The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, December 12, 2017 — 7
MAX KUANG/Daily
Michigan wrestling coach Joe McFarland was pleased with his team’s performance in its dominant 48-0 win over Oregon State on Sunday afternoon.
Wolverines flex muscles in win over Oregon State
As he stepped onto the mat,
fifth-year senior Kevin Beazley
knew he had the most daunting
challenge of the day.
The 197-pounder was the only
Wolverine facing a nationally
ranked
wrestler
during
Michigan’s
matchup
against
Oregon State. Tensions rose
throughout Cliff Keen Arena as
the wrestlers squared off, but
all doubt was quickly erased as
Beazley pinned the 11th-ranked
Corey Griego in the middle of the
first period.
The match started off poorly
for Beazley, who was taken down
by Griego early in the round.
Beazley responded in kind by
quickly escaping and then taking
down Griego before grinding
out a hard-earned fall. Beazley
inevitably won with a left-
handed headlock.
“That was a great moment,”
said
Michigan
coach
Joe
McFarland. “He had to dig his
heels in and really drive through
that — but he stayed tough and
kept driving and driving through
it and was able to get him on his
back and secure the pin.”
This
match
was
largely
indicative of the meet as a whole,
as every wrestler found his hand
raised by the referee at the end
of his match. Michigan looked
dominant from start to finish
as the Wolverines shut out the
Beavers, 48-0. In total, the meet
contained two falls and three
technical falls, a feat which
helped the Wolverines (2-1) earn
a statement win for the program.
Michigan
had
suffered
a
sluggish
start
to
its
season
after squeaking by 11th-ranked
Arizona State, 21-18, and losing
big
to
10th-ranked
Lehigh,
8-27. However, the Wolverines
are showing signs of a massive
momentum
shift
after
an
impressive showing at the Cliff
Keen Las Vegas Invitational and a
shutout win against Oregon State
(2-1).
“Against
Lehigh,
we
got
punched in the face,” McFarland
said. “We got beat on basic
fundamentals out there, we got
beat on mat wrestling, and so
we’ve been working a lot on those
areas — and we saw a lot of that
today.”
The
numbers
corroborate
McFarland’s
claim,
as
no
Wolverine wrestler trailed at the
end of any period throughout the
meet.
Another
bright
spot
in
Michigan’s performance can be
found in freshman 157-pounder
Reece Hughes. Hughes’ redshirt
was pulled as he subbed in for
the injured redshirt sophomore,
165-pounder
Logan
Massa.
Not only did Hughes win his
collegiate debut, 5-0, but he did it
while wrestling up a weight class.
“I’m real proud of him,”
McFarland said. “It’s tough — you
go out there for the first time, in
a Michigan singlet, in front of the
nice crowd, but he stayed totally
focused, was on task and did a
great job.”
From here, the Wolverines
have a break until they begin Big
Ten play on Jan. 5. McFarland
wishes to continue along this
positive track through the break
and further refine his wrestlers’
abilities.
“This break is going to be
awesome,” Beazley said. “We get
to break down some technique
and keep getting better. Focusing
on
getting
better
mentally,
getting better physically and just
improving every time we step on
the mat.”
The
Wolverines’
shift
in momentum may also be
attributable to the friendly rivalry
that exists within the Michigan
squad. The wrestlers frequently
compete with each other to see
who will earn the most points in a
given meet or even score the most
falls in a season.
“I think the biggest thing is
feeding off of each other,” Beazley
said. “We had a little bit of trash
talk going in the group chat — and
we just feed off each other, so
we’re just pushing each other and
having fun when we’re out there.”
JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer
After dominant 48-0 win,
‘M’ picking up momentum
Entering the second period,
fifth-year
senior
heavyweight
Adam Coon narrowly led his
opposition.
Cliff Keen Arena was rocking
and Coon seemed to feed off the
atmosphere. In quick succession,
Coon escaped Cody Crawford’s
grasp, tallied a swift two-point
takedown and then polished off
the succession with a decisive fall.
With
that
result,
No.
9
Michigan had completed a shutout
of Oregon State, 48-0, in the third
annual Joe Wells Classic.
“It was fun to watch,” said
Michigan coach Joe McFarland.
“I think the big takeaway for us
is we’ve been working a lot of
different positions in the practice
room and really trying to break
things down, and
we saw a lot of
that today.”
The
Wolverines built
on their successful
second-place
finish
at
the
Cliff
Keen
Las
Vegas Collegiate
Wrestling
Invitational
last
weekend, where
Ohio State was the only team in a
49-team field to better them.
After a shaky start to the season
in which it was blown out by No.
11 Lehigh, Michigan is bouncing
back.
“Against
Lehigh,
we
got
punched in the face,” McFarland
said. “There were some things
leading up to that that we felt we
needed to work on, but we got
beat on the basic fundamentals
out there, we got beat on mat
wrestling, and so we’ve been
working a lot in those areas. We’ve
made some big strides in those
areas.”
The
strides
were
obvious
against Oregon State, as three out
of the nine matchups ended with
Wolverines scoring a fall, and two
others finished as technical falls.
Fifth-year
senior
Kevin
Beazley scored arguably the most
impressive of the falls, pinning
Oregon State’s Corey Griego, in
the first period. Griego was the
nation’s 11th-ranked wrestler in
the 197-pound weight class.
“I’ve never been a part of a
shutout in college wrestling, so
that was really cool,” Beazley
remarked. “We don’t train for
each opponent, we train for the
end of the year. That’s the biggest
point we need to get across. In
every match we plan on getting
better
and
peaking
for
the
national tournament in March,
and hopefully coming home with
a team trophy.”
Though
the
national
tournament
is
a few months
away, the Big Ten
season
starts
Jan. 5 with an
away dual meet
against Indiana.
With
four
other Big Ten
teams
ranked
in the top 10
nationally, now
is a perfect time
for Michigan to gain top form.
“We want to continue to have
some good training sessions, and
work on some of the things that
we have been the past couple of
weeks,” McFarland said. “We’re
going to keep training. We’ll send
these guys home and I know
these guys will stay on top of their
training. Then we’ll come back
on (December) 27th and get some
good practices in.”
Whatever the Wolverines have
been doing in practice recently has
been working. If this progression
continues, a Big Ten and possibly
even a National Championship
may not be a pipe dream.
WRESTLING
CONNOR BRENNAN
For the Daily
I’ve never been a
part of a shutout
in college
wrestling.
MAX KUANG/Daily
Senior forward Dexter Dancs improved his body this offseason, and his play has followed after a lackluster junior year.
Hard work pays off for Dancs in senior season
Goals
in
hockey
aren’t
like home runs in baseball
or touchdowns in football.
When pucks go into the net,
there exists an element of pure
chance that’s not as present in
almost any other sport.
That’s why it can often be
challenging to glean too much
from them — goals only tell
part of the story. But for Dexter
Dancs last season, they told
more than enough.
A
seven-goal,
17-point
sophomore campaign gave way
to a disappointing junior season
in which Dancs only found the
net once. Dancs wasn’t alone
in his struggles, as Michigan’s
entire offense plummeted from
4.76 goals per game in 2015-16
to just 2.63 last year.
“It’s no secret I haven’t had
the best three years here,”
Dancs admitted to the Detroit
Free Press at Michigan’s media
day in September. “(I) haven’t
played as well as I’ve wanted
to or the coaching staff wanted
me to.”
During the offseason, Dancs
knew
what
he
needed
to
improve upon to put the sour
taste of his junior year behind
him, so the North Vancouver,
B.C. native went back home,
something
he
hadn’t
done
in any prior offseason. His
training focus changed, too.
For the first time, he worked
primarily on his flexibility and
mobility on the ice.
“I worked with a guy back
home and my body feels a lot
different than it did the last
few years,” Dancs said. “I feel
good — not necessarily faster,
but I just feel stronger in my
skates and my edges and things
like that, so I think it’s been big
for me.
“Last year I would get the
puck in my own end and guys
would catch me, or I would get
it in the corner, I’d spin off a
defender and get caught. This
year I just feel better.”
At the Wolverines’ media
day, coach Mel Pearson stated
that Dancs had the potential to
be an “x-factor,” calling him a
major key towards Michigan
having success. And through
the first two months of the
season, a more physically fit
Dancs has proven him correct.
In just 16 games, Dancs has
already surpassed his scoring
output from last season, with
five goals and eight assists
comprising his 13 points —
good for third on the team.
With this success, he has
asserted himself on Michigan’s
top
line
alongside
senior
Tony Calderone and forward
Cooper
Marody,
anchoring
the Wolverines’ 15th-ranked
scoring offense.
While Marody’s total of
1.5 points per game is tied
for fourth in the country,
as are Calderone’s 13 goals,
the
Wolverines’
veteran
triumvirate
has
owed
its
success just as heavily to the
contributions of Dancs. His
size, strength and hard-nosed
play
in
physical
situations
provides space for Michigan’s
other playmakers. As Pearson
stated after a victory over
Minnesota in November, Dancs
gives the line “a little bit of
everything.”
“He’s always been a hard
worker, but I think all around
the ice he’s doing a lot of good
things,”
Marody
said.
“In
practice, he’s always pretty
consistent on a daily basis and
he’s working really hard —
getting pucks, he’s using his
shot, he’s using his big body to
take it to the net.”
It’s
also
telling
toward
the
line’s
chemistry
and
cohesiveness as a unit that
Calderone was quick to credit
his linemates for his hat trick
against
Michigan
State
on
Thursday, saying that they
“made it easy” for him.
“Dex, he’s a workhorse,”
Calderone said. “He gets into
the dirty areas, gets the puck,
gives it to Coop, who’s an all-
around great
passer, great
with the puck and shooting,
so we’ve got three guys that
complement each other well.”
While Marody gave praise
to Dancs’ work ethic, he also
put
forth
experience
and
confidence as reasons why
Dancs is enjoying the best
season of his career.
“As a senior, you’ve had a lot
of years to know how you have
to play on a daily basis, know
how to play in the games,”
Marody said. “He’s been here
for four years, worked hard
four years and sometimes it just
comes with time. You get more
mature, you learn more things
about the game, you learn more
things about your game, what
it takes to have success and I
think he’s learned that and he’s
been very good so far.”
But
despite
this
praise
from teammates and coaches,
Dancs was more lukewarm in
his evaluation of his play this
season, noting his streakiness
— 11 of his 13 points came
during an eight-game stretch
from Oct. 27 to Nov. 17.
With
three
weeks
until
Michigan takes the ice again,
against
Bowling
Green
in
the Great Lakes Invitational,
Dancs hopes to develop that
consistency.
“The last five or six games
I haven’t really been happy
with my game,” Dancs said.
“It’s good that we have the 20
days off so I can kind of look
back on it and see what made
me successful and bring that to
the second half of the season.”
After a summer dedicated
to improving his game and
redeeming himself after a self-
professed unexceptional three
years, Dancs has blossomed
into not just an “x-factor” for
the Wolverines, as Pearson
had hoped, but a major force
for one of the more surprising
offenses in the country.
And while there’s plenty of
hard work involved, maybe it’s
as simple as pucks finally going
into the net.
Michigan special teams
talented but inconsistent
Entering 2017, all the talent was
there.
Unfortunately for Michigan,
though, the talent didn’t yield many
highlights.
HIGH POINT: Any time a
Wolverine kicker sets a record,
Michigan fans are bound to tune
in. That’s exactly what happened
earlier in the season when Nordin
became the first Wolverine to ever
hit two 50-yard field goals in the
same game.
Nordin did so against Florida,
in Cowboys Stadium, in the season
opener. He converted four out of
six field goals that game, boosting
Michigan to a 33-17 win, and the
hype behind the kicker escalated
quickly.
But just as quickly as the hype
rose, it would fall just as hard — but
more on that in the section below.
The Wolverines didn’t have
many big plays on special teams
this season, but freshman Donovan
Peoples-Jones’ 79-yard punt return
touchdown against Air Force
added at least one highlight to the
reel.
Peoples-Jones weaved in and
out of the Falcons’ return coverage,
speeding past the entire unit for
Michigan’s first touchdown of the
day. Peoples-Jones made a handful
of questionable decisions regarding
fair catches this season — it even
cost him his job at one point — but
Harbaugh stuck with him, and it
seems like the right decision.
LOW POINT: For all the
success Nordin had to open the
year, things quickly turned sour.
Given its place in the Wolverines’
season, it’s almost fitting that
Nordin’s season began going off the
rails in Happy Valley.
Michigan quickly fell into a
14-point hole to open the game
thanks to Saquon Barkley. The
Wolverines’ first punch back came
at the beginning of the first quarter,
when junior running back Karan
Higdon found the end zone.
Out trotted Nordin. Moments
later, he trotted off having missed
the extra point wide left.
And so began his downward
spiral.
He missed from 37 and 49 yards
against Rutgers and another extra
point against Minnesota.
Then things came to a head
in College Park. Nordin missed
from 31 yards before getting into
what looked like an animated
conversation
with
coach
Jim
Harbaugh.
After the game, Harbaugh
clarified there was no animosity in
the conversation. But he did deliver
a simple message.
“He didn’t really snap back,”
Harbaugh said of Nordin. “I said to
him, ‘I’m giving you one more shot.
You’ve got to make the next one.’
And he said, ‘I got this. I will make
the next one.’ ”
As it turns out, Nordin did. He
briefly corrected course against
Wisconsin — converting on each
of his field goal and extra-point
attempts. But his last kick of the
regular season ended with a block
by the Buckeyes.
THE FUTURE: Not a whole lot
will change for the special teams
crew.
Nordin will be back, and
freshman punter Brad Robbins will
be back, too. In the return game,
Peoples-Jones will stick around
to return punts, and freshman
defensive back Ambry Thomas,
who returned kickoffs all year, will
also be available next season.
The most notable change, and
perhaps the most significant, is the
loss of holder Garrett Moores.
Moores, the previous Mortell
Holder of the Year award winner,
is out of eligibility after this
season. Though he failed to
repeat as the HOTY winner — an
accomplishment no holder has
previously ever achieved — Moores
still had a solid season.
And for all the parody videos
he makes on Twitter in the name
of self-deprecating humor, Moores
was good at his job.
It has yet to be seen who is going
to take his spot, but they’ll certainly
have big shoes to fill.
FOOTBALL
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
TED JANES
Daily Sports Writer
JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Writer