The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, October 25, 2018 — 5A

‘B’ team strong ahead of Big Ten Championships

As freshman Anne Forsythe lined 
up at the Hudson Mills Metropark 
course Friday in Dexter, Mich., 
she recalled all the ins and outs 
of the land in front of her. Having 
raced on the course multiple times 
throughout her high school career, 
the Ann Arbor native had plenty 
of experience to draw on — not to 
mention world-class talent.
In the end, these factors would 
combine to help Forsythe cross 
the finish line first at the EMU Fall 
Classic and faster than she’s ever 
done it before — almost 63 seconds 
faster to be exact. Forsythe would 
finish the race with a time of 16:57.9.
While not competing in a 
Michigan 
uniform, 
Forsythe 
supplemented a stellar Wolverine 
performance 
that 
saw 
both 
the men’s and women’s teams 
dominate.
Forsythe is a freshman at 
Michigan, but ran unaffiliated from 
the university as to not burn her 
redshirt status with the team. But 
after two dominant, unattached 

performances 
in 
the 
regular 
season, coach Mike McGuire has 
a tough decision make — maintain 
Forsythe’s redshirt status or find 
her a spot in an already stacked 
postseason squad.
“Obviously, it’s gonna be my 
decision, but we’re gonna get 
input on where she’s at,” McGuire 
said. “She hasn’t had the luxury of 
running in uniform up to this point, 
so there is a bit of an adjustment 
with all the sudden stepping in the 
lineup with your teammates, that 
kinda thing. We want to make sure 
it’s the right time for the team and 
the right time for Anne.”
If selected to compete at next 
week’s Big Ten Championships, 
Forsythe would try to help her team 
win its third straight Big Ten title 
amid one of the most competitive 
conferences in the country.
And 
the 
Wolverines 
look 
poised to do just that. Finishing 
second at last week’s Pre-National 
Invitational, only behind last year’s 
champion New Mexico, Michigan 
showed its depth and finished first 
among Big Ten foes.
On Friday, though, the focus was 

on the Wolverines’ ‘B’ team — a 
squad that also flexed its muscle in 
a top finish in Dexter. The women’s 
team claimed a dominant victory 
over the likes of Michigan State and 
Eastern Michigan.
Leading the pack for Michigan 
was 
fifth-year 
senior 
Rachel 
Coleman who clocked a 17:32.2 
on 
the 
five-kilometer 
course. 
She finished fifth overall in the 
event and was followed closely by 
redshirt junior Faith Reynolds, who 
finished sixth with a time of 17:38.4. 
Showing 
drastic 
improvement 
from just a season ago, redshirt 
freshman Raquel Powers finished 
seventh in 17:43.8.
“I’d say of our athletes in 
uniform, Rachel Coleman ran 
her best race of the season by far,” 
McGuire said, “And I thought we 
had some really solid performances 
from several others such as Faith 
Reynolds and Raquel Powers.”
As for the men’s race, the 
Wolverines landed another three 
runners in the top-10 to show the 
depth of its team while closing 
out the regular season. Redshirt 
freshman 
Christian 
Hubaker 

crossed the finish line fourth 
overall and first for Michigan with 
a time of 15:22.2.
A 
pair 
of 
fellow 
redshirt 
freshmen, 
Dominic 
Dimambro 
and Lewis Tate, quickly followed 
Hubaker to come in eighth and 
ninth with times of 15:33.3 and 
15:35.2, respectively.
The men’s team trotted out its ‘B’ 
squad as well on Friday, while both 
‘A’ teams rested up for the start of 
the postseason meets. With a week 
of rejuvenation under its belts, both 
the mens’ and women’s teams are 
poised for continued success ahead 
of the Big Ten Championships and 
are embracing the opportunity to 
take on the conference’s best.
“We know it’s gonna be a 
challenge,” McGuire said. “There 
are five teams ranked in the top 
15, so outside of the two real power 
conferences at this point in the 
nation are ourselves and the Pac-
12. Both meets will be barnburners 
in their own right. And we’re just 
excited to be a part of the mix. We’ll 
be prepared and hopefully set up 
a race plan to get us on top of the 
podium.”

JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
The Michigan cross country teams participated in the EMU Fall Classic on Friday, though many of the top runners sat out ahead of Big Ten Championships.

Hailey Brown is back in action for Michigan

Last season, forward Hailey 
Brown 
joined 
the 
Michigan 
women’s basketball team as the 
most promising player of the 
group’s freshmen class. She was a 
five-star recruit, had experience 
with the Canadian National 
Team program and had started 
proving her talents early on for 
the Wolverines.
Brown earned her spot in 
the starting lineup for the first 
game and stayed put, averaging 
25 minutes, nine points and 5.2 
rebounds per game.
Brown 
hit 
full 
stride 
in 
January, shooting 50 percent 
or better from the field in six 
straight games. Against Indiana, 
on Jan. 10th, she converted 10-of-
12 from the field — including 
3-of-3 from beyond the arc — to 
finish with 23 points and eight 
rebounds. With that standout 

performance, she won both Big 
Ten and National Freshman of 
the Week honors.
“Really transitioned well into 
freshman year,” said Michigan 
coach Kim Barnes Arico at the 
team’s Oct. 10th Media Day, 
“and had a really, really solid 
freshman year.”
But 
after 
starting 
27 
consecutive 
games, 
Brown’s 
season took a turn in February. 
During the Wolverines’ game at 
Michigan State, Brown came off 
the court with a lower left leg 
injury near the end of the fourth 
quarter.
Her recovery took time. When 
Michigan headed for the NCAA 
Tournament, Brown could have 
played but rested instead, so not 
to risk further injury. Though her 
absence on the court burdened 
the team, it was not a total loss 
for Brown. Rather, she gained 
insights from the change of 
perspective.

“I feel like by me being out I 
see the game differently — how 
I can affect what our team does,” 
Brown said after practice on 
Oct. 22. “So, I feel like I have a 
stronger understanding of what 
my role is.”
During 
the 
tournament, 
Brown took note of what the 
team was missing and discussed 
her observations with Barnes 
Arico.
“We were both on the same 
page for things,” Brown said. 
“Now, it’s great to be back on 
the court and applying what I 
learned from that.”
Around early April, Brown 
finally started playing again. To 
ease her way back into shape, 
she focused her time on both 
anti-gravity 
and 
underwater 
treadmills. 
As 
she 
gained 
strength, 
she 
progressed 
to 
running.
Brown hopes to be a key 
contributor on offense this season. 

Over the summer, she emphasized 
pull-up jump shots and drives to 
the rim in her practice regime. 
She also wishes to build on and 
maintain the shooting success she 
established midway through her 
freshman year.
Without Katelynn Flaherty — 
the program’s all-time leading 
scorer, who graduated after 
last season — Brown’s ability 
to score could be vital to her 
team. But Jillian Dunston, who 
averaged nine rebounds per 
contest, is gone too. Thus, Brown 
knows she’ll need to play a more 
prominent role under the glass.
“Rebounding 
is 
a 
huge 
emphasis,” Brown said. “ … 
Definitely I’m gonna have to step 
up and rebound as much as I can 
and put that effort out there.”
And with the season around 
the corner, Barnes Arico is 
excited to have her back.
“She is back,” Barnes Arico 
said, “and she is better than ever.”

ROHAN KUMAR
Daily Sports Writer

DARBY STIPE/Daily
Sophomore forward Hailey Brown figures to be a key part of Michigan’s efforts to replace players like Katelynn Flaherty and Jillian Dunston, who both graduated.

For ‘M,’ every weakness 
is a learning experience

Just days after the No. 12 
Michigan hockey team’s 5-4 
loss 
to 
Western 
Michigan, 
coach Mel Pearson harped 
on a troubling trend for the 
Wolverines.
On Saturday night against 
the Broncos, Michigan was 
plagued with a bad case of 
turnovers, especially in the 
defensive zone — three of 
which resulted in Western 
Michigan goals. For a team 
that, at times, looks like it can 
score at will, Michigan didn’t 
do its defense and freshman 
goaltender Strauss Mann any 
favors.
Pearson, though, has three 
different remedies ready for 
his 
players 
come 
practice 
time to iron out wrinkles like 
turnovers. The first one is just 
approaching players one-on-
one, and making sure they 
know their mistakes, quick and 
direct.
“It’s a game of mistakes,” 
Pearson said. “You have to 
understand where you are on 
the ice, the situations on the 
ice, and those turnovers were 
all in bad spots. So we have to 
continue to work on that.”
If that doesn’t work, or 
if Pearson senses the team 
could benefit from looking 
at a player’s mistake, he isn’t 
afraid to show the mishap on 
tape in front of the whole team. 
Pearson breaks down the errors 
to his players, educating the 
entire team on how to improve.
“We don’t want to embarrass 
anybody, but the video doesn’t 
lie,” Pearson said. “It’s right 
there.”
Once the issue is sniffed 
out, Pearson and Michigan fix 
those mistakes by playing them 
out exactly as they happened 
on the ice. With the turnovers 

specifically, the team practiced 
more full-ice situational drills, 
which 
emphasize 
decision-
making with the puck.
On Michigan’s first turnover 
that led to a Broncos goal, the 
Western 
Michigan 
defense 
cornered 
Michigan’s 
wings. 
Rather than quickly clearing 
the puck, Michigan waited for 
the support that never came. 
Naturally, the Broncos stole the 
puck, forced an odd-man rush 
and flicked in the first goal.
“It’s situational,” said junior 
forward Jake Slaker. “I think 
when we do breakouts out of 
the zone, a lot of our turnovers 
are 
in 
the 
danger 
areas, 
whether that’s the blue line in 
the offensive zone or the blue 
line in the defensive zone.”
Whether it’s a freshman 
coughing up the puck or junior 
forward Will Lockwood — 
whose game on Saturday was 
only his third in almost a year 
after a season-ending shoulder 
injury — going through the 
motions of how to better a 
certain facet of the game helps 
to fix novice or rust-induced 
mistakes.
“A lot of our daily drills 
are predicated on in-game 
situations, so we always show 
them how to do it and why we 
do it,” Pearson said. “Practice 
is practice, but when you get in 
games, the speed is different, 
the situation is different.”
While mistakes are evident 
in the Wolverines’ play — 
resulting in a 1-2 record to 
start the season — Pearson is 
confident these problems can 
be mended.
“The beauty of that is that 
it’s fixable,” Pearson said. “I’ve 
been around a long time, and 
some things you see and just 
go, ‘Wow, we’re just not going 
to be able to fix that, but other 
things like this you can fix.’ A 
bad read or a bad play.”

ICE HOCKEY

RIAN RATNAVALE
Daily Sports Writer

By C.C. Burnikel

©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/25/18

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

10/25/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Thursday, October 25, 2018

ACROSS
1 Smudge
5 Splinter group
9 Instagram or 
Snapchat
12 Past time
13 Union 
agreements?
14 “Get outta here!”
15 Trying to 
overcome a late 
start, say
18 Clemson’s conf.
19 Silicon Valley 
setting
20 Hoops net holder
22 Deli order
24 New York prison 
in 1971 headlines
26 Wine glass 
feature
27 Suffers from
30 Prince Harry’s 
alma mater
31 “Any minute now”
36 Org. with Jays 
and Rays
39 Elastic bikini top
40 Org. with 
an annual 
Codebreaker 
Challenge
41 Critical shuttle 
maneuver
44 Skier’s pick-me-
up?
45 Summer hrs.
46 Archipelago part
50 Sweater pattern
53 Salieri, to Liszt
55 Streaming delay
56 Spiritual leader 
of Nizari Ismaili 
Muslims
60 Actress Mendes
61 NBC soap since 
1965
64 Mineral sources
65 Poolroom powder
66 Gimlet garnish
67 ACLU concerns
68 Cross with a top 
loop
69 Creepy glance

DOWN
1 Go around
2 Humorous feline 
meme
3 Prophecy source
4 “The Daughter of 
Time” novelist
5 Six-Day War 
peninsula

6 Pushing 
boundaries
7 Soft-drink word 
since 1886
8 Deposed 
Russian ruler
9 “That feels good”
10 Pull out all the 
stops
11 Katy Perry and 
Mariah Carey
14 “Get outta here!”
16 Watson creator
17 Beverage with 
dim sum
21 Comics read 
vertically
23 Montréal mate
25 __ Aviv
27 Perfected
28 Mints brand with 
mountain peaks 
in its logo
29 Surgical tube
32 “Speaking 
frankly,” in texts
33 Armed conflict
34 Home run 
hitter?
35 Spain’s cont.
36 Like virtually all 
golf club heads 
nowadays
37 __ retriever

38 Blowhard
42 Push to the limit
43 Yang’s opposite
47 Memorable 
guitarist __ Ray 
Vaughan
48 2009 Justin 
Bieber hit
49 Correction 
device
51 Highlands girl
52 Big 38-Down 
feature

53 Spring time ... 
or a military 
procession 
involving a word 
sequence hidden 
in 15-, 31-, 41- 
and 61-Across
54 Bigger photo: Abbr.
57 Mennen lotion
58 Zen question
59 “Incredible” hero
62 “Of course!”
63 Not well

