The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SportsMonday April 18, 2016 — 3B MEN’S GYMNASTICS McCallum’s title caps down year Team fails to qualify for finals at national meet By MATTHEW KENNEDY Daily Sports Writer All season, the Michigan men’s gymnastics team has struggled with the same problem: a mediocre team performance contrasted with flashes of individual greatness. This past weekend, at the NCAA Championships in Columbus, that trend continued. The Wolverines (1-6 Big Ten, 8-23 overall) failed to qualify for the final round of the NCAA Championships — dubbed the Super Six — after a poor showing in the preliminary round Friday. Six teams competed in two sessions, with the top three from each advancing to the final round Saturday. Michigan wasn’t close to qualifying, however, finishing in fifth place with a score of 422.150. To qualify for the Super Six, the Wolverines would have needed to outscore Big Ten foe Illinois — which scored 432.050 points — for third place. “It’s a disappointment,” said Michigan coach Kurt Golder. “I knew we weren’t going to be a National Championship contender, but I knew we had the potential enough to make the Super Six, and we didn’t accomplish that.” Despite the poor team performance Friday, seven gymnasts scored well enough on specific events to qualify for the NCAA Individual Finals, which took place later in the day on Saturday. “(Friday) evening, they were disappointed, but I think they used it as motivation the next day,” Golder said. “It didn’t appear to me that anyone was moping around or anything, they appeared pretty excited about the opportunity that lied in front of them.” Sophomore Dmitri Belanovski captured two All-America honors in the same day after finishing seventh in the All-Around and fifth on the floor. Fifth-year senior Colin Mahar — competing in his final meet for Michigan — tied third on the rings to also garner All-America honors. But the most notable performance was by freshman Anthony McCallum. Competing at his first-ever NCAA Championship, McCallum scored a 15.550 on the vault, taking home an individual national title in that event by 0.200 points. The championship came two weeks after McCallum set an NCAA record while winning the vault title at the Big Ten Championships. “It wasn’t a surprise to me,” Golder said. “He’s competed at the vault all year, and I thought he was being underscored all year. But at the Big Tens and NCAAs, he was getting more of the scores he deserved.” The 2016 season will go down as a disappointment in Golder’s mind, who is just two years removed from back-to-back national titles. But, much like the rest of the season, disappointing team results were mixed with stellar individual performances. “I thought he was being underscored all year.” Two earn All-America honors Artz, Brown, Chiarelli compete as individuals in final meet of season By LANEY BYLER Daily Sports Writer To end a season in which the Michigan women’s gymnastics team hoped to contend for the national title, just three members of the team traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, for the NCAA Championships this weekend. But out of those three, two returned to Ann Arbor with second-team All- American honors. Junior Nicole Artz and sophomore Brianna Brown both advanced to the NCAA Championships for the all- around, while junior Talia Chiarelli qualified for the meet on floor. With the tournament broken up into two sessions — one in the afternoon and one in the evening — the team was split as both Chiarelli and Artz were placed in the afternoon session and Brown was placed in the evening. Since the entire Michigan team didn’t make the championships, all three Wolverines were separated to compete as individuals among other teams. Artz kicked off the tournament for the Wolverines with a rotation on the uneven bars. Surrounded by an unfamiliar team at a high-stakes competition, she was in an uncomfortable situation — until she looked to the uneven bars. At a different event, Chiarelli left her makeshift team for its first rotation to cheer on Artz. Just like at Crisler, she was able to help prep her teammate for the event. And while the whole team wasn’t there, Chiarelli’s presence was enough to keep Artz calm for the event. Artz received a 9.8125 to start the day. However, it was Artz’s floor routine that secured her All- America honors for the third straight season. She scored a 9.875 for the event, tying for sixth, which earned her a second team All-American honor. She now has a total of six All- American honors. Despite Artz’s awards and performances, that wasn’t the highlight of her time in Fort Worth. “Honestly, I was most excited about Talia’s floor routine,” Artz said. “She decided to add a full- in, and it was just really cool for her to go out there and nail something that big.” Chiarelli, who qualified to perform her floor routine at the championships, capitalized on the fact that her routine wouldn’t affect a team score. Double Arabians and full-ins are both E-level passes, and only one is needed to fulfill the difficulty for collegiate gymnastics. With no team stakes on the line, Chiarelli decided to perform both. “We had toyed around with both of the passes and laughed about it at the beginning of the season,” said Michigan coach Bev Plocki. “If she were competing in the Olympics and wanted to challenge Simone Biles or something, then she would do it. With these stakes, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I give her a lot of credit for doing it.” Chiarelli under-rotated her full-in and took a step forward on the landing. She ended her season on floor with a 9.7125, an appropriate score for the difficulty of her routine. Brown, who competed in the evening session, also claimed All-American honors despite lacking any presence from her teammates. Artz and Chiarelli — who had already finished competing — had to watch from the stands. Despite competing alone, Brown still managed to hit all four routines. After securing a 9.800 on bars, she had a solid routine on beam that resulted in 9.850, her best score of the night. “Before my beam routine, I was feeling pretty nervous because beam is the place where I always get ahead of myself,” Brown said. “I looked to the stands, saw my beam coach and she told me I had it, and I just knew I could do it. I probably did one of the best beam routines I’ve done all year.” With Chiarelli’s impressive performance on floor, and Brown and Artz walking away with additional All-American honors, they’re optimistic for the 2016-17 season. They also have high hopes that next time, they’ll be competing as a team rather than as individuals. AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily Junior Talia Chiarelli finished her season by performing a difficult floor routine at the NCAA Championships on Saturday. WOMEN’S WATER POLO ‘M’ wins CWPA title By MIKE PERSAK Daily Sports Writer It has been a short road back to prominence for the Michigan water polo team. After earning a share of the regular-season CWPA Championship a year ago under then-first year coach Marcelo Leonardi, the sixth-ranked Wolverines have eclipsed the marks set by last year’s squad. Michigan (7-0 CWPA, 26-6 overall) reached the 25-win mark for the first time since 2011 with wins over Bucknell, No. 21 Hartwick, George Washington and Brown, going undefeated in conference play to earn the CWPA Championship outright. But, the turnaround has come as no surprise to those in the program. Leonardi attributes this to three major points. “(First), I was able to bring a quality freshman class and a transfer (to the team) that immediately impacted our program,” Leonardi said. “(Secondly), going through my first year being able to teach everything in terms of our system and play (has helped). Also, the leadership, in terms of our senior leadership this year, being able to establish a culture (has been) instrumental.” One of those seniors, attacker Ali Thomason, has been especially impressive for the Wolverines this season. Her talent was on display this weekend. Sunday, in Michigan’s 18-3 win over Brown, Thomason scored five goals, had three assists and added three steals. The senior’s performance added on to an already impressive resume this season. Thomason has won the CWPA Player of the Week award twice and leads the Wolverines with 81 goals. “I think she’s probably the best player in our conference, athletic-wise,” Leonardi said. “In terms of (being) a leader in and out of the water, and how humble she is in terms of all of the accolades she will be (garnering). It’s easy when the hardest worker on your team is one of the best players on the team.” Though Thomason is the leading goal scorer on the team, she is often helped by sophomore attacker Caroline Anderson’s prominent passing abilities. Anderson surpassed her own single-season assists record by recording her 57th of the year Saturday in the Wolverines’ 16-4 win over Bucknell. “She’s sharpening up her skills by her accuracy,” Leonardi said. “In terms of her reads, I think she’s understanding the plays now a little more systematically. (She’s) understanding where her options are. If her first option’s not there, where are her second and third options.” Michigan now has a 12-day break before it travels to Cambridge, Mass., for the CWPA Championships. And though it has had great success this season, the conference tournament has tripped up the Wolverines in the past. “We need to see who we’re going to play, not only in the first round, but later on in terms of who our semifinal matchup would be as well,” Leonardi said. Michigan will need to win just three games in order to win the CWPA Tournament. If it is able to do that, the Wolverines will move on to the NCAA Championships, something they haven’t done since the 2009-10 season. But if the quick turnaround under Leonardi is any indication, it will be no surprise if the Wolverines are able to prove themselves on yet another level. “The leadership ... (has been) able to establish a culture.” Michigan falls to Penn State By LELAND MITCHINSON Daily Sports Writer For five minutes Sunday, the Michigan women’s lacrosse team got the start it wanted in the Wolverines’ search for their first conference win of the season. Michigan jumped to a 2-1 lead with goals from junior attacker Jess Angerman and junior midfielder Kim Coughlan, the Wolverines (0-3 Big Ten, 6-9 overall) looked like they were going to be locked into a back-and- forth contest with the Nittany Lions. However, the next Penn State goal sparked a 7-0 scoring run, crushing any momentum Michigan may have gained from their early offensive success. That run proved to be too much to overcome, as the Wolverines fell to Penn State, 13-8. “We’ve got to work on not getting in that hole,” said Michigan coach Jennifer Ulehla. “We’ve got to work on our transition and really being able to get the ball, under a lot of pressure, up the field.” Despite the Nittany Lions’ large lead, the Wolverines made a push to close the gap before halftime, scoring two goals with less than five minutes before the break. Penn State (2-1, 10-4) quickly countered with two goals of its own, including a goal on a free position shot by attacker Madison Carter with 15 seconds remaining in the half, effectively canceling out the Michigan goals. Carter was the high scorer for the Nittany Lions on Sunday, and the Michigan defense had no answer for her throughout the first half, as she notched all four of her goals before the break. “In the first half we took too many chances like trying to intercept, trying to double team and stay on the double when we didn’t need to,” Ulehla said. “At halftime I just said trust your teammates and trust the defense and the goalie. Let them shoot from far out, let them shoot with a good solid defensive stance, and then our goalies will come up with the save which ended up happening.” Though the Wolverines faced a 10-4 deficit coming out of the locker room, they didn’t roll over. Michigan managed to outscore Penn State 4-3 in the second half. Three straight goals out of the half brought Michigan to within three with nearly 23 minutes left to play. But the Wolverines couldn’t keep that scoring pace going, scoring only once more the rest of the game. Coughlan did her part, tallying two more goals in the second half. Despite Michigan being a player down, for Coughlan’s second goal of the half, she curled all the way across the front of the net before firing from the right side of the goal to slot it past the Penn State goaltender . “There were some open lanes there,” Coughlan said. “Our girls on offense were moving a lot, going through for each other, and it caused a lot of open lanes.” Added Ulehla: “You know when she gets going she’s very difficult to stop, she just goes north-south, and it’s like a bull in a china shop and she’s got a great shot. She finishes, she does a great job of really being disciplined and deceptive and finishes it really hard. Even if you put a great defender on her and you send help, they’ve got to time it right and they’ve got to make sure they don’t foul.” But for the Wolverines, it will take more than a good start and individual performances to secure the team’s first Big Ten victory. AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily Junior midfielder Kim Coughlan led Michigan with four goals, but the Wolverines’ comeback effort fell short. PENN STATE MICHIGAN 13 8