The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 — 7
Michigan accelerating into 2019
The sport of lacrosse is
speeding up, and Michigan is
poised to capitalize on new shot-
clock regulations as it amps up
for the 2019 season.
In an attempt to accelerate the
pace of the game and facilitate a
more exciting, aggressive play
strategy, NCAA rulemakers have
followed professional lacrosse
leagues by implementing an
80-second shot clock for the
upcoming men’s lacrosse season.
“We want to play a more
up-tempo style,” said Michigan
coach Kevin Conry. “We have
the horses to do it.”
Conry’s “horses” include nine
of 10 returning starters from last
season, who accounted for 87
percent of the team’s offensive
productivity in 2018.
“(They) have a good sense of
where the ball should go and
when it should go there,” said
Conry.
After tying the program’s
single-season win record with
eight in his first season at
the helm of the Wolverines’
coaching staff, Conry is eager to
test out the new rules and more
fast-paced playing philosophies
with his experienced core.
Of the returning starters,
most notable is senior midfielder
Brent Noseworthy, the first
USILA All-American in team
history and a 2019 preseason
All-Big Ten honoree. In 2018,
Noseworthy
led
the
team
with 48 points and 41 goals,
propelling the Wolverines to
signature wins over highly-
ranked opponents Notre Dame
and Penn State.
Behind the goal at X is
sophomore
attackman
Kevin
Mack, who could be poised for
another successful campaign as
the quarterback of the Michigan
offense following a breakout
freshman season, in which he
led the team with 21 assists.
Despite his relative youth, Mack
has already proven to be a leader
and force of nature on the field.
“Behind the net, seeing what
the defense is doing to us … it
gives (me) good perspective,”
Mack said. “I can be a leader in
communication.”
On the other side of the
field, senior defenseman Nick
DeCaprio, who led the Big Ten
with 23 caused turnovers last
year and led the Wolverines
with 46 ground balls, is primed
to be Michigan’s top defender.
Between the pipes is graduate
student goalie Tommy Heidt,
who missed the first six games
of the 2018 season but retains his
starting job going into 2019.
In
front
of
Heidt,
the
Wolverines defense has adjusted
well to the quickened pace
of the game in practices and
exhibitions.
“Our defense is playing better
with it,” praised Mack. “(They
are) really good at locking teams
down.”
Dark horses in a challenging
Big Ten conference, Michigan
has finished last in the conference
the past three seasons but seeks
to run the table against East-
Coast lacrosse powerhouses like
2017 NCAA champion Maryland
and historically-dominant Johns
Hopkins.
New
to
the
Wolverines
assistant coaching staff is Major
League Lacrosse midfielder and
Duke graduate Justin Turri.
Conry has praised Turri since
his arrival in Ann Arbor.
“He has a lot of experience
with shot clock (management).
He’s a great developer,” Conry
said. “He’s a guy who can take
our guys, make them good
players, and take them one step
further to greatness.”
With a strong veteran player
presence and the addition of
Turri, Conry is very hopeful
for what will come of the 2019
season and his experienced
roster.
“The game is much faster
(now),” Conry said. “But we can’t
get caught up in it.”
‘M’ sees mixed results on weekend
The
men’s
and
women’s
track and field teams came
away with quite a few victories
along with some disappointing
performances at this weekend’s
Power Five Invitational.
The Wolverines hosted nine
teams at the new Michigan
Indoor Track Building during
the two-day event.
The men started off strong
Friday, doing particularly well
in the preliminary heats of the
60-meter hurdle event. Junior
Roland Amarteifio led the pack
with a career-best time of 8.01
seconds. Three of the other four
Michigan athletes in the race
qualified for the final and ended
up taking the third, fourth,
sixth and seventh places.
The Wolverines also had
success in the men’s 60-meter
dash.
Freshman
Asani
Hampton took the top spot
with a time of 6.77 seconds, his
new career best. The next day,
Hampton outpaced much of
the competition en route to a
second place finish.
Michigan was no stranger to
broken records this weekend
with a total of 34 career-bests
set between the men and the
women.
While the men excelled in
the short races, the women
found better results in the mid-
distance runs, particularly the
400, 600, and 800-meter events.
Junior Jade Harrison and
sophomore
Chloe
Foster
secured
first
and
second
place, respectively, separated
by a mere .26 seconds in the
deceivingly
long
400-meter
race.
“400 (meters) doesn’t seem
very long but it is,” Harrison
said.
“Finishing
strong
is
definitely a hard part that I’m
going to try to work on.”
The
women’s
600-meter
event went just as well for the
Wolverines, who earned four of
the top-eight times. Foster came
in first, adding to her successful
400-meter performance.
In
the
800-meter
race,
Michigan again claimed four
of the top-eight places, with
freshman Aurora Rynda leading
the pack in second place.
“I think we really focused
on getting out hard and getting
into a good position,” Rynda
said. “Shannon just told me ‘lets
do it’ so I was really excited to
push myself and see how fast I
could go.”
After
Rynda’s
strong
performance this weekend, she
is ranked 12th in the nation, but
the freshman isn’t settling for
top-15. She knows she can do
more.
“I think there’s a lot of room
for
improvement,”
Rydna
said. “I need to get stronger
for sure. I’ve just been having
good workouts and (assistant
coach Mike McGuire) has been
awesome.”
The
women
had
trouble
repeating this level of success
in the field events. Constantly
falling
somewhere
between
fourth and ninth place, the
Wolverines
had
trouble
breaking into the top three
spots. Weight throwing duo
Kayla
Deering
and
Bailey
Baker finished eighth and ninth
respectively, both finishing just
shy of half a meter below the
back-to-back
school
records
set earlier this year at the
Wolverine Invitational.
In contrast, the men had a
series of strong performances
in the field events with senior
Andrew Liskowitz placing first
in the shot put and sophomore
Daniel Butael coming in second
on the triple jump. Graduate
student Joe Ellis, who holds the
school record in both the weight
and hammer throw events,
placed second in the weight
throw event.
This event precedes the Big
Ten
Indoor
Championships
which will be held in Ann Arbor
later this month.
LANE KIZZIAH
Daily Sports Writer
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior Jade Harrison finished first in the 400-meter race, topping teammate Chloe Foster by just .26 seconds.
DREW COX
For the Daily
CARTER FOX/Daily
The Michigan men’s lacrosse team is adjusting to the new 80-second shot clock ahead of the upcoming season.
Wolverines vault past Buckeyes
On back of strong performances from Kevin Penev and Cameron Bock, Michigan tops Ohio State, 413.900-402.300
Kevin Penev cleanly lifted his
arms to the roof of Cliff Keen
Arena as he prepared to begin his
floor routine.
The freshman’s arms dropped
down as he leaped into a graceful
run that transformed into laid out
flips and twists. Penev migrated
to
the
floor
and
supported
countless orbital spins with only
his muscular arms. The move
evolved into a headstand that he
quickly burst out of, progressing
into his final cross. Penev casually
finished his routine with three
in-air full body backward twists.
The judges flashed a 14.300. His
floor routine tied with Ohio State’s
Sean Neighbarger for second place
behind senior Emyre Cole, who
scored 14.600 for the Michigan
men’s gymnastics team.
Penev,
who
was
the
first
freshman to compete for the
Wolverines this season, was a
standout in Michigan’s 413.900
- 402.300 triumph over the rival
Buckeyes.
“After my floor routine, I used all
of my energy from that to motivate
everyone else on my team,” Penev
said. “We beat our rival, so that was
so exciting.”
Penev built off the momentum
from his early success in the first
rotation for his second and final
event of the day, the high bar,
which earned him a 13.000.
“I did not expect to get that
score and it was one of the highest
scores I’ve ever gotten,” Penev said.
“So that was a plus for me and the
team.”
While talking about his pre-
competition mental state, Penev
oozed calmness. His relaxation
juxtaposed
with
the
physical
intensity of the sport.
“Before I do any routine in any
event, I think of doing one skill at
a time and not rushing it and being
patient with it and letting it go,”
Penev said.
With a team score of 72.500
on the vault, the six Wolverines
who competed in the event all
demonstrated Michigan’s gradual
ascension this season to a national
ranking of third place. Wolverine
coach Kurt Golder hinted that
Penev might be a secret weapon to
help his team become even more
powerful on the vault.
“We will get stronger,” Golder
said. “By the end of the year, I
expect
(sophomore)
Cameron
(Bock) and Kevin to do those more
difficult vaults and, like you saw,
our top-five scores will be in that
range, instead of just three.”
Though
he
fell
while
dismounting from the high bar,
Cole, who competed in all six
events, was another standout for
Michigan. With an all-around
score of 84.100, he placed in the top
three on five events.
In his fourth year with the team,
Cole has assumed a role like that
of a mentor towards his younger
teammates. The composure he
exuded during his failed dismount
set a great example for a freshman
like Penev.
“I thought I managed it well,”
Cole said. “If you do make a
mistake, make sure you don’t
make anymore. That’s something
I yell out to the guys all the time.
‘Perfection. Perfection.’ It was a
little fluke, but I think I bounced
back well.”
As a freshman, Cole, much like
Penev, performed with unbounded
potential. He scored an 84.950 all-
around for the Wolverines in the
2016 Big Ten Team Finals.
Based on Saturday’s consistently
strong
performance,
Cole
complimented his teammates and
expressed optimism for the rest of
the season.
“These boys have been putting
work in the gym and we look really
good now,” Cole said. “If we can
just transfer what’s going on in
the gym out to the competition
floor, we’re going to have a Big Ten
championship on our hands.”
LILY ALEXANDER
For the Daily
Getting sick in the middle
of winter is never enjoyable.
It’s even less so when you’re
the
College
Gymnastics
Association National Gymnast
of the Week with a meet
against your school’s biggest
rival only days away.
This was what sophomore
gymnast
Cameron
Bock
faced
ahead
of
Saturday’s
home opener against Ohio
State. Having won the all-
around competition against
Minnesota on Jan. 26 with
the country’s highest score,
Bock had high expectations
for his performance against
the Buckeyes. He came into
the meet ranked No. 3 in the
NCAA in the all-around and as
the two-time reigning Big Ten
gymnast of the week.
It might have been his week
to shine, but soon he wasn’t
feeling that way.
“We were coming back from
Minnesota and I was feeling
good,”
Bock
said.
“Then,
throughout the day Monday,
I just started deteriorating
really quickly. I was constantly
shaking and had a lot of
body aches. My stomach was
hurting. I couldn’t eat.”
In light of this, Bock’s
performance
on
Saturday
was all the more impressive.
He walked away having won
two individual events — the
parallel bars and still rings —
and earned some of the best
scores in the country in the
process.
Such
a
performance
certainly wasn’t a guarantee.
Bock was out of commission
for
most
of
the
team’s
practices throughout the week
and his status for the meet was
in doubt until Thursday.
“We
didn’t
even
know
if he was going to go until
(Thursday),” said Michigan
coach Kurt Golder. “And even
then we were just going to
have him in a couple of events.
But his role just grew and
grew and he did a great job.”
Bock’s ability to shine even
in challenging circumstances
speaks to a consistency that
was on display throughout
the meet. His score of 14.65 on
the parallel bars is the third
best in the country so far this
season.
“The
parallel
bars
are
probably my favorite event,”
Bock
said.
“I
am
pretty
consistent at it, so it actually
wasn’t that hard to get back
into it after taking almost the
whole week off.”
Bock
also
excelled
on
the still rings with a score
of 14.50, alongside a strong
slate of performances from
Michigan’s other gymnasts,
Bock’s
success
did
not
extend to performance on the
high bar, however. Midway
through the routine, he fell off
and was forced to restart. With
the determined look that was
present on his face throughout
the meet, he chalked up his
hands again, took a deep
breath, and started over.
“The tension on the bar was
not the same tension I had
planned on,” Bock said. “It
threw me off for the release
that I missed.
“But, you know, you just
have to deal with those things
sometimes.”
Whether with his sickness
or getting back up on the
bar, Bock indeed seems to
have a propensity for dealing
with things. But asked about
the
strategy
behind
his
recurrent success, he isn’t too
philosophical.
“I just did my best to power
through it,” Bock said. “I felt
pretty good today, so I guess it
worked.”
AIDAN WOUTAS
Daily Sports Writer
NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Freshman Kevin Penev posted a 13.000 on the high bar, a score which he admitted he did not expect going in, helping Michigan top Ohio State on Saturday.