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Thursday, May 5, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS
Ferlic qualifies for
U.S. Olympic Trials
By ORION SANG
Summer Managing Sports Editor
When Mason Ferlic reached
the finish line of the 3,000-meter
steeplechase at the Payton Jordan
Invitational last Sunday, the first
thing he did was look up at the
scoreboard.
And when he saw that he had
finished with a time of 8:28.77, he
couldn’t help but feel discouraged.
“I
was
actually
frustrated,
because I thought I had missed the
standard by less than a second,”
Ferlic said. “I was disappointed
and pretty down on myself, and
(Michigan assistant) coach (Kevin)
Sullivan was telling me that I still
did great and still had the collegiate
lead.”
Ferlic had hoped to qualify for
the U.S. Olympic Trials by finishing
with a time under the U.S. Olympic
Standard, but his time was 0.77
seconds too slow.
Or so he thought.
After
the
race,
Ferlic
was
congratulated by other competitors,
and while he initially assumed
it was in response to him setting
the NCAA personal record, it was
actually because he also came under
the Olympic standard, which had
been recently changed from 8:28 to
8:30.
“It wasn’t until about 20 minutes
(after) that finally one of the coaches
was like, ‘No, you got it, it was 8:30,’
” Ferlic said. “We didn’t believe him
until we pulled it up on our phones.
That was a nice mood-booster.
Originally I crossed the line and
wasn’t pleased with the race, but
then I found out I hit the standard
and went from feeling mediocre to
feeling pretty awesome about it.”
For Ferlic, the result was the
culmination of a career’s worth of
work and preparation. But even he
didn’t initially expect to experience
such success.
Earlier in his competitive career,
Ferlic aimed for smaller objectives,
such as just making a Big Ten team.
As he checked these off his list and
continued to improve throughout
his career at Michigan, he realized
there was potential to achieve even
more.
“If you had asked me the same
question last year, if that was a
reasonable goal, I would have
probably said no,” Ferlic said. “But
as I’ve improved, recently it has
become a very realistic goal of mine.
“I look back at it and realize I’ve
been making these huge jumps and
leaps, and the run at the trials is
something that I’m ready for and
it’s a great opportunity. I feel like I
can compete with anyone and that
I have a legitimate shot to be one of
the three Americans to go to Rio for
the steeplechase.”
For
Ferlic’s
two
primary
coaches, his finish at the Payton
Jordan Invitational was somewhat
expected.
“I actually thought he was
ready to run an 8:25,” Sullivan
said, who is also head coach of the
men’s cross country team and has
worked extensively with Ferlic all
year. “He’s a touch off that time.
Running 8:28 was within the range
of what I expected. I was hoping he
was gonna be somewhere between
the 8:25 to 8:30 range, and so from
that standpoint we accomplished
what we were looking to do this
weekend.”
Added Michigan men’s track and
field coach Jerry Clayton: “He’s
had a really excellent year. Just
one race after another, he’s just
really stepped it up. Went on (the
distance medley relay team) and
ended up (an) All-American at the
indoor nationals. With what he ran
last weekend, we really felt that he
had those capabilities, and coach
Sullivan has done an outstanding
job with preparing him to run at
that level.”
Ferlic’s next task will be to
continue his ascent to the top.
Plans for him are to sit down with
Sullivan and craft a plan that will
prepare him for both the upcoming
NCAA Championships and the U.S.
Olympic Trials in July.
He certainly recognized the
significance of what he has done
and what he might accomplish in
the coming months.
“To represent Michigan and be
the one wearing the ‘Block M’ is
huge,” Ferlic said. “I’m representing
an institution that over my five years
has given a lot to me, so I feel this is
a way to give back, to represent it at
the highest level.”
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Mason Ferlic now has a chance to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
‘M’ wins CWPA title,
reaches NCAA tourney
By BRAD WHIPPLE
Summer Managing Editor
In just his second year at the
helm of the Michigan women’s
water polo team, coach Marcelo
Leonardi took a plunge into the
water as a champion.
When he rose to the surface,
his players continued to jump
into Blodgett Pool at Harvard
University in Cambridge, Mass.
Junior goalkeeper Emily Browning
held up a GoPro, ready to capture
the moment that came next: the
singing of the “The Victors.”
For
the
first
time
since
2010, the Wolverines won the
Collegiate Water Polo Association
championship — their sixth title in
program history — with a 9-2 rout
of No. 13 Indiana. With Sunday’s
victory, Michigan earned a bid to
the NCAA Tournament, where it
will face No. 9 Arizona State on
Friday in Los Angeles, Calif.
Wednesday,
the
Wolverines
also jumped ahead one spot in the
CWPA national rankings to tie
with the University of California at
the No. 4 spot, Michigan’s highest
ranking in program history.
“We’ve accomplished one of
our major goals, which was to win
(the
conference
championship)
and qualify for NCAAs,” Leonardi
told MGoBlue after Sunday’s win.
“It feels a little bit surreal, because
we feel like we still have unfinished
business to do. But at the end
of the day, we brought home a
championship back to Michigan.”
Though the Wolverines lost
to the Hoosiers in the CWPA
semifinals in each of the last two
seasons, including an overtime
loss by only one point last year,
Michigan exercised its demons this
time around.
On April 2, the Wolverines (7-0
CWPA, 29-6 overall) stole the
show in Bloomington, downing
Indiana (6-1, 23-7) by three points
in the rivals’ sole regular-season
match. One time wasn’t enough,
however,
as
Michigan
still
needed to reverse the Hoosier
curse that has prevented it from
making an even deeper dive into
the postseason.
Luckily for the Wolverines, they
did exactly that Sunday behind a
season-high 13-save performance
by senior goalkeeper Julia Campbell
and an aggressive offense led by
freshman driver Kim Johnson.
In front of Campbell was an
impenetrable defense that made
it difficult for Indiana to make it
more than halfway down the pool.
Michigan prevented the Hoosiers
from tallying their first goal until 10
minutes into the matchup, and the
Wolverines’ power-play defense
held Indiana to only one goal on
eight extra-man opportunities.
After Campbell held Indiana
scoreless for the third quarter, the
Hoosiers netted one last goal in the
final frame, but it was insignificant.
Michigan held Indiana to just two
goals, tying the fewest goals allowed
in the CWPA final since Hartwick
downed the Wolverines, 5-2, in the
2004 CWPA championship game.
Meanwhile, Johnson anchored
Michigan’s offense with her first-
career hat trick, earning her the
distinction of the tournament’s top
rookie to go along with her Rookie
of the Year honor. As for senior
attacker Ali Thomason, she was
named the CWPA Tournament
MVP with eight goals, four assists
and eight steals in three games.
The conference championship
is not only the first title for each
current Michigan player, but it is
also the first for Leonardi, who
had won a gold medal with the
USA Youth National Team before
coming to Ann Arbor.
With one championship now in
the books for Michigan, another
still lies ahead.
Friday, the Wolverines will face
Arizona State, which earned one
of three at-large bids, in the first
round of the NCAA Tournament.
Michigan last matched up with
the Sun Devils at the Arizona State
Invite on March 19, when then-
No. 9 Arizona State defeated the
Wolverines, 8-5. , Michigan holds a
2-5 record against all nine teams in
this year’s NCAA field.
Overall, the Wolverines are 5-9
in the NCAA Tournament and
have never survived a first-round
matchup, so Friday’s game will
be a true test for this year’s squad.
Michigan’s last NCAA Tournament
appearance ended with a sixth-
place finish in 2010, and its most
successful showing came with a
fourth-place finish in 2002.
Given
how
quick
Leonardi
has turned the program around,
Michigan has high potential for the
weekend ahead.