The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, January 6, 2017 — 7
Hayden earns ninth at
National Championship
For many competitors, the
USA Diving Winter National
Championships is a reprieve
from the stressful academic
and athletic workload that
student athletes across the
country
face.
With
final
exams in the rearview mirror,
competing divers can put blue
book essays behind them and
focus solely on gold medals.
That
is,
unless
you’re
Michigan freshman Kristen
Hayden.
Hayden
traveled
to
Columbus on Monday, Dec. 19
as the only Wolverine diver
competing at the meet. Hayden
had qualified for three events
at the Championships, but
because she had finals over the
previous two weeks, she could
only compete in the three-
meter springboard event.
“Going into Monday, my
expectation was basically to
dive the best I could, the way
I’ve been practicing,” Hayden
said. “Then hopefully that was
good enough to allow me to
make it to finals on Wednesday.”
While she scored just a
218.85 in the preliminaries,
Hayden successfully improved
her score to a 243.10 in the
semifinals — good for ninth
place overall, and enough to
earn a spot in the final round
of the event the following
Wednesday. Many divers were
able to use the time off to focus
on the competition.
But
Michigan’s
finals
schedule forced Hayden to
quickly change her mindset
after she got out of the pool.
“I had papers due after my
semifinal, so that was a little
bit different,” Hayden said. “I
couldn’t just relax and focus
on the meet, I also had to do
my papers. The day before the
competition, I was sitting at
the pool typing a paper.”
Wednesday, Hayden stayed
the course of her previous
routines,
scoring
a
678.00
in the final round of dives.
Overall, the performance put
the freshman diver in 10th
place for the event.
“We’re
definitely
using
this meet to get ready for Big
Tens and NCAAs,” Hayden
said. “We’ve already talked
about what I need to work on,
and this is going to shoot me
forward and get me ready for
the rest of the season.”
MATTHEW KENNEDY
Daily Spors Writer
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Michigan coach Mike Bottom prepares his athletes to compete nationally.
Wolverines travel to Columbus for a
contentious encounter with Ohio State
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball team is heading to
Columbus this weekend to face
one of its fiercest competitors
yet — Ohio State.
The Buckeyes (3-0 Big Ten,
13-4 overall) are ranked 11th
in the Associated Press poll
and 13th in the Coaches Poll,
while the Wolverines (2-0 Big
Ten, 13-3 overall) have failed
to crack the top 25 in either.
Yet, the two teams have nearly
identical records and Michigan
sits six spots ahead of Ohio State
in the NCAA RPI rankings. The
Buckeyes are favored, but the
Wolverines have an opportunity
to prove their superiority.
“Ohio State is led by a young
lady named Kelsey Mitchell,”
said coach Kim Barnes Arico
on WTKA radio. “She’s an All-
American. She’s arguably the
best player in the country. She’s
a guard averaging about 26
points a game.”
While the Wolverines don’t
quite have a scoring equivalent
of Mitchell, they do boast one
of the deepest teams in the
country. Seasoned junior guard
and leading scorer Katelynn
Flaherty averages 17.9 points
per game, but it’s freshman
guard Kysre Gondrezick who
bolsters the depth.
Gondrezick broke into the
Wolverines’
starting
lineup
against Rutgers on Dec. 28
— a decision made based on
her ability to score from the
outside. Her uncanny ability to
hit 3-pointers — she is shooting
46.1% on the year — makes her
tough to defend against.
“Earlier in the season, or
especially last year, we felt
if Katelynn had an off night
we weren’t able to be really
successful,” Barnes Arico said.
“Now, Katelynn has drawn
so much attention to herself.
She’s usually guarded by the
other team’s best player, and
sometimes
two
people
are
running at her, and she faces
double teams at times and
faceguarding at times.
“It’s great to have other
options and people that can take
that pressure off of her, and Kysre
has definitely provided that.”
Gondrezick put up big points
in Michigan’s first two games of
conference play, and shows no
sign of slowing down. She had
18 points and seven rebounds
against Rutgers and another
16
points,
including
three
3-pointers, in the Wolverines’
latest
matchup
against
Wisconsin.
Sophomore
forward
Hallie
Thome
is
the
third
offensive
threat
the
Buckeyes
will
need to watch
out for. Coming
off her record-
breaking
37-point
performance
against
the
Badgers, in which she tied for
second highest points per game
in Michigan history, Thome
has shown that she can be
extremely dangerous down low.
“I watched the film with
my own children because they
wanted to see,” Barnes Arico
said. “And they were like,
‘Mommy it’s almost like a layup
drill for Hallie.’ Every time
down the floor, it felt like she
was scoring the basketball.”
If
Thome,
Flaherty
and
Gondrezick all perform at their
peak, Ohio State will have to
decide which Wolverine it needs
to defend the most: the dangerous
outside duo of Gondrezick and
Flaherty or Thome’s long reach
in the paint.
But,
the
Wolverines will
need to return
to their high-
scoring
ways
from the start
of
the
season
if they want to
keep
up
with
the
Buckeyes.
Not
only
has
Ohio
State
matched
Michigan’s
record
of three games in triple digits
this season, but the Buckeyes
have scored fewer than 80
points in a game just twice. The
Wolverines have played nine
games in which they haven’t
cracked that magic number.
With a serious defensive
effort, Michigan is certainly
capable of winning its third
Big Ten game in a row. The
Wolverines have lost to both
No. 10 Florida State and No. 9
UCLA, but both games were
close. Michigan played each
team after long flights to the
Virgin Islands and California,
putting the Wolverines way out
of their comfort zones. A three-
hour bus ride to Columbus,
could make conditions more
favorable for Michigan.
The Wolverines have a solid
chance at beating Ohio State,
and their excitement shows.
“Our games with them the
past few years have really been
high-energy, high offense, fun
to watch,” Barnes Arico said. “I
think the rivalries between (us
and) Ohio State and Michigan
State are incredible. I don’t
think
anywhere
in
college
athletics
you
have
those
rivalries like we do here at
Michigan.”
MAGGIE KOLCON
Daily Sports Writer
CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily
Freshman guard Kysre Gondrezick is shooting 46.1 percent from three to give the Wolverines depth on the perimeter.
“She’s a guard
averaging about
26 points a
game.”
Michigan hockey hosts alumni game with Red
Wings to support former Wolverine Scott Matzka
When Scott Matzka committed
to play hockey at Michigan before
the 1997-98 season, he didn’t know
what kind of culture he was joining.
All he knew was the Wolverines
had won the NCAA Championship
in 1996, and it was widely known
that they were a premier hockey
program.
In
Matzka’s
first
season,
Michigan
further
cemented
its place at the top of college
hockey, winning another NCAA
Championship
over
Boston
College. It was the Wolverines’
ninth national title, which still
stands as the most all-time.
But
while
Matzka
had
experienced much success in his
collegiate career, he wouldn’t
come to fully understand how
impactful the Wolverines’ hockey
community would be until more
than a decade after he was done
playing — namely, this Saturday
night.
***
In 2014, Matzka spent a lot of
time in the car. He was working
in automotive plants and had been
making drives to and from those
plants since he had retired from
playing hockey the year before.
But over time, Matzka started
to realize that something wasn’t
quite right with his body. When he
reached to grab a pack of gum, his
forearm would sometimes cramp
up. When he would make a fist, it
would sometimes be difficult to
uncurl his fingers.
“I felt like — especially as an
athlete — I understood my body
pretty well,” Matzka said. “I was
very active at that point. I was still
working out at the time. I just knew
something was off, but it was very,
very early on at that point.”
So
Matzka
began
doing
research on his symptoms, and
a single result kept coming up:
amyotrophic
lateral
sclerosis.
When his cramping and stiffness
worsened, Matzka decided that
it was time to see a doctor. But
preliminary
results
from
his
general practitioner came back
normal, and Matzka was referred
to a neurologist to further examine
his health.
Throughout
August
and
September
of
2014,
Matzka
travelled
around
Michigan
seeing different doctors. He
eventually ended up at the
University of Michigan, where a
neurologist confirmed Matzka’s
fears, and he was officially
diagnosed with ALS. From there,
Matzka began to realize the road
ahead of him.
“It was probably 16 months
before we sat down and started
thinking about what we could do
to be advocates for the disease,”
Matzka said. “By that point, we
started understanding some of
the things we were going to face
physically and financially. So we
were really at the crossroads of
‘OK, we want to do all these things.’
And by that point, we knew that my
symptoms were severe enough that
we had to, basically, shit or get off
the pot.”
One
of
Matzka’s
former
employers created a website to
help the Matzka family, where
people could donate money to help
with the costs of caring for an ALS
patient. To date, Matzka estimates
that the website has raised about
33-50% of his family’s goal of
$500,000 in the last six months.
For his own part, Matzka has
taken it upon himself to spread
awareness about ALS.
“We decided that my biggest
impact was going to be in helping
to spread awareness,” Matzka said.
“So what we’ve done is, for the most
part, we’ve spent time trying to tell
my story everywhere that we can,
and use that as a tool to empower
everybody around us and other
people, and then spread awareness
about ALS, but then raise money
towards the family.”
Matzka’s journey to spread
awareness has taken him all
around the world. Last October,
he took part in an honorary puck
drop prior to Michigan’s hockey
game against Union, which was
deemed an ALS Awareness game.
Soon after, Matzka travelled to
the United Kingdom to attend
a fundraising game put on by
another one of his former teams,
the Cardiff Devils.
“It’s really an honor for us to be
a part of things like that,” Matzka
said. “There are 20,000 people
facing this in the US right now, and
every 90 seconds someone is newly
diagnosed. So we’re not the only
ones that are facing this, but we’re
obviously in the unique position
that we’ve been and done things
that most people haven’t been able
to do.
“I’m honored to be the one.
Unfortunately, I hate to be the one.
But until this disease is figured out,
somebody’s got to do it, so I feel like
I’m a good person to do that right
now.”
***
Saturday, Matzka will witness
another hockey game in his
honor. But this time, he will be
watching some of his former
Michigan teammates — along
with other Wolverine alumni —
take on former Detroit Red Wings
players.
It was an idea brought to Matzka
by former teammate LJ Scarpace,
who, along with the Michigan
hockey team, went to work inviting
retired players to return for the
game.
“Really, we just sent out an
e-mail asking for the guys that
would like to play, to (former
Michigan players),” said Michigan
coach Red Berenson. “Clearly we
got a great response.”
And while there are many
occasions when Wolverine alumni
come back to Yost, this one will be
a bit more somber. But that doesn’t
mean that Michigan alumni won’t
be attending in force.
“It seems like we’re always
having a reunion of a championship
team
or
an
anniversary
of
something
special,”
Berenson
said. “But it’s not very often that
we have a needy, or a sad or a real
challenging situation like this one.
And when you do, it’s amazing how
the Michigan hockey family comes
together. I mean, we have a lineup.
We’ve got probably too many
players. We have more players than
we need, but good for them.”
And no matter the result, both
Berenson and Matzka realize that
the final score doesn’t matter. For
them, the heavy response from
former Wolverines has already
made Saturday’s event a successful
one.
“What it means to me is it just
makes me proud to be a part of
the Michigan hockey family, and
the Michigan family, period,”
Berenson said. “I know our fans
are going to support this event,
and I know our team, I think,
will support it, and obviously the
community. So it’s not a happy
thing, but it’s an important thing.”
Added Matzka: “We’re going to
have a ton of people that are going
to get a chance to learn more about
ALS, and are going to Google it and
hopefully have an opportunity to
take part in some of the events to
raise money for the cause.”
In addition to simply raising
awareness
about
the
disease,
Saturday will also serve as an
opportunity for people to support
Matzka himself, as all proceeds
from the event will be donated to
his personal fund. Matzka knows
how much of a difference those
donations can make.
“It’s going to help provide us
with the opportunity to make
quality of life choices versus
making financial choices,” Matzka
said. “We have to say, ‘Do I want to
live with this disease and see my
kids grow up a little bit more, or not
have that ability?’ So that’s really
what we’re looking for.”
MIKE PERSAK
Daily Sports Editor
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Michigan coach Red Berenson and the Wolverine hockey community has shown up in a major way for former player Scott Matzka in his battle with ALS.