Wolverines energized from
annual trip to South Florida
The
Michigan
men’s
swimming and diving team has
spent the last week in Florida,
training and preparing for the
next stretch of its season.
With important Big Ten
meets against Indiana, Ohio
State
and
Michigan
State
coming up in the next month,
the trip to the Sunshine State
was a worthwhile change for
the 12th-ranked Wolverines.
The trip, which is an annual
tradition for both the men’s
and women’s teams, provides
them with the opportunity to
split time between training and
enjoying the break from school.
Senior
Jack
Mangan
emphasized that the team used
the opportunity to energize
and prepare for the upcoming
season.
“We’re
excited,”
Mangan
said. “That was such a good
block of training for everyone.
You need guys who really
believe in what they’re doing.”
The team made sure to leave
time to build chemistry on dry
land, outside of the many hours
spent in the pool. Mangan — a
two-time NCAA All-American
and two-time Big Ten champion
— emphasized that swimming
is a tough sport, in which good
team chemistry is integral to
having a successful season.
“The culture is moving in a
positive
direction,”
Mangan
said. “The trip was a great
bonding experience.”
The
Wolverines
are
coming off a handful of solid
performances during the fall.
But their most recent outing
was the Georgia Invitational
in early December, where they
finished sixth out of seven.
Michigan
coach
Mike
Bottom said the trip to Florida
was a great opportunity to
build on what had been working
well during the fall, while
also emphasizing the bonding
aspect of the trip.
“We had some great training
sets,” he said. “We watched
swimmers get better.”
Michigan capped off its trip
by taking part in the Orange
Bowl Classic in Key Largo, Fla.
on Jan. 3.
The Wolverines won the
competition,
championing
11 out of 12 individual races,
with senior Vinny Tafuto and
freshman Jacob Montague each
winning two events. Tafuto
won the 50-meter butterfly
and
100-meter
butterfly,
with Montague winning the
50-meter breaststroke and the
100-meter breaststroke.
Michigan finished first with
275 points, beating Texas A&M,
George Mason and Middlebury.
The Wolverines also won
the two team relays during the
tournament, finishing first in
both the 200-meter medley and
the 200-meter freestyle.
Michigan’s
solid
performance at the tournament
should give it good momentum
and confidence heading into
the next few months.
Mangan said he and his
fellow Wolverines were both
excited and motivated from the
trip to Florida.
His message was simple:
“We’re coming in with fire in
our bellies and ready to fight for
Michigan.”
CHRISTIAN NEUBACHER
Daily Sports Writer
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan coach Mike Bottom’s team finished first at the Orange Bowl Classic in Key Largo, Fla. on Jan. 3.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Michigan dominates at
Orange Bowl Classic
It was New Year’s Eve, and the
Michigan women’s swimming
and diving team returned to the
water. Only this time, the sixth-
ranked Wolverines were on a
boat in the Gulf of Mexico, ready
to ring in 2017 with each other.
Dipping and dodging stray
sparks, Michigan enjoyed the
holiday’s firework show and an
evening off, all while knowing
practice would be later the next
morning.
It was the team’s annual
training trip to the Florida Keys,
allowing the athletes to relax
while continuing to prepare for
arguably the most important leg
of the season —
three Big Ten
dual
meets,
as well as the
conference
and
NCAA
Championships.
The
trip,
Michigan coach
Mike
Bottom
specified,
was
not
only
to
improve
in the water but also to bond
and celebrate the Wolverines’
success in the classroom. To
do so, Michigan took a break
from its books and backstrokes
for a beach day. Ironically, no
swimming
was
involved
—
only wading and some minor
splashing ensued.
Most of the trip, though, was
spent in the water practicing.
With two available pools,
the Wolverines had eight hours
of available training facilities
each day, typically clocking in
two four-hour sessions. Though
strenuous,
Michigan
quickly
reaped the benefits of the
intensive training in the Orange
Bowl Classic on Jan. 3 in Key
Largo, Fla. at the culmination of
the trip.
“We broke the meet record
in almost every event,” said
senior Madison Horton. “It was
awesome.”
And
it
was
not
an
exaggeration. The Wolverines
came in first place among the six
teams competing, winning all 12
events and setting meet records
in nine of them.
Four
Michigan
swimmers
came out on top in multiple
events,
including
sophomore
Siobhán Haughey (100-meter
freestyle,
200-meter
IM),
freshman
Vanessa
Krause
(50-meter
butterfly,
100-
meter butterfly)
and
juniors
Clara
Smiddy
(50-meter
backstroke,
100-meter
backstroke) and
Emily
Kopas
(50-meter
breaststroke,
100-meter
breaststroke).
“That’s how they learn to be
champions,” Bottom said. “They
go into these opportunities to
race, and they figure out how to
get better.”
And get better, they did.
“It’s a team thing,” Bottom
said. “They help each other and
push each other as individuals.
That’s why this team does so
well, because they have bonded
not only in the pool, but outside
in the classroom and in the
community. That’s what helps
them to understand what being
a champion is all about.”
KATIE CONKLIN
Daily Sports Writer
“They help
each other and
push each other
as individuals.”
The sixth-ranked Wolverines won all 12
events, setting records in nine of them
After midseason wake-up call, Kile finally
increasing his production for the Wolverines
It had been an ignominious
period for the Michigan hockey
team. After taking an early lead
in the first period, the Wolverines
allowed Wisconsin to score five
goals in the second to take a
commanding 6-3 lead. Michigan
was on the ropes, desperate for a
solution to the Badgers’ onslaught.
They wouldn’t find one from
senior forward Alex Kile. Kile
checked a Wisconsin player from
behind as the second period came
to a close, earning him a game
misconduct while forcing his team
to kill a five-minute power play.
“I knew he was frustrated, but
he’s just got to contain that,” said
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
“It wasn’t a vicious hit. In fact,
it didn’t even have to be called
a penalty. But it just looked bad
for your leading scorer to put
your team in that situation, and
I told Alex, ‘That’s part of your
learning process ... self-control
and understanding (you’ve) been
through this before and (you’re)
not going to let (yourself) get
caught up in it.’ ”
Added Kile: “(Berenson) was
pretty mad at me, and he let
me know about it. I’m always a
player that responds positively to
a negative situation. (Berenson’s)
gotten on me in the past, and I feel
like the next game I’ve always been
a pretty good player. … It’s okay if
he yells at me, because he knows I
can take it, and I feel like I respond
well to those kind of things.”
The misconduct penalty was
perhaps the low point of what had
been a long season up until that
point for Kile, who came into the
year carrying the burden of being
both the team’s leading returning
scorer and one of its captains.
Both were roles Kile had
anticipated taking on as soon as
several of his former teammates
announced
they
would
be
leaving early for the NHL. Over
the offseason, he worked on
becoming a more vocal leader
—
Kile
previously
described
himself as being a more quiet kid
in the locker room — while also
training extensively to increase
his stamina.
By the time the season rolled
around, Berenson noticed the
senior’s offseason effort, going on
the record multiple times to praise
Kile. It was especially gratifying
for
him
to
hear
Berenson’s
comments after he had worked to
steadily improve each season since
arriving in Ann Arbor.
“I came in as a freshman and
didn’t really play that much,” Kile
said. “I’ve proved myself ever
since the beginning of sophomore
year, so it’s definitely something
that I’ve earned but it’s something
that I’m not taking for granted.
For someone like Red to give you
compliments like that, it means a
lot just being who he is.”
Despite all the preparation and
praise, though, Kile — and the
rest of his team — limped out the
gate. He struggled to turn strong
play into production, going on four
and seven-game goal droughts, all
while his team stumbled to a 7-8-1
start through the first half of the
season.
“(Kile) really felt that this was
not necessarily his team, but this
was his time,” Berenson said.
“He’d been part of a high-scoring
machine last year, but when we
lost all of those guys, now he
looks around and it’s just him. He
embraced that.
“I can’t tell you it’s gone smooth
for him — I think it’s been a
challenge. Maybe he hasn’t had
the supporting cast. He was
playing with two freshmen for
the first number of games, and
playing pretty well but not playing
as consistently and productively as
he would like, or that I would like.”
Kile reminisced about playing
on the same line last season with
two seniors in Boo Nieves and
Justin Selman, who he called
“proven” and “mature” players.
Kile believed the trio had a natural
swagger that made it easy for them
to score, whereas this year, he
thinks the entire team is having
trouble finding that same type of
confidence — thus struggling to
produce.
Meanwhile,
Berenson
felt
that Kile, burdened by high
expectations, was pressing too
much on the ice and becoming
frustrated — something which
only
compounded
the
issue,
occasionally
leading
to
bad
penalties like the misconduct
against Wisconsin.
Though his penalty hurt the
team in the short term, it may
end up helping Michigan in the
long run. Kile referred to it as a
“wake-up call,” especially after his
conversation with Red.
That
has
certainly
been
reflected in his play in the three
games since: after tallying just
two goals in his first 14 games
played, Kile now has three in as
many games, scoring once against
Wisconsin and twice against
Michigan State in the Great Lakes
Invitational. The recent uptick
has coincided with the return
of sophomore forward Cooper
Marody from a suspension —
Marody has played on the first line
with Kile for the past two games
and assisted on both of Kile’s goals
against the Spartans.
“It’s obviously not the first half
of the season I wanted or our team
wanted — I think every individual
on our team can say that,” Kile
said. “I just feel like with (Marody)
back, it’s a clean slate. He’s a player
that I wanted to play with at the
beginning of the year and then he
(was) ineligible. We aspire to do
big things — we talk about it all the
time — and I think we are going to
be two of the better players in the
Big Ten in the second half of the
season.”
Added
Berenson:
“We
put
(Marody) and (Kile) together,
and I think they’re going to get
something going here. It was good
to see (Kile) get a couple against
Michigan State. In the meantime,
he’s playing hard and he hasn’t
lost a beat. I don’t think he’s got
discouraged over all this. I think
he just got more convinced that
he’s gotta do it.”
ORION SANG
Daily Sports Editor
EVAN AARON/Daily
Senior forward Alex Kile has scored three goals in his previous three games.
6A — Thursday, January 5, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com