8A — Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Team cohesion leads Michigan to 13th at Nuttycombe Invitational

There were five minutes 

before 
the 
gun 
sounded 

when 
the 
Michigan 
men’s 

cross country team huddled 
together. 
Wolverine 
coach 

Kevin Sullivan was doing his 
part to get the team mentally 
ready for the task at hand — to 
prove the pre-meet rank of No. 
19 wrong.

Michigan gathered together 

like it always does before a 
race to preach the game plan 
and remain calm ahead of the 
excitement of the race. To the 
casual observer, it may seem to 
be an odd sight. Cross country 
is not typically considered 
a team sport, but for the 
Wolverines, 
teamwork 
and 

pack running are the name of 
the game.

This approach was boldly 

apparent at the Nuttycombe 
Invitational in Madison, Wis., 
where all five of the runners 
who 
scored 
for 
the 
meet 

finished within 22.5 seconds of 
one another. In fact, the spread 
was so tight for Michigan 
that the times between the 
Wolverines’ first and seventh 
runners was closer than all but 
two teams’ first through fifth 
competitors.

“We 
talked 
about 
it 

beforehand,” 
said 
redshirt 

sophomore 
Jacob Lee. “We 
wanted to try to 
find each other 
because, 
you 

know, when the 
gun goes off, 
we kinda get 
dispersed, 
we 

want to try to 
find each other, 
try 
to 
pump 

each 
other 

up, work together, constantly 
move up throughout the pack, 
and that’s what we did really 
well, and that’s what we try to 

do in practice too. We try to 
work as a unit.”

Leading 
that 
unit 
for 

Michigan 
were 
Lee 
and 

sophomore 
Jack Aho, who 
finished 58th and 
61st at the race, 
respectively. Lee 
and Aho first saw 
the course last 
year when they 
finished 
second 

and third at the 
Invitational’s 
B 

race.

Getting as much exposure 

to the course as possible is 
paramount for the Wolverines. 

The 
Thomas 
Zimmer 

Championship 
Course 
will 

serve as the sight of this 
year’s 
Cross 

Country National 
Championships, 
and 
Michigan 

will be back in 
just 
two 
short 

weeks 
for 
the 

Pre-National 
Invitational.

“That’s 
one 

of 
the 
reasons 

we wanted to be 
at Wisconsin at 
some point before the national 
championship,” Lee said. “So 
we get a sense of how the course 
runs, what the layout’s like, and 

certainly being in a field like we 
did this weekend, we got a feel 
of a national championship type 

field 
before 

we even get to 
the 
national 

championships.”

However, due 

to 
the 
team’s 

youth, it might 
be 
a 
difficult 

road ahead en 
route to a final 
date 
with 
the 

Zimmer Course 
in just a couple 

months. After losing star power 
with the departures of Ben 
Flanagan, 
Connor 
Mora 
and 

others, this young Michigan team 

has had to put in extra effort in 
order to maintain the standard of 
success.

So 
far, 
the 

team has been 
able to do just 
that with late-
race surges and 
patience. 
After 

the 
first 
two 

kilometers 
of 

the 
race, 
the 

Wolverines 
started 
things 

conservatively 
and were sitting 
in 25th place. After quickly 
finding their teammates in 
the pack, the team slowly 
began to creep toward its 13th 

place finish. Highlighting the 
patience and perseverance of 
the team’s performance was 
redshirt junior Ben Hill, who 
jumped up twenty spots in the 
last two kilometers to finish 
89th.

“A 
lot 
of 
it’s 
just 

understanding 
what 
the 

effort is, and the field that 
we were in with the caliber of 
competition and the quality 
of the other teams that are 
in there,” Sullivan said, “The 
tendency can be to run too 
hard too early, and our guys 
did a very good job managing 
their efforts early in the race 
and that allowed them to 
move through the field.

“So we’re in 25th place 2k 

in the race but move all the 
way to 13th by the end, it 
means we’re doing good job 
of running within ourselves 
early so that we can make 
good hard pushes over the 
last half of the race.”

For this team, the six spots 

of improvement is just the 
beginning of what will be a 
long season of success, and 
it all starts with teamwork. 
According to Lee, exceeding 
expectations 
will 
be 
par 

for the course for Michigan 
because of its camaraderie.

“I’d say that all around 

we have a great culture,” 
Lee said. “I’d say that we’re 

young, 
but 

we’re fighters, 
we’re grinders, 
we’re ready to 
put in the work, 
ready 
to 
do 

what needs to 
be done. I think 
people 
can 

overlook us in 
the Big Ten just 
because we are 
so young and 

because we lost a lot of great 
talent, but if they did that, 
that would be a big mistake 
on their part.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Sophomore Jacob Lee finished first for the Wolverines at the Nuttycombe Invitational, followed by sophomore Jack Aho who finished the race in 61st place.

JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer

“I’d say that 
all around, we 
have a great 

culture.”

“The tendency 
can be to run 
too hard too 

early...”

“A lot of it’s just 
understanding 
what the effort 

is...”

All five of the Wolverines’ scored runners finished within 22.5 seconds of one another for a 13th-place finish in Wisconsin.

Winovich believes best is yet to come in historic run

After 
Saturday’s 
20-17 

comeback 
win 
over 

Northwestern 
— 
a 
game 

in 
which 
fifth-year 
senior 

defensive end Chase Winovich 
registered nine tackles, three 
tackles-for-loss and a sack, and 
more broadly, was relentless — 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 
said it was one of the best 
games of Winovich’s career.

“I think Chase had one of his 

better ballgames,” Harbaugh 
said after the game. “Just the 
way he was flying around and 
hustling all night. I mean, play 
after play after play after play.”

Winovich 
played 

“60-something” snaps by his 
estimation and received as 
many double-teams as he can 
recall in a game. It didn’t seem 
to matter much.

By any metric or alternative 

mode of judgment, Winovich 
is having the best season of his 
career. Here are just a couple 
statistics to drive that point 
home:

• 
He currently leads the 

nation with 10.5 tackles-for-
loss. If he sustains this pace, 
he’ll finish with 27 tackles-
for-loss on the season, just 
1.5 short of the school record 
set by Shawn 
Crable in 2007. 
That would also 
leave him just 
four shy of the 
career 
school 

record 
set 
by 

Mark 
Messner 

from 1985-1988.

• 
He’s 

on 
pace 
for 

an 
eight-sack 

season for the 
second consecutive year. He 
would be the first to notch that 
feat since Brandon Graham in 
2007-2008. Winovich is just 
a few years removed from 
playing tight end.

Some might take a few days to 

relish in those comments from 
Harbaugh, or more generally 
take a step back at what’s on 
pace to be a historical season 
and a historical career. That’s 
just not Chase Winovich.

“I’m 
definitely 
playing 

better, and some of my best 
football,” 
Winovich 
said 

Tuesday evening. “I still feel 
like I haven’t played my best 
football.”

If his game at Northwestern 

wasn’t what his best looks like, 
what does?

“The 
way 

I see it in my 
head, if I had 
to 
look 
at 
it 

from a numbers 
standpoint, 
I 
would 
look 

at it and say 
‘multiple sacks,’ 
just 
from 
a 

grading-out 
perspective 
— from a pass-

rush point of view — I’d say 
simply unblockable,” Winovich 
said. “In my head, that’s what 
I’m chasing. In my head it 
could be better.

“I want to be a shark in a 

game full of guppies.”

His focus stays squarely 

on 
the 
present. 
He’s 
not 

shy about much, including 
throwing 
out 
phrases 
like 

“Big 
Ten 
Championship” 

and “the playoffs” in routine 

answers. Winovich isn’t like 
most athletes, in a way that’s 
refreshingly human. He came 
back to school for those goals. 
He came back to be a dominant 
college football player. He 
came back partially because 
Shea Patterson came in.

But he also came back to 

improve 
his 

NFL 
draft 

stock and he 
doesn’t 
hide 

that either. 

“It’s 
always 

on my mind,” 
Winovich said 
of 
his 
draft 

stock. “It’s just 
one 
of 
those 

things, in the 
pecking 
order 

of things to do, it’s somewhere 
in the middle.”

Having already provided an 

appropriate level of candor, a 
normal athlete might stop his 
answer there. Chase Winovich, 
instead, needs to make an 
archery analogy to emphasize 
his point.

“If you’re an archer and 

you’re trying to hit the target 
and you’re thinking about the 
gold prize,” he hypothesizes, 

“all of a sudden you’re thinking 
about the gold prize and not 
the target you’re trying to hit.”

Both 
CBSSports.com 
and 

Bleacher Report released new 
NFL 
mock 
drafts 
Monday 

night. Winovich didn’t make 
the first round of either.

“The trajectory and what 

I’ve heard and 
gathered 
from 

people 
is 
that 

the 
trajectory 

is 
ascending 

pretty quickly,” 
Winovich 
said. 

“I’m just trying 
to do my part 
to make sure it 
stays that way.”

The 
“status 

quo” 
doesn’t 

seem to be in Winovich’s 
vocabulary 
these 
days, 
or 

ever. He’d rather hone in on 
his inner shark, terrorizing 
everything in his path, leaving 
no doubt.

“I’m setting myself up for 

that game that’s like ‘This is 
Chase Winovich.’ I don’t think 
I’ve played that game yet,” he 
said.

Then a warning.
“I think it’s coming.”

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich leads the nation in tackles-for-loss with 10.5 through five games.

Defense focus shifts 
toward covering slants 

The Michigan football team’s 

defense had trouble in the first 
quarter of Saturday’s win over 
Northwestern.

It started right away, as the 

Wildcats (1-3 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) 
drove down the field and scored on 
their first three drives, leaping out 
to a 17-0 lead.

That result was a bit surprising, 

considering 
the 
Wolverines’ 

defense is as strong as it is — the No. 
1 total defense through five games 
this season.

But 
Northwestern 
still 

accumulated 145 yards on its first 
three touchdowns, cutting its 
way through Michigan’s vaunted 
defense, all until the Wolverines 
(4-1, 2-0) locked down for the 
rest of the game, aiding in a 20-17 
comeback victory.

“I can’t really put my finger on it,” 

said junior cornerback David Long. 
“Credit to them, they came out 
hungry. We just made adjustments 
and got back in there and competed 
and fought our tails off to get back 
into the game and ultimately win 
it.”

It 
was 
the 
second 
time 

Michigan’s defense has struggled in 
the first quarter of a road game this 
season. In its season-opening loss to 
Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish got 
nearly all their production in the 
beginning of the game.

The difference is that Notre 

Dame got its production with deep 
bombs and a running quarterback.

The Wildcats, on the other 

hand, used short, quick passing 
plays to pick their way through the 
Wolverines’ defense.

On Northwestern’s first drive, it 

was a 36-yard screen pass that set it 
up for a touchdown. For the rest of 
the game, the Wildcats used slant 
patterns effectively to move the 
ball.

It continued a trend for Michigan. 

Against Western Michigan and 
SMU, though the final defensive 
stats were still good, the Wolverines 
had trouble covering the slant route. 
Specifically, Michigan’s safeties 
didn’t cover slot receivers very well.

“I mean, you know, it’s a quick 

route,” said sophomore safety Brad 
Hawkins. “Having a quick route 
and playing a little off, it’s kind of 
difficult, I guess. But we fixed it, you 
know, so we’ve got a lot of things — 
schemes and stuff coming in. So it’s 
gonna be all right.”

In the second half, though, the 

Wolverines made an adjustment 
and stopped the slant route better. 
That was part of the reason for 
Northwestern’s worse offensive 
performance, as it had just 56 yards 
in the final 30 minutes.

“Same as anything else, just lock 

in,” Long said. “Lock in and just get 
our feet under ourselves and just 
focus. Take the coaching, make the 
adjustments and go in there and do 
what we know how to do.”

Added Hawkins: “We kind of, 

like, tightened down a little bit. Try 
to hug them a little more. You know, 
that’s a quick route, so you’ve gotta 
be there fast on it.”

Michigan has heard the critics. 

Whether it is about giving up 17 
points to the Wildcats in their first 
three drives or the penalties that 
have plagued the Wolverines, they 
have heard frustrations.

This week, Long responded to 

the haters, tweeting, “If you’ve 
never played man to man, please 
refrain from making comments 
about secondary play. Second, if you 
can’t check me, please refrain from 
giving your hot take as well.”

In the end, Michigan still has 

the No. 1 total defense in the 
nation. Surely that fact makes the 
adjustments to slants or penalties or 
whatever else much more palatable. 
But the Wolverines still recognize 
there are plenty of facets in which 
they can improve.

“Haters are gonna be out there,” 

said fifth-year senior defensive end 
Chase Winovich. “It just is what it 
is. It’s the nature of the game. We’re 
playing crème de la crème football, 
in terms of this is big boy football. 
And with that, you’re gonna have 
a lot of expectations, and the 
expectations for the season are 
high. So, people are gonna say what 
they want, but at the end of the day, 
yeah, we’re gonna go out there and 
play.”

FOOTBALL

MIKE PERSAK

Managing Sports Editor 

MAX MARCOVITCH

Daily Sports Editor

“I want to be a 

shark in a 
game full of 

guppies.”

“I’m definitely 
playing better, 
and some of my 
best football.”

