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.”