11

Thursday, June 15, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

Wolverines compete at national meet

The Michigan track and field teams 

sent eight athletes in total — five men 
and three women — to compete at 
the NCAA Outdoor Championships 
last week in Eugene, Ore. from 
Wednesday to Saturday.

While the Wolverines weren’t as 

well-represented as they were last 
year, when six men and five women 
qualified for the national meet, they 
made their presences count with 
three All-American honors and an 
individual national championship.

The women’s team finished 21st 

overall with 10 points, and the men 
placed 41st with a score of six.

The highlight of the competition 

for Michigan was the performance 
of junior Jaimie Phelan, who won 
the 1,500-meter run to become the 
Wolverines’ first national champion 
in that event.

Phelan began the race in last place 

out of 12 runners, and spent most of 
the race there. But she flew into the 
lead with 200 meters to go, and with 
a blistering final lap of 61.62 seconds, 
she held off Arkansas’s Nikki Hiltz 
by two-hundredths of a second — 
4:13.78 seconds to 4:13.80 — to win the 
second-closest final in NCAA history.

The Ontario native won All-

American honors for a second straight 
year after she finished eighth in 2016, 
and caps off the year having won the 
Big Ten and NCAA championships in 
the 1,500 meters.

“(It hasn’t sunk in) yet, honestly,” 

Phelan said. “It won’t hit for a while, 
for sure. I think there’s still a lot to 
accomplish — after this season, the 
next big thing is to get ready for (cross-

country). It’s been an unbelievable 
year.”

Michigan was also represented 

in the 3,000-meter steeplechase 
by junior Claire Borchers. After a 
second-place finish at the Big Ten 
Championships and a victory in 
the NCAA Preliminary Round two 
weeks ago, Borchers recorded a time 
of 10:07.35 in the semifinals Thursday 
— good enough for an honorable 
mention All-American nod, but not 
enough to qualify her for the final.

Senior Gina Sereno, who swept 

the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races at 
the conference championships last 
month, put her undefeated record for 
the season on the line Saturday night 
in the 5,000 meters. Sereno asserted 
herself in the lead pack for the first 
half of the race, but with just under a 
mile to go, she fell off that pace and 
slipped to 15th, with a time of 16:03.55.

The men’s team has been able to 

count on its throwing contingent for 
consistent results this season, and 
the NCAA Championships were no 
different. Wednesday, sophomore Joe 
Ellis — the 2017 Big Ten champion 
and the program record holder in the 
hammer throw — placed eighth in 
that event with a toss of 70.33 meters 
to finish eighth, which marked the 
Wolverines’ highest finish in the 
hammer throw since 1933.

Ellis had the longest throw of 

any eighth-place finisher in history, 
a testament to the quality of the 
competition.

Ellis was joined in the throwing 

events by junior Grant Cartwright and 
freshman Andrew Liskowitz, who 
finished 22nd and 23rd, respectively, 
in the shot put to grab honorable 
mention All-American nods.

Senior decathlete Steven Bastien 

closed out his Michigan career with 
a fourth-place finish in the decathlon. 
Powered by five personal-bests, he 
recorded a score of 8,015 — breaking 
his own program record.

Bastien’s impressive finish may 

have been most surprising to Bastien 
himself. Injuries early in the year 
threatened to derail his season, but he 
instead will leave Michigan with All-
American honors to his name, as well 
as a Big Ten championship.

“I just want to thank God, because 

I didn’t see this happening,” Bastien 
said. “I sort of imagined that I could, 
but I just feel blessed to be able to 
come to this school and have the 
people around me that I had around 
me to push me to this and to help me 
achieve this type of thing.”

Bastien set personal records in 

the 110-meter hurdles, 100-meters, 
400-meters, high jump and pole 
vault. His high jump success might 
have been the most unexpected, 
and because of this was the most 
satisfying for him.

“As far as the whole injury thing 

went, that was what was really setting 
me back,” Bastien said. “Something 
about the way I was taking off was just 
really making my knee aggravated. 
To have an outdoor PR, wasn’t really 
expecting that at all.”

Sophomore Taylor McLaughlin 

was the Wolverines’ sole running 
representative, in the 400-meter 
hurdles. After a first-team All-
American 
debut 
last 
season, 

McLaughlin was unable to advance 
out of the semifinals, but ran a season-
best time of 50.18 seconds to be named 
to the second team.

TRACK AND FIELD

JACOB SHAMES

Summer Managing Sports Editor

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Jabrill Peppers was announced as Michigan’s 2016-2017 Male Athlete of the Year.

Peppers, Minor named 
Athletes of the Year

Monday, the University of 

Michigan Athletic Department 
announced its 2016-17 male and 
female Athletes of the Year: 
Jabrill Peppers (football) and 
Brienne Minor (women’s tennis). 
The honor has not gone to either 
sport since Braylon Edwards 
won for football in 2005.

The award puts Peppers and 

Minor in contention for the Big 
Ten Athletes of the Year, the 
winners of which are ultimately 
determined by a media vote. 
The last Michigan athlete to 
win was Peter Vanderkaay in 
2006 for men’s swimming and 
diving.

Peppers was the swiss-army 

knife for the nation’s leading 
defense, playing 15 different 
positions for the Wolverines en 
route to becoming a Heisman 
award finalist and All-American 
candidate. 
His 
impressive 

on-field play and accolades made 
him the 25th overall pick in the 
2017 NFL Draft to the Cleveland 
Browns, where he was drafted as 
a safety.

Peppers’ 
all-around 
talent 

earned him the Paul Hornung 
Award 
for 
being 
the 
most 

versatile 
player 
in 
college 

football, and healso won the 
Nagurski-Woodson 
Defensive 

Player of the Year, the Butkus-
Fitzgerald Linebacker of the 
Year and the Rodgers-White 
Return Specialist of the Year. 
Peppers finished the season 
with 72 tackles, four sacks, one 
interception 
and 
one 
return 

touchdown, and his presence was 
a constant threat for opposing 
offenses. 

Minor made headlines as the 

first athlete in the Michigan 
women’s 
tennis 
program’s 

history 
to 
win 
a 
national 

championship, doing so in a 
miracle tournament run for the 
2017 NCAA singles title over 
No. 6 Belinda Woolcock. The 
rising junior entered the NCAA 
Tournament unseeded, ranked 
below fellow Wolverine Kate 
Fahey. Minor rallied for six 
consecutive wins — dropping 
just two sets along the way — to 
clinch the title. 

Minor ended her championship 

season ranked ninth by the ITA 
with a 33-6 singles record for 
her 
second 
consecutive 
All-

American 
honors 
in 
singles 

and a unanimous All-Big Ten 
selection. She also finished 19-5 
in dual matches.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Sophomore Brienne Minor was named Michigan’s Female Athlete of the Year.

ETHAN WOLFE
Senior Sports Editor

