We are very consistent on floor and once we got three hits out of the way, our two big guys, Stacey and Sam, finishing off the meet, we knew it," Caesar said. "Once Stacey hit, we knew we had it. "It just made it all that much better when Sam stuck the dismount, and we all went ballistic." MIKULAK From Page 1B stuck dismount and a National Championship, it's like you couldn't have written the script any better." Buy a smoothie and receive one of equal or lesser value free! Limit One offer per customer with coupon. 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He was then rushedtothe high bar, where he had no time to put on his protective grips. It didn't seem to faze him. He received a 14.975 for his strong routine and an almost-stuck dismount, good enough for fifth place. Michigan's four gymnasts, who competed on Saturday had endured three tough days of competition, a repeated title, little to no sleep and still managed to take home more hardware and seven All-American certificates. The night ended with the two standing together on the podium: the David and Goliath of collegiate gymnastics. DO YOU KNOW HOW SAM MIKULAK'S HAIR LOOKS SO GOOD?