10 Thursday, May 3, 2018 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS ‘M’ falls in Big Ten Tournament By BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer Mattias Siimar was down 5-3 in the second set of his singles match, and the No. 3 seed Michigan men’s tennis team needed him to win to move ahead of No. 6 seed Wisconsin in the quarterfi- nals of the Big Ten Tournament. The freshman battled back and won four straight games on his way to a 6-4, 7-5 match win in the fourth spot of the singles lineup. The victory pro- pelled the Wolverines to a 4-1 win over the Badgers to advance to Saturday’s semifinal, where they fell to No. 2 seed Illinois, 1-4. “That was a big win for (Siimar), winning that match on Friday,” said Michigan coach Adam Steinberg. “It was great for his confidence. He lost to that guy pretty badly a week before, two weeks before, so that was huge for him and the team.” Friday’s quarterfinal began with Michigan’s No. 2 and No. 3 doubles pairs winning their matches — senior Alex Knight and freshman Harrison Brown by a score of 6-2 and the nation’s 72nd-ranked pair senior Runhao Hua and Siimar 6-3. The wins secured the doubles point for the Wolverines, put- ting them at a 1-0 advantage early. “We’ve won, I think, seven or eight doubles points in a row now,” Stein- berg said. “It’s been a big boost for us. Obviously on Friday — the first round of the Big Ten tournament for us — it was really important.” Senior Carter Lin notched the first singles win of the day for Michigan with a straight-set win at the No. 5 singles spot. His match was close — 6-4, 6-4 was the final score — and foreshadowed a tight day for the Wol- verines. Junior Myles Schalet lost his match in three sets, giving up the only point of the day for Wisconsin. Knight, Hua and senior Davis Crocker all took their first sets to tiebreakers, but all three won those tiebreakers to go up a set on their opponents. Michigan’s best chance to advance to the semifinals rested on the shoul- ders of Knight. After winning his tie- breaker, Knight fought for a 6-4 win in the second set to earn the individual match victory and secure a win that would not have come without strong play from the bottom half of the lineup. “I think we have some of the best, if not the best depth of any team in the country,” Steinberg said. “The bottom of the lineup is so strong that we have a lot of confidence in those guys. .” Saturday’s competition began with Michigan winning the doubles point once again. But another day of tight matches in the singles play came just after that, and this time, things didn’t go the Wolverines’ way. They didn’t win a first set in the singles play, set- ting them up for a long day. Schalet lost a lopsided singles match 1-6, 0-6 — by far the most unbalanced loss of the competition for Michigan — and that quick loss allowed the Illini to tie the match early. Knight lost in straight sets as well to give Illinois a lead that the Wolverines were unable to overcome. Lin lost a quick first set 2-6, then came back to win the second set, 6-2, and give Michigan an opportunity at its first singles win of the day. But Lin dropped the third set 3-6, and the Wol- verines were in trouble. Both Hua and Siimar got up 4-1 in their first sets, but neither could main- tain the lead and lost the set, Hua 5-7 and Siimar in a tiebreaker. Hua recov- ered to win the second set, 6-4, but his match went unfinished in the third set when Siimar lost his match to end Michigan’s day. Siimar once again found himself down 3-5 in the second set, but his comeback to tie the set at 5 games apiece fell short as he lost his match 6-7 (2-7), 5-7. “We were up in a couple of them big and losing those first sets after win- ning the doubles point was not how we planned it, that’s for sure,” Steinberg said. “It hurt us. We couldn’t recover, and we tried to come back, and we did, you know, Davis came back, and (Hua) came back, and Carter came back, but it was just a little too late. We needed to grab a couple of those first sets and really put pressure on Illinois, and we couldn’t close it out, and that’s why we went home early.” Closing out tight matches will become even more important for the Wolverines with the NCAA Tourna- ment coming as the next — and final — event of their season. “We need a little more belief when those moments come,” Steinberg said. “There’s going to be adversity, espe- cially in the NCAA Tournament when it’s win or go home, so we have to stick together and play the Michigan way, no matter if we’re up or down.” Wolverines shatter records MEN’S TENNIS By JACOB KOPNICK Summer Managing Sports Editor In a sport designed to highlight individual achievement, teamwork and camaraderie are often over- shadowed. For the Michigan men’s throw- ing unit, the opposite is true. The tightly bound crew together soars through the highest of highs and suffers through the lowest of lows, constantly feeding off the success of their teammates. Perhaps the most apt display of this unit cohesion occurred this past weekend at the National Relay Championships at Arkansas. The relay meet — the ultimate test of togetherness — scored only the running relay events with all other athletes essentially compet- ing in open competition. Heading into the meet, the throwing unit was completely aware that every throw through- out the day would not be counted towards the team’s score and would only serve as a testament to its com- mitment to the sport. In light of this, the throwers delivered their greatest perfor- mance of the season and shattered the Wolverine record book. Leading “The Meat Factory,” as they have so fittingly dubbed them- selves, was senior Joe Ellis who shattered his own school record in the hammer throw twice and ended the weekend with a winning bomb of 72.16 meters. In his conquest, Ellis also humbled a pair of top- ranked throwers from Florida. “It’s all about competing,” Ellis said. “Those guys have a lot of years under their belts. They’re both from Europe and started from a young age and had a significantly higher PR than me, so it’s one of those things where you never like not being the top-ranked guy going into a meet, so both of those guys had a bulls-eye on their backs.” One of the Florida throwers, Anders Eriksson, took the lead heading into the event’s finals. Ever a flare for the dramatic, Ellis over- came him with the record-shatter- ing throw. Setting a record of his own and contributing to the ethos of “The Meat Factory” was junior Andrew Liskowitz. Not to be outdone by his team- mate, Liskowitz delivered two back-to-back record-breaking throws in the shot put to not only win the event, but move within four centimeters of the 2018 national- leading throw. Liskowitz finished with a throw of 20.28-meters and a statement to the collegiate throw- ing community. While not setting a school record, senior Grant Cartwright set a personal record with a 67.12 meter hammer throw to add an exclama- tion point on his unit’s weekend. “The Meat Factory’s” success could be attributable to an entire season of hard work and training, the energy that the squad gives each other—or a mix of both. What- ever it was, there is no denying the chemistry between the teammates and how the athletes feed off it. “We’re pretty much just always in each other’s corner and it’s a very special relationship,” Ellis said. “It’s definitely something that I’ve never been a part of in sport before coming to this school and it’s defi- nitely boosted me to do better than I would’ve thought possible, espe- cially considering the small amount of time we’ve actually been train- ing.” Beyond training, the group of throwers all live together to create the ultimate culture of brotherhood and success. This particular type of bonding has clearly produced promising results and is something Michigan coach Jerry Clayton hopes to distribute to other event areas. “They push each other both in practice and in the weight room, but they all live together too, so they’re all focused and the culture’s there,” Clayton said. “So the whole team needs to do that and that’s what we’re looking to do in other event areas as well.” From here, the throwing squad appears to be in an ideal condition entering the big postseason meets beginning with the Big Ten Cham- pionships in two weeks. “Tomorrow’s gonna be a super heavy lift,” Ellis said. “You gotta set your nervous system back so you can be super prepared for when our conference meet is, and then it’s just finalizing technique, working on the rhythm of the throw. You can’t make many too many major chang- es two weeks out, so you just gotta get ready for the event and then go in with a very expectant attitude and just do what your training has taught you to do and just compete.” Granted that they stick to what they’ve been doing, “The Meat Fac- tory” will stake their claim not only in Michigan history, but in NCAA throwing history as well. FILE PHOTO / DAILY The Michigan men’s throwing team shattered school records over the weekend event as testament to its commitment.