2B — April 3, 2017w
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
One final test of will
T
hrough all the smiles and
joy on the court Saturday
afternoon, after the
Michigan
women’s
basketball
team won
the WNIT,
it would
have been
easy to
forget
where the
team was
nearly three
weeks ago.
On that night, a night where
they expected to break a
three-year NCAA Tournament
drought, the Wolverines had
their hearts ripped out. Sitting
at Revel and Roll bowling alley,
the players watched, hopefully,
as each region was revealed, with
confidence that the team would
soon hear its name called.
How sure did the team seem
that it had earned a place in
the field? As the final pairing
in which the Wolverines
would have fit was about to
be announced, sophomore
center Hallie Thome put on a
wide smile, anticipating the
good news. Instead, the names
“Kansas State” and “Drake”
came through the speakers. Her
expression turned to shock.
Even after the best regular
season in program history,
Michigan would once again be
relegated to the WNIT.
“The night we didn’t get into
the NCAA’s I felt heartbroken
for (seniors Danielle Williams
and Siera Thompson),” said
sophomore guard Nicole Munger.
“But the next day in practice, we
said we were doing it for them
and we were winning it for them.
This is for them.”
It would have been
understandable if, given that
heartbreak, Thome and the
Wolverines hadn’t wanted to play
at all in the WNIT. It’s possible
that, in the immediate aftermath,
they didn’t. It would have even
been understandable if, after
the NCAA selection committee
doubted them, they started to
doubt themselves. But after the
way they played their final game,
through three unprecedented
championship overtimes, one
thing was clear: they learned to
embrace a tournament that they
didn’t want, and they proved
they would have belonged in the
one that didn’t want them.
Looking back, maybe it
shouldn’t have been much of
a surprise that Michigan won
the WNIT Final. It had already
beaten its opponent, Georgia
Tech, by a 40-point margin
earlier this season in Atlanta.
The Wolverines were probably
the biggest snub from the Big
Dance, and their talent made it
easy enough to pencil them into
the semifinals, where Barnes
Arico had led them in each of the
previous two seasons.
But there was something about
a deep WNIT run that seemed
less than inevitable.
In the WNIT, as with most
tournaments, it takes more than
talent to win it all. To win six
straight games against teams of
relatively comparable skill levels,
no matter who is on your roster,
takes will power. There’s little
room for passivity.
And that’s where the
uncertainty came in.
There is a reason the NIT and
WNIT are so hard to predict.
There is simply no telling how a
team will respond to letdowns,
no way to gauge whether a team
will respond with motivation or
resignation.
For the Michigan women’s
basketball team, there must
have been at least a fair share of
each. The Wolverines knew they
were one of the 64 best teams
in the country — particularly
considering they were ranked
in the top 25 just weeks before
the selection show — and that
must have made them irate. It
also could have made them feel
defeated. All that hard work, all
those wins, and they’re stuck in
the same tournament they’ve
been in both the previous two
years? It’s not hard to see how
that might have led to some
passivity when the tournament
began.
But whatever their immediate
reaction, it was clear on Saturday
afternoon that motivation
eventually won out.
“They just wanted to prove
the world that they had made
a mistake and that Michigan
basketball is a great team,”
Barnes Arico said. “They refused
to go away and it was just
awesome to watch.”
It was only fitting, though,
that there was one final test of
will awaiting the Wolverines,
even as they climbed through the
tournament and ended up in the
finals in nearby Detroit.
Trailing by three points with
just 10 seconds remaining, junior
guard Katelynn Flaherty hoisted
up a prayer that, somehow, went
answered to tie the game.
Then, the unthinkable.
Thompson was called for a foul
while contesting Georgia Tech
forward Elo Edeferioka’s jump
shot with 0.6 seconds remaining.
Seldom, if ever do referees call
foul in moments in like that, but
the whistle blew. It looked like
one more shocking outcome
awaited the Wolverines.
Instead, Edeferioka missed
both free throws. Michigan did
nothing to influence that, and
no amount of will could have
induced those misses. But given
another chance, the Wolverines
fought like hell. The game went
into overtime, and then it went
into another, then another. No
other WNIT Championship
had ever even gone to overtime
before Saturday, but this one just
wouldn’t end.
By the third overtime, the
Wolverines had apparently had
enough of leaving matters to
chance. They put away the game
and took home a double-digit win
in triple overtime. Margins don’t
usually get that steep in games
that require so much extra time.
Fifty-five minute games are rare,
and the games that do make it
that long are usually so close that
they come down to one or two
small plays.
Overtime is often decided by
free throws. Triple overtimes are
decided by will.
And on Saturday, Michigan
was the team that wouldn’t let
go. The Wolverines won the
game, stormed the court and
won the tournament they hadn’t
even wanted to be in three
weeks ago.
There was no way to go
back and reverse the selection
committee’s decision, no way to
unfeel the emotions they felt in
that bowling alley almost three
weeks prior.
Instead, they felt something
new: vindication.
Daily sports editor Sylvanna
Gross and staff writer Ethan
Wolfe contributed reporting to this
column.
Bultman can be reached by email
at bultmanm@umich.edu and on
Twitter @m_bultman. Please @ him.
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Sophomore center Hallie Thome and the Wolverines managed to overcome the disappointment of missing the NCAA Tournament to win the WNIT.
MAX
BULTMAN
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
‘M’ track enjoys success at Battle of the Blues
Last
year,
the
Michigan
women’s track and field team
won the Battle of the Blues in
Durham, N.C. while the men’s
track and field team took
second. This year, though,
the roles reversed, and the
men came out on top with
the women following in the
runner-up position.
The
Wolverines
traveled
south together to compete
against
Duke
and
North
Carolina to open up the outdoor
season. While the women’s
competition
was
relatively
close — Michigan’s women
took second with 62 points,
just 10 points below Duke and
six above North Carolina — the
men’s team claimed victory
with 101 points with Duke
trailing by 47 points.
“It was really fun to be out
there with all the guys, and the
women’s team, too,” said senior
thrower
Grant
Cartwright.
“Something
about
outdoor
season is a lot more fun than
indoor season.”
Cartwright,
along
with
fellow All-American thrower
junior Joe Ellis, contributed
16 total points to the team’s
overall score. Ellis claimed
the hammer title with the
second-best
throw of his
career
(66.34
meters)
and
Cartwright
took the discus
title
with
a
career-best
throw of 55.40
meters.
Michigan
men’s
coach
Jerry Clayton
was impressed by Cartwright’s
performance, considering he
was in three events in one
day — discus, shot put and
hammer. Cartwright, however,
didn’t see that as a “burden”
and focused instead on finally
getting outdoors after a long
indoor season.
Joining
the
impressive
throwing squad this year is
freshman Andrew Liskowitz,
who took the title for shot put.
Cartwright believes it was the
“highlight of the weekend”
and emphasized how much the
team rallied behind Liskowitz.
Other notable
performances
from the men’s
side included a
one-through-
five
sweep
in
the 1,500-meter
run and the top
two spots in the
steeplechase.
Senior
sprinter
Khoury
Crenshaw
claimed wins in both the 100-
meter run and 4x100 relay.
The distance runners took four
event titles with 11 top-four
finishes.
“It was an excellent meet,”
Clayton said. “We had great
performances in all the areas.
Anytime you can win as a
team, that’s what it was about.
It was a really good day for the
team.”
Though the women didn’t
fare as well as the men,
Michigan
women’s
coach
James Henry wasn’t looking
to win — similar to his attitude
last year. For him, the meet is
meant to open the season with
good competition and scoring
is the least of his concerns.
Senior distance runner Gina
Sereno, though, still pushed
forward to take first in the
1,500-meter race with a time
of 4:21.38 — a full two seconds
over runner-up and teammate,
senior
mid-distance
athlete
Jamie
Morrissey.
Sereno,
combined with the rest of
the distance squad, racked
up almost half of their team’s
total.
Although both Sereno and
Morrissey don’t run the 1,500
— it was Sereno’s first time —
the duo pushed through the
first 800 meters together.
“As you’re running together
you have a sense someone is
running with you,” Sereno
said. “It makes it easier to
know someone else is there.
(The race) was a product of us
training together and working
hard in pushing each other.
Every race situation lends itself
to a different outcome. But,
being able to practice every day
and knowing how we run led to
this.”
Like the men’s side, the
throwers contributed a great
deal to the overall total. Junior
Bailey Baker notched three
points in the hammer throw
with a distance of 55.17 — a
full four-and-a-half feet better
than her throw the previous
week in the Pac-12 vs. Big Ten
Challenge.
“We got eight more meets
before
our
conference
championship,” Henry said.
“This is one meet down and
seven to go. This is a long long
year, we want to improve and
stay healthy and come together
as a team. Those are our goals.”
Men’s and women’s teams finish first and second, respectively, in Durham
SYLVANNA GROSS
Daily Sports Editor
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
Senior distance runner Gina Sereno managed to take first in the 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:21.38 on Saturday.
“Anytime you
can win as a
team, that’s what
it was about.”
WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS
Michigan wins
NCAA Regional
The
legendary
musician
John Denver once sang, “West
Virginia, mountain mamma,
take me home.”
Though
the
Michigan
women’s gymnastics team was
350 miles from Ann Arbor,
the Wolverines felt right at
home at the NCAA Regional in
Morgantown, W.Va. Michigan
scored 197.50 points, which
was enough to secure its 12th
NCAA Regional victory. The
Wolverines won five individual
titles, tying a school record.
“They’re
probably
a
little
tired,”
said Michigan
coach
Bev
Plocki.
“But
right after the
competition,
they
were
definitely
excited. It was
a lot of fun.”
Michigan’s
star
performer was
undoubtedly
junior
Paige
Zaziski,
who
accounted
for
three
of
the
Wolverines’
individual
championships. Zaziski earned
victories
in
the
all-around
(39.575 points), vault (9.875)
and bars (9.950). As if all of
that wasn’t enough, Zaziski
was also substituted into the
floor event at the last minute
for junior Lauren Marinez,
and subsequently placed third
(9.900).
“My teammates talked to
me before I went on the floor,”
Zaziski said. “And I think that
was really helpful. I was just
ready for whatever happened
and to do whatever was best for
the team.”
Added Plocki: “Floor is an
event that we’ve been trying
to get (Zaziski) ready on. She’s
done well at it in practice, but
we’ve given her a couple of
opportunities
in
exhibitions
earlier this year and they didn’t
go so well. So we just kept
plugging away at it in practice
and building up her confidence.
We made a decision that we
would see how the meet was
going and where we were
sitting. If things were looking
good, we were going to change
the lineup.”
But
sophomore
Emma
McLean wouldn’t let Zaziski
have all of Michigan’s glory.
McLean excelled
on the vault as
well,
tying
for
first place with
Zaziski
—
not
that
Zaziski
minded splitting
a
championship
with
a
fellow
Wolverine.
“I’m just glad
that we all came
up
big
today
and won (as a
team),”
Zaziski
said.
“I
didn’t
really care about
the
individual
awards.”
Senior
Nicole
Artz also earned a victory on
the beam, tallying a season-high
score of 9.925. Artz’s win was
made more impressive by the fact
that she was the only gymnast at
the regional to score higher than
9.900 in the beam event.
Michigan’s
triumph
in
the
Morgantown
regional
secured its spot in the NCAA
Championships — which will
be its 23rd appearance — in St.
Louis, Mo. on April 14.
And
if
the
Wolverines
perform
in
the
NCAA
Championships like they did at
the regional, Michigan will feel
just as at home in St. Louis as it
did in West Virginia.
NATHANIEL CLARK
Daily Sports Editor
“I was just
ready for
whatever
happened and
to do whatever
was best for the
team.”