The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, January 23, 2019 — 7A

Swimmers find home 
away from home with ‘M’

Before the start of its senior 
day meet, the No. 2 Michigan 
women’s swimming and diving 
team lined up on the deck for the 
playing of the national anthem.
But the Star Spangled Banner 
wasn’t the only anthem played. 
Michigan played the Chinese, 
Japanese and Yemeni national 
anthems and hung flags for 
each country off the edge of the 
diving platforms in honor of its 
international teammates.
Four years ago, Yirong Bi 
and Siobhán Haughey arrived 
in Ann Arbor, traveling more 
than 7,000 miles from their 
homes 
in 
Hangzhou, 
China 
and Hong Kong, respectively. 
Saturday’s meet was the last 
time Bi, Haughey and their five 
senior teammates would swim 
in Canham Natatorium for the 
Wolverines. 
“To hear my national anthem, 
in this amazing house is very 
different for me,” Bi said. “The 
last time I heard my national 
anthem was at the Asian Games 
where I won a gold medal. But 
this I think means more to me 
because I’ve treated this place as 
home for the past four years.”
In their final home meet 
against 
No. 
22 
Ohio 
State, 

Haughey swam in four events, 
and Bi swam in three. Haughey 
won all her events—the 100-yard 
freestyle, the 200-yard freestyle, 
the 200-yard individual medley 
and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Bi came in first in the 500-yard 
freestyle by an impressive margin 
of three-and-a-half seconds. She 
finished second in the 100-yard 
freestyle and was a member of 
the third place 400-yard freestyle 
relay B team.
“That’s a good senior class 
with those kinds of wins,” said 
Michigan coach Mike Bottom.
Both 
swimmers 
have 
an 
impressive list of achievements. 
Haughey appeared in the 2016 
Rio Olympics for Hong Kong 
and earned a 13th-place finish in 
the 200-meter freestyle. Bi won 
gold in the 800 and 400-meter 
freestyle events at the 2014 Asian 
Games. Both are three-time 
All-Big Ten first team and have 
numerous CSCAA All-American 
honors.
Swimming accomplishments 
aside, the Michigan program 
holds a very special meaning to 
both athletes.
“I think it’s very hard to sum 
up what the team means to me,” 
Haughey said. “I’m just very 
grateful to be on this team. When 
I first came here we were still a 
team that was building … Last 

year we were fourth in the nation 
… I’m so grateful to be a part of it.”
For Bi, the team gave her 
a 
sense 
of 
belonging. 
Her 
most 
memorable 
experience 
traces back to the 2016 Big Ten 
Championships, where she swam 
the first leg of the 800-yard 
freestyle for the Wolverines.
“I was a freshman coming 
from China, I didn’t really have a 
lot of friends,” Bi recalled. “I was 
so excited about my first Big Tens 
(Big Ten Championships), it was 
here. In the 800-free relay I went 
first, and I was so nervous and 
so excited I forgot to breathe the 
first 25 meters.”
The 
relay 
team, 
which 
Haughey was also a part of, went 
on to win first place by a margin 
of over two seconds. Bi swims in 
it every year for Michigan, and 
the team has won the relay all 
three years.
“I didn’t do well for my part, I 
felt guilty … my teammates came 
to me saying, ‘It’s fine you did a 
good job,’” Bi said. “That’s the 
first time I felt like, ‘Yeah, I’m 
actually in the team now, I’m not 
just swimming for myself, my 
teammates have my back.’”
This moment not only gave 
Bi 
comradeship 
with 
her 
teammates—it provided comedy.
“It’s become a joke with the 
team and that’s good because 
everyone laughs about it now,” Bi 
said.
With their days of swimming 
meets in Canham Natatorium 
behind them, Bi and Haughey 
still have the Big Ten and NCAA 
Championships to look forward 
to and the lifelong bond with 
their teammates.
“(I’ll miss) just spending a lot 
of time with my teammates,” 
Haughey said. “It’s nice just to 
be surrounded with positive 
and happy people who are as 
motivated as you are … I’ve made 
a lot of friends that will become 
my life-long friends. I’ve just 
learned so much here.”

MOLLY SHEA
Daily Sports Writer

CAMERON HUNT/Daily
Senior Yirong Bi came to Michigan four years ago from Hangzhou, China.

Looking back on winding career, Taylor Rooks connects the dots

As a five-star recruit back in 
high school, Taylor Rooks had 
many colleges to choose from to 
continue her basketball career.
She wanted a school where she 
could excel — both academically 
and on the court — and narrowed 
her decision down to three schools: 
Stanford, Harvard and Michigan. 
Still, a tough decision loomed.
“I committed very late,” Rooks 
said. “I didn’t know where I wanted 
to go, because I felt like all the 
schools pretty much equally would 
prepare me for what I wanted to do 
in life, because they’re all the best 
schools in the country.”
After much thought, the two-
time New Jersey Gatorade Player 
of the Year committed to the 
Cardinal.
Little did she know she’d end up 
attending all three.
***
Now on the Michigan women’s 
basketball team — and as graduate 
student in the Ross School of 
Business — Rooks reflects on 
the past and puts things into 
perspective.
“I had no idea from the 
beginning. I thought I was gonna 
go to Stanford, graduate after 

four years and go on with my life,” 
Rooks said. “And as my path has 
shown me, it is the exact opposite. 
I got to go to all three corners of 
the country. But I’m very grateful 
that I’ve had that opportunity.”
During her freshman year, 
Rooks went to the Sweet 16 of the 
NCAA Tournament with Stanford. 
After the season, though, she 
decided to change paths.
Despite her success in high 
school, 
Rooks 
wasn’t 
aiming 
for the WNBA after her college 
career ended. Rather, she dreamt 
of a future beyond basketball — a 
career in finance.
“I’d have to credit that to kind of 
how my parents raised me, but also 
how I kind of changed throughout 
high school,” Rooks said of her 
career plans. “If you asked me 
when I was 10 years old what I 
wanted to do, I would say I wanted 
to play in the WNBA, no questions 
asked. … My parents always told 
me to think a lot farther ahead.”
Rooks 
remembers 
the 
experience 
that 
sparked 
her 
interest in finance. While thinking 
about potential careers back in 
high school, her father suggested 
that she consider finance. He 
helped her shadow a wealth 
management expert. Upon seeing 
the trading floor, Rooks made up 

her mind.
Summer 
internships 
are 
important 
for 
acquiring 
jobs 
in finance. With the Cardinal, 
though, Rooks’ summers were tied 
up due to athletic demands.
She decided to transfer to the 
Crimson, as she knew Harvard 
would give her summers off.
That decision paid dividends. 
The summer after her sophomore 
year — which she sat out due to 
transfer rules — Rooks interned at 
Northwestern Mutual in Boston 
as a financial representative. After 
junior year, she interned in New 
York City with Credit Suisse, 
receiving a full-time offer by the 
end of the summer.
Rooks made her way to the 
court, too. Her versatility helped 
her play multiple roles, and from 
junior to senior year, she just 
about doubled both her minutes 
and points per game. Senior year, 
she shot 47.7 percent from the 
floor while notching 12.5 points a 
contest.
“The weather was a little 
worse 
than 
Stanford,” 
Rooks 
mentioned 
about 
transferring. 
“ … Academically, it was pretty 
much the same — even like here at 
Ross. It’s all been about the same; I 
mean, it’s very challenging, and it’s 
a lot of demands.”

Meeting those demands has not 
been an issue. Rooks mentioned 
her high school — Gill St. Bernard’s 
School — was among the top in the 
state of New Jersey and that it 
prepared her academically.
“I even felt some of my classes 
there were harder than the classes 
I took in college,” Rooks said.
Rooks seems to have mastered 
the student-athlete balance. To 
stay on top of things, she makes 
use of her free time and avoids 
procrastination.
“Procrastination is the absolute 
worst thing,” Rooks said. “ … But 
at the same time, on our off days, 
I’ll make sure most of that day I’m 
off — mentally and physically — 
just so I’m not always going, going, 
going.”
Near the end of her last season 
at Harvard, Rooks realized she 
wasn’t ready to give up basketball. 
So, she decided to use her final year 
of eligibility, and she knew exactly 
where to go.
“Given that I already went to 
Stanford and Harvard,” Rooks 
said, “the other school in my top 
three was Michigan, and I was 
like, ‘Okay, that’s it.’ ”
After 
connecting 
with 
the 
Wolverines, she joined the Master 
of Management program and 
committed to the team, even 

without taking a further visit. 
Rooks believes business school 
nicely complements the economics 
degree she received at Harvard. 
She also got her job offer extended 
and will join Credit Suisse after 
graduating.
Since she’s only at Michigan for 
one year, Rooks hopes to share the 
wisdom she has gained through 
her unique past with her younger 
teammates. She relies on bringing 

positive energy to make her 
impact.
And it seems she has been 
successful.
***
In the midst of Rooks’ chat with 
the Daily, Michigan coach Kim 
Barnes Arico interrupts.
“Thank god for her personality 
and what she brings to our team,” 
Barnes Arico said. “ … She’s a 
rockstar.”

ROHAN KUMAR
Daily Sports Writer

Taking ownership of penalty kill

Some players thrive with 
their backs against the wall.
Few 
moments 
throughout 
a hockey game better reveal 
who those players are than on 
the penalty kill. The Michigan 
hockey team may have found 
a pair of skaters who fit that 
mold.
With the loss of sophomore 
forward 
Josh 
Norris, 
who 
would frequently be on the 
man-disadvantage, the success 
of the penalty-killing duo of 
freshman forward Garrett Van 
Wyhe and sophomore forward 
Dakota Raabe is increasingly 
important.
Last season, Van Wyhe was 
killing penalties for the Fargo 
Force. Van Wyhe, who had a 
plus-minus rating of 19 for the 
Force last season, was a big part 
of that penalty kill. That team 
went on to win the 2018 Clark 
Cup — the prize jewel of the 
USHL.
The six-foot-two, 200-pound 
frame of the defensive-minded 
freshman forward at times 
seems as though it is gliding 
faster than it should. Raabe, 
the skater who is usually paired 
with him on the penalty kill, 
is fast and defensive-minded, 
much like Van Wyhe.
But with regards to physical 
appearance, the two could not 
be more different. They are 
like foils to one another in that 
aspect: Raabe stands at five-
foot-nine and is thirty pounds 
lighter than Van Wyhe.
And yet, despite the physical 
differences, 
the 
mentality 
hardly differs.
“It starts on the faceoff,” Van 
Wyhe said about the mindset 
on the penalty kill. “That’s the 
first battle. Then it’s one-on-
one battles from there.”
Like a craftsman describing 
his work, he continued.

“So, if you get that faceoff, 
there’s an automatic 20 seconds 
killed getting it all the way 
down the ice and resetting and 
doing it again. But other than 
that just kind of, if you see an 
opportunity to jump, you jump 
it, and then getting in the way of 
shots is a little kind of abstract 
— the thought process. You 
don’t really want to get in front 
of the flying puck when it’s 
going that fast.”
One guy who has a propensity 
for getting his body in front of a 
shot is Raabe.
“He’s blocking shots, last 
year he didn’t block many 
shots,” said Michigan coach Mel 
Pearson about the sophomore. 
“He’s sticking his nose in there 
this year. He’s grown. He’s 
matured. He’s a much better 
player.”
And 
though 
not 
clearly 
represented by the numbers, 
sophomore 
forward 
Dakota 
Raabe has made a leap this 
season. 
That 
may 
be 
best 
demonstrated by the level of 
trust 
Michigan 
coach 
Mel 
Pearson is showing in Raabe. 
He has featured prominently 
on penalty kills alongside Van 
Wyhe and, along with freshman 
forward 
Nolan 
Moyle, 
has 
been a part of perhaps the 
Wolverines’ 
most 
consistent 

line as of late.
Pearson expressed a sense of 
pride with the interest that the 
linemates have shown on the 
penalty kill.
“I think that’s when you 
really start to see your penalty 
kill improve, when your players 
start 
to 
take 
ownership,” 
Pearson said. “When they start 
to get more involved. They 
almost become coaches when 
in your meetings they say, ‘Hey, 
what about this?’ or ‘Maybe we 
can try this instead of that,’ 
then you know the players 
are involved. Then, you know 
they’ve got some skin in the 
game.”
Currently, Michigan ranks a 
middling fourth among Big Ten 
teams with a 79.3 penalty-kill 
percentage. It is a figure that 
will have to improve throughout 
the remainder of the season if 
the Wolverines hope to make a 
postseason appearance.
For now, though, it seems as 
though Michigan may be on the 
right track.
“I think we finally just 
started clicking within,” Raabe 
said. “We just kind of sacrificed 
more, made (the penalty kill) 
kind of a priority in a way. And 
we’ve been having success for it 
and hopefully keep that going 
in the future.”

JORGE CAZARES
Daily Sports Wrter

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Garrett Van Wyhe and Dakota Raabe are key contributors to the penalty kill.

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Fifth-year senior Taylor Rooks accepted a job in finance after graduation.

