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