Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, April 12, 2016 — 7
Throwers fuel ‘M’
By MIKE PERSAK
Daily Sports Writer
The field events have led the
Michigan
men’s
track
team
recently,
with
the
throwers
especially finding success. This
past weekend was no different,
as the Wolverines traveled to
Auburn, Ala., to compete in the
Tiger Track Classic.
Junior
thrower
Grant
Cartwright continued to shine in
the field events by setting a new
personal record in the shot put
with a throw of 18.44 meters. The
throw placed him in second for
the event.
Being at the top of the
leaderboard
is
something
Cartwright has gotten used
to since the outdoor season
began. He suffered an injury in
December and spent a majority
of the indoor season trying
to get ready for the outdoor
season.
“As we’ve moved outdoors, he’s
been able to train a lot differently,”
said
Michigan
coach
Jerry
Clayton. “We had to cut some
things out to get (Cartwright’s
injury) calmed down. So now he’s
back into training and getting
really consistent, which is what
we’re looking for this time of
year.”
Not
to
be
outdone
by
Cartwright’s
success,
senior
decathlete
Steven
Bastien
separated from the rest of his
team to compete in the Bulldog
Decathlon/Heptathlon meet in
Athens, Ga., on Thursday. Not
only did Bastien finish in the top
10, but he also set a school record
in the decathlon and posted the
ninth-best national score in the
event this year.
The
meet
marked
the
first time Bastien had ever
competed in the decathlon for
the Wolverines. However, the
senior has been training for the
event for a while.
“Coach Clayton has had it all
planned out pretty well,” Bastien
said. “I think it’s been planned out
since the beginning of the season,
even. We just throw a little bit
every week. We do jumping and
pole vaulting every week. I run
two times a week, one day a (400-
meter) workout and the other
day is more of a (1,000-meter) or
(1,500-meter) workout.
“I
guess
the
training
is
designed to make it so you keep in
touch with each of the events and
are able to build on things you’ve
worked on in prior weeks.”
In addition to Clayton’s help
in preparing for the decathlon,
Bastien could also turn to his
previous coach. His father, Gary
Bastien, not only coached Steven,
but also ran the decathlon in
college with Eastern Michigan.
In fact, according to decathlon
historian Frank Zarnowski, the
father-son combined score of
Gary and Steven is the highest
such score of all time.
“Since I’ve gotten to Michigan,
(my dad) has really let Coach
Clayton do whatever and coach
me entirely,” Bastien said. “I
wouldn’t say he’s (like) any parent,
because he knows so much about
it. But his role as a coach isn’t as
much as it used to be.”
Despite the success of Bastien
and Cartwright, the team still
has work to do before it reaches
the
postseason
tournaments.
According to Clayton, though,
this weekend was a step in the
right direction.
“What we did in the first two
(outdoor)
meets,
those
were
scoring situations very similar to
what you get at the conference
meet, the preliminary rounds
and the NCAA Championships,”
Clayton said.
Though the team can revel in
the building success with each
passing meet, its focus is firmly on
the future, and more specifically,
the end of the season.
MEN’S TRACK
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan rowing team lost to Ohio State, but beat Rutgers at the Big Ten Double Dual in Princeton, N.J., on Saturday.
Buckeyes dominate B1G Double Dual
By MATTHEW KENNEDY
Daily Sports Writer
For the past few seasons,
Ohio State has had the Michigan
women’s rowing team’s number.
Saturday, that trend continued.
“Ohio State is the defending
national champs and is a really
good program,” said Michigan
coach Mark Rothstein. “They got
the better of us.”
Competing at the Big Ten
Double Dual in Princeton, N.J.,
which featured the sixth-ranked
Wolverines, Michigan State, No. 3
Ohio State and Rutgers, Michigan
rowed against the Buckeyes in
the morning before matching up
against the Scarlet Knights in the
afternoon.
In the morning meet, the
highlight for Michigan was the
second varsity eight race. The
boat narrowly won the race over
Ohio State, finishing with a time
of 6:49.6.
The rest of the meet, though,
was all Buckeyes.
Ohio State’s first varsity eight
handily beat Michigan, defeating
the Wolverines by a full eight
seconds with a winning time of
6:34.8. The Michigan first and
second varsity fours also both
lost to their respective Buckeye
counterparts. While the first
varsity four narrowly lost by under
two seconds, the second varsity
four was not as competitive, losing
by almost six seconds.
“I was pleased with our second
eight beating Ohio State, and I
thought our first eight learned
some things in the morning and
did better in the afternoon,”
Rothstein said. “I thought our
first four, even though they
came up short, raced well in the
morning against Ohio State. It
was a good day, good learning
experience.”
In the afternoon — with
strong winds slowing all four
teams — the Wolverines had a
much better showing. In the first
varsity eight, Michigan trounced
Rutgers, finishing with a time of
7.14.5 for a 40.2-second margin
of victory. The second varsity
eight was even more dominant,
jousting the Scarlet Knights by
44.1 seconds with a winning time
of 7:27.6.
Both of the Wolverines’ varsity
fours were stellar in the afternoon
as well, defeating Rutgers by huge
margins. The first varsity four
won by almost a minute — 8:29.1 to
9:23.6 — while the second varsity
four won by just 50 seconds,
8:03.56 to 8:54.3.
While
the
higher-ranked
Buckeyes tripped up Michigan,
Rothstein was happy to be able
to compete against another good
team, especially with both the Big
Ten and NCAA Championships
quickly approaching.
“We need to evaluate what we
did well and areas that we need
to shore up,” Rothstein said. “I
think the biggest thing is just to
practice really hard over the next
week. We’ll see some fast teams
in Clemson (next weekend), so
we’re excited to go down there,
and it should be really good
racing.”
Though Rothstein is optimistic
for the future, he is still careful
about getting his hopes up for the
end of the season.
“It’s
a
fast
conference,”
Rothstein said. “We’ll see how we
perform.”
Two years in, players love Leonardi
By TYLER SCOTT
Daily Sports Writer
When Marcelo Leonardi was
hired as the Michigan water polo
coach, he didn’t expect to reach
this point in less than two years.
Saturday
at
Canham
Natatorium, the eighth-ranked
Wolverines
entered
their
contests ranked ahead of their
conference foes, No. 13 Harvard
and No. 16 Princeton, and went
on to beat them in back-to-
back games. But before all that,
Michigan wrapped up the last
home invitational of the year
with a short ceremony to honor
the team’s graduating seniors.
Before the game against the
Crimson, senior attackers Ali
Thomason and Emily Martin,
utility player Emily Sejna and
goalie Julia Campbell stood on
the edge of the pool deck, draped
in bouquets and surrounded by
balloons. Leonardi gave a short,
emotional speech in front of a
crowd several hundred strong.
He thanked his seniors for doing
the work of “rebuilding the
program,” but paused when his
voice shook.
“I’m proud of you all,” he said.
Thomason followed up by
scoring four goals in the ensuing
match. Martin added three and
Campbell made critical saves
late in the game that secured
Michigan’s victory. The seniors
showcased the type of play
indicative of a team sitting at the
No. 8 spot in the national polls.
The Wolverines seem to have
worked through any transitional
period since Leonardi’s hire, and
found success in the process.
They have more wins this year
than either of the past two
seasons, with a week of regular-
season play still on the schedule,
not
to
mention
postseason
tournaments.
“My past few years here have
been rough,” Martin said. “We
haven’t really done the best. This
year, we’re really performing.
We’re a great team.”
Martin and the three other
graduating
seniors
were
originally part of a 13-member
freshman class. After Michigan
appointed
Leonardi,
several
players transferred. Campbell,
Sejna, Martin and Thomason
were the ones who stayed.
Saturday was the first time
Michigan has been able to beat
Princeton in four years, including
a 9-7 loss late last season. The
Wolverines have also failed to
reach the NCAA Tournament
every year since 2009.
Leonardi installed a system
that was entirely different from
what his four seniors — just
sophomores at the time — were
accustomed to. He immediately
reworked the schedule to give the
Wolverines tougher competition
for future seasons, even though it
meant Michigan would only host
one home contest that first year.
But
Leonardi
didn’t
stop
with the schedule. He changed
everything
for
his
players
across the board — from how
they practice to how they eat
— standard protocol for an
incoming coach. But Leonardi’s
changes brought results in his
second year — results that have
led to more wins in the record
book and more satisfaction to the
minds of his players.
“We have a base of culture,”
Thomason
said.
“We
know
everyone’s working hard, and
everyone has put in the work this
year.
“He’s only been our coach
for two years, but all four of us
(seniors) have formed this bond
with him. He took us under his
wing and helped this program
transform into something that
the four of us envisioned for it.
It truly means a lot to us to see
that our love for the game and
love for everyone around us is
reciprocated in how he feels.”
The
exposure
of
being
nationally ranked could give the
Wolverines a recruiting boost,
as long as they keep winning.
Current senior leadership is
already going a long way to help
sell Leonardi’s message to the
underclassmen.
Freshman
attacker
Kim
Johnson is Michigan’s second
leading goal-scorer with 48 so far
this season. She chalked up five
more goals against Princeton.
“One of the reasons why I
came (to Michigan) was because
I wanted to be a part of building
this program,” Johnson said. “I
love being on an underdog team
who comes back, builds up and
surprises everybody. And I felt
like that’s really what we’ve done,
and I feel like we’re going to stay
on top the rest of my time here.”
Leonardi admits that while
he expected to be competitive
in conference play, he didn’t
expect to become nationally
ranked so quickly. In the quest
to build a winning, competitive
program, Leonardi is ahead of
schedule.
He credits much of that to his
seniors.
“Those are the four that bought
in,” Leonardi said. “(They) really
helped me change the climate
and the culture of the program.
They were the first ones on the
bus.”
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
Marcelo Leonardi has the Michigan water polo team ranked eighth in the country in his second season as coach.
Weather shortens
tournament as ‘M’
finishes in seventh
By LANEY BYLER
Daily Sports Writer
Almost four hours past the
official start time Saturday,
the Michigan men’s golf team
finally received word that the
Kepler
Intercollegiate
Golf
Tournament
in
Columbus
would begin.
At
one
point,
it
didn’t
even look like there would
be a tournament at all. The
possibility of rain and snow
had
been
threatening
the
competition all morning. The
Wolverines had been hoping
that the tournament would go
on as it was the last regular-
season tournament before the
Big Ten Championships.
And they got their wish,
albeit without the results they
hoped for. Michigan finished
the two-day tournament at
seventh place with 599 strokes.
“Our guys knew they had to
be ready whenever we decided
it was time to play, and we
didn’t know when that would be
exactly,” said Michigan coach
Chris Whitten. “We wanted to
play this tournament, and at
one point in the morning, it was
looking like we wouldn’t play
any golf. We were happy just to
have an opportunity to play.”
Bad weather wasn’t the only
setback the 16-team bracket
faced
this
weekend.
The
original 54-hole tournament
was reduced to 36 due to
weather, and that reduction left
little room for errors.
Despite the circumstances,
sophomore
Kyle
Mueller
wasn’t deterred. On day one
of the tournament, he led the
Wolverines with 73 strokes,
placing him among 14 athletes
tied for ninth after the first day.
On day two, he jumped one
spot in the standings after
shooting another 73. Mueller
was the Wolverines’ biggest
contributor, finishing with an
overall score of 146.
Freshman
Nick
Carlson
trailed closely behind Mueller
with Michigan’s second best
performance, tying for 23rd on
the first day after shooting a 74.
He mimicked this score on the
second day, tying for 13th with
148 strokes.
The Wolverines settled into
the middle of the pack after the
first day, tying for eighth with
West Virginia with 302 team
strokes. Additional help from
senior Chris O’Neill and juniors
Reed
Hrynewich
and
Tom
Swanson
bumped
Michigan
to seventh place on day two,
where the Wolverines tied Kent
State with 599 strokes.
“The
guys
were
really
battling to make the best of
the round they had in front
of them,” Whitten said. “The
conditions were so extreme this
week. I really don’t remember
a tournament in 10 years of
coaching where it was this cold
and this windy all at the same
time.”
Hrynewich scored a 77 on the
first day, with Swanson trailing
two strokes behind him. They
both improved on day two, each
scoring 75. Hrynewich ended
day two with a final score of
152, and Swanson finished with
a score of 154.
O’Neill rounded out the team,
shooting a 78 on both days. He
ended with a score of 154.
As the regular season draws
to a close and the championships
begin, this tournament gave the
Wolverines a good idea of what
they need to work on.
“I know that we’re going to
have more normal weather (at
the Big Ten Championships),”
Whitten said. “Obviously that’s a
more important tournament for
us. I think we need to reset and
get back to some fundamentals
before the Big Ten.”
MEN’S GOLF