The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Sports Thursday, January 18, 2018 — 5A Freshmen key in Michigan’s win over Ohio State All athletes dream of rivalry wins and upsets. The freshmen on the Michigan women’s gymnastics team have had one of each — in just two meets. Better yet, two freshmen — Lauren Farley and Syd Townsend — played integral roles in both those wins. And they still have potential for improvement. Though both suffered falls last week against then-No. 4 Alabama, their performances in Saturday’s meet against Ohio State showed no hints of their first-meet struggles. And both were major contributors to the Wolverines’ final score of 197.55 — the highest in the nation so far. Both Townsend and Farley earned spots in the starting lineups on two different events against the Buckeyes. Townsend competed on vault and bars while Farley performed on bars and beam. And Sam Javanbakht — a freshman who has yet to make her collegiate debut — contributed in a different way, making sure the team kept up its energy and focus. “Everyone’s stepping up, all the freshmen,” said junior Emma McLean. “Even if people aren’t competing, they’re stepping up and they’re cheering and they’re contributing … it’s gonna take us far.” For Townsend, a former Canadian national team member, the team-focused environment of the NCAA is a stark contrast to her previous experiences. “In Canada, we were part of a team, but everyone kinda individually wanted what was best for themselves,” Townsend said. “Here, everyone genuinely wants you to do well and wants you to succeed because it would benefit the team.” Michigan’s camaraderie helped Townsend bounce back from a fall on vault last week. This week, she earned a 9.925, the second-highest vault score of the meet. “Knowing that they actually do have my back and they can pull out the score if I mess up … was awesome,” Townsend said. Despite leading off on the uneven bars — a position in the lineup that often garners lower scores — Townsend received the highest score on the event with a 9.90. Farley’s score wasn’t far behind with a steady set. But where she really had the chance to shine was on beam. She showcased a unique beam routine featuring a back- handspring-layout-stepout- layout-stepout flight series and a Gainer pike dismount. “That beam routine was great,” said Michigan coach Bev Plocki. “This is her first time in the bar lineup, she rocked it, and she’s right there in the mix on floor as well, so really proud.” And though floor was the only rotation that didn’t feature any freshmen Saturday night, that could change soon. After scoring had concluded, Townsend performed an exhibition routine on the floor exercise. It was a test run of sorts, a chance to practice in front of the crowd and see how she would be scored by real judges, but without the pressure of having her score count. Townsend’s score of 9.80 showed an ability to hang with the team’s veterans — no easy task on the Wolverines’ historically-strongest event. “We were contemplating putting her in the lineup,” Plocki said. “(But) in order to earn your way, you have to exhibition first.” Last season, Michigan lost two of its strongest floor workers in Talia Chiarelli and Nicole Artz, leaving big shoes to fill. So while Townsend’s floor is currently a depth option, it has the potential to become much more than that. “She’s one that still has a lot left in the tank,” Plocki said. “We have a lot I think we can still improve upon with her.” In a sport like gymnastics, it’s often hard to know how much the freshmen will contribute. But as their two big wins demonstrated, the Wolverines don’t have much to worry about. Seniors show out in loss In a head-to-head dual for first place, Evan White pushed forward to close the gap of centimeters between him and the frontrunner, Indiana’s Vini Lanza. With the crowd rallying behind White, the senior gave a last hurrah in the final lap. He came up short. Just as White had, the No. 8 Michigan men’s swimming team fell to the fourth-ranked Hoosiers in a close dual meet despite giving its best efforts. Though the seniors put the team in a contending position, the Wolverines couldn’t come out on top. Despite the loss, Michigan rose to the occasion. Coach Mike Bottom claimed that the team had “one of their fastest dual meets by far on the men’s side and women’s side.” However, rising even higher was Indiana, who also had one of its fastest dual meets on both sides. Other silver linings of the day for Michigan were key performances from two of its seniors captains — PJ Ransford and White. Putting on a show for the 200- and 100-yard Butterfly, White came out on top for one of two close contests and placed second on the other. Despite the result of the 200-yard, he had the claim to a first-place finish throughout, falling just short in final moments of the last lap. He finished with a 1:44.30, just .45 seconds from the winning time. However, rather than feeling down about his flawed finish in the 200-yard Butterfly, he entered his next event, the 100-yard Butterfly with a clear mind and intense focus. Determined to bounce back, he came from behind to overtake Lanza in the final lap, finishing with a 46.47, a tenth of a second faster than the second-place finish. Instead of taking in the cheers or getting distracted by results and emotions from the first race, White admitted that only one thought ran through his mind as he swam: “Just try hard and score points for Michigan.” Likewise, Ransford had a similar approach to the meet. A slow starter — Bottom noted that Ransford “normally kinda sits back and builds into it” — Ransford chose to go head first into action in both his races, claiming the lead early into the laps. Knowing that he had to score points on the distance races, Ransford took it upon himself to try and give the Wolverines the advantage. Keeping scoring on his mind, he came out fast while controlling the pace to dominate the competition. “What a great swim he had, both the 500-yard and the mile,” Bottom said. “Both of those were great swims. He went out for it, he didn’t mess around, did he? He went out for it. This time I think he wanted it. He wanted it bad.” His desire to win showed, as he finished the 1,000-yard freestyle a near half-lap ahead of any Indiana swimmer — coming in at 9:01.88. “First half of the season, it’s tough because you’re working really hard,” Ransford said. “The second half, you start to do a bit more speedwork. And I was hitting my stroke count really well. But it is nice in a race to jump on it and be able to tell halfway that we’re going to get first, second for sure.” Being able to see the surefire victory provided relief to Ransford as he witnessed a sweep in the 500-yard freestyle, with Michigan claiming the top three times. With a time of 4:23.03, Ransford paved the way for the underclassmen to follow. Despite their individual achievements, the Wolverines were neither pleased nor disappointed with their performance. “It’s always tough to take a loss at home, but Indiana is a great team,” White said. “I think all our guys showed strong mentalities and no one was down after. It was in season. It was just good racing and practice for the end of the season.” ARIA GERSON Daily Sports Writer ALEC COHEN/Daily Freshman Syd Townsend — a former Canadian national team member — was a key contributor to Michigan’s final score of 197.55, currently the nation’s best. TIEN LE Daily Sports Writer MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVE With road wins, ‘M’ all but seals tournament berth W hatever validation the Michigan wom- en’s basketball team needed, it got — and then some. The Wolverines went on the road this week with March hanging in the bal- ance. No. 19 Michi- gan (5-2 Big Ten, 16-4 overall) had no need to worry about the NCAA Tournament until recently. The Wolverines waltzed through their non- conference slate, the only slip- ups coming against Louisville and Notre Dame, two of the top five teams in the country. Big Ten play started well enough — two easy wins with a loss at then-No. 23 Iowa sandwiched between them. But after dropping a close one to then-No. 10 Ohio State in Ann Arbor and narrowly escaping against unranked Indiana, a two-game road trip was the opposite of what Michigan needed. Adding to the loss column against a formidable Nebraska team and the eighth-ranked Buckeyes would have put the Wolverines below .500 in the Big Ten. The margin for error would have been all but gone with just nine games left in the regular season. And, for a team that lost out on the Tourna- ment last season after dropping three of their last four and exiting in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, familiar alarm bells would have rang through Crisler Center. When Michigan boarded the plane to Lincoln last Friday, it was staring down the possibili- ty of moving to the tournament bubble and going through the whole ordeal again. Down three with eight sec- onds to go against the Corn- huskers, that possibility was inches away from becoming reality. After a timeout, Michigan ran a pick-and-pop with senior guard Katelynn Flaherty and freshman forward Hailey Brown. Nebraska’s Jasmine Cincore got over the screen and nothing opened up. The ball found freshman guard Deja Church, who had no choice but to attempt a desperation 3-pointer as the clock reached its final second. She was fouled — a lifeline — and sunk all three free throws to tie it. “I was almost in disbelief,” coach Kim Barnes Arico told WTKA. “I wasn’t sure that she would be able to do it. But you know what’s funny about her is that she made every big play — like she seems to have a knack.” For the rest of the trip, the Wolverines never looked back. Michigan ran away with the game in overtime, then went to Columbus and came back from a 10-point first-half deficit to beat Ohio State on its own court. It was only the fifth time the Wolverines have beaten a top-10 team in program his- tory. “We went right to a pick- and-roll option where we had a high blast to try to get Hallie (Thome) the ball inside, and we were able to do it the first couple possessions (of the sec- ond half),” Barnes Arico said. “Then they tried to pack it in the paint and once they did that, we were able to kick and find Katelynn.” Thome and Flaherty fin- ished as Michigan’s leading scorers, putting up 27 and 21 points, respectively, with 18 of Flaherty’s total coming in the second half as the Wolverines mounted their comeback and pulled away en route to an 84-75 win. Instead of the bubble, Michi- gan returned to Ann Arbor with a tournament bid all but official. Instead of a collapse, the Wolverines rose to the occa- sion. With a signature win under their belt and the season’s toughest road trip out of the way, the rest is simple: Hold the line and Michigan is in. Ethan Sears can be reached at searseth@umich.edu or at @ethan_sears on Twitter. AARON BAKER/Daily Freshman guard Deja Church was clutch for Michigan in its win over Nebraska last week, sinking three free throws to send the game to overtime. ‘M’ a piece away from top Friday’s wrestling meet was about as close as you’d ever see, but you would never know by looking at the final score. The score also couldn’t show you how thunderous the cheers were throughout Crisler Center, the close matches against defending national champions or the boisterous disapproval of controversial calls. No. 1 Penn State (2-0 Big Ten, 6-0 overall) was, in the end, more aggressive and technically sound than the eighth-ranked Michigan wrestling team (2-1, 5-2), eventually topping them, 25-12. The Wolverines’ three wins of the meet came from freshman Drew Mattin at 125 pounds, redshirt sophomore Stevan Micic at 133 pounds and fifth-year senior Adam Coon at heavyweight. Michigan took the first two matches of the night with relative ease as Mattin and Micic each earned major decisions to put the Wolverines up 8-0. However, this was the calm before the storm, as Michigan went on to drop the next seven matchups — five of them to defending national champions. The Wolverines did not have momentum on their side, as it eluded the team all night despite the largest home crowd they have ever seen. The Nittany Lions consistently began each match aggressively, as nearly every Penn State wrestler was able to secure a takedown early on. “In every match the guy who scored the first takedown won the match,” said Michigan coach Joe McFarland. “That shows you how important getting that first takedown is and getting that momentum on your side.” In what may have been the quintessential match of the night, redshirt junior Alec Pantaleo fell, 6-4, to Jason Nolf, the defending national champion and top- ranked wrestler at 157 pounds. The match began like any other that night as Nolf scored a quick takedown at the start of the first period. After Nolf’s escape to start the second period, Pantaleo started a difficult uphill climb with a takedown of his own. Down only a point heading into the third, Pantaleo elected to start in the down position, a decision he would later regret as Nolf held onto him for the remainder of the match for a 6-4 win. “You can say it was a bad decision all you want,” Pantaleo said. “But from last year I’ve made big strides, and I was really confident when I chose bottom.” Ultimately, this sentiment may have been indicative of the match as a whole: Michigan was on the cusp but could not match up to the Nittany Lions’ near-technical perfection. Now that the Wolverines have faced the top team in the nation and know what it takes both mentally and physically to wrestle with the best, they are optimistic about their chances the next time they see Penn State on the mat. “I’m looking forward to seeing the video review to see what I did wrong so I can fix it,” Pantaleo said. “There’s so much that we can watch on video to see how they’re doing it and not let it happen again.” All in all, this match was a gargantuan battle that justified the switch from the quaint Cliff Keen Arena to Crisler Center on Friday. Additionally, while it may seem fruitless now, the energy in Crisler undoubtedly galvanized Michigan and instilled a previously unknown energy. “Finally getting in here it was really exciting,” Coon said. “We were all just really amped up, ready to go for a big dual against the returning national champs, but there were nerves and excitement as well — we were just amped up.” Added McFarland: “It’s a great atmosphere in here, you can feel it — our fans showed up and it was a great atmosphere. I wish we could’ve win a few more of those close ones, but it just wasn’t in the cards I guess.” WRESTLING JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Writer ETHAN SEARS