8A — Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Caroline Hendershot is here to stay

Caroline Hendershot is hard 
to miss.
Whether it’s her height of 
5-foot-11, her involvement in 
a student-run sports TV show 
or 
her 
cheerful 
demeanor 
guaranteed to light up any room, 
the senior on the Michigan 
rowing team is pretty distinct.

And, she has challenged the 
gender-binding 
stereotypes 
that have plagued the sports 
industry ever since she was 
little.
“I think of elementary school 
where boys would say that they 
were faster because they were 
boys,” Hendershot said. “And, I 
would do anything to beat the 
boys, making sure that I was 
the last girl left. I didn’t care if I 
was dripping in sweat. You can’t 

judge a book by its cover.”
Coming from a family where 
both her parents and all three of 
her older siblings played college 
sports, 
Hendershot 
seemed 
predestined 
for 
collegiate 
athletics.
“Family 
games 
are 
competitive to say the least,” 
she said, half-jokingly. 
Before 
committing 
to 
rowing as her sport of choice, 
Hendershot played nearly every 

sport in existence. However, 
when she found herself sitting 
down in a boat her junior year 
of high school, it was the unique 
format of rowing that sold her.
“There is a very specific 
feeling in a boat when you have 
all eight people moving in sync 
and pushing a boat at the same 
time as hard and as fast as they 
can,” she said. “It is one of the 
most incredible feelings.”
Although 
she 
faces 
long 

days of practice that regularly 
produce 
blistered 
hands, 
Hendershot 
feels 
that 
her 
teammates 
make 
everything 
worth it. In feeding off of 
their accomplishments to fuel 
her own success, Hendershot 
believes that her teammates 
have driven her to become both 
a better person and a stronger 
rower.
When 
she’s 
not 
rowing, 
Hendershot 
works 
with 
Wolverine 
Women, an all-
female 
sports 
talk 
show 
on 
WOLV 
TV, 
a 
student-run 
television 
station.
What 
began 
as a desire to get 
more 
involved 
on 
campus 
the fall of her 
sophomore year quickly evolved 
into something larger. Two 
years later, Hendershot serves 
as an executive producer for 
Wolverine 
Women, 
doing 
everything from brainstorming 
storylines to obtaining athletes 
for segments.
Her enthusiasm for the show 
comes from her personability 
— she wants to tell stories 
the average fan might not be 
aware of. After graduation, 
Hendershot hopes to work in 
sports broadcasting.
“Interviewing 
people 
is 
something that I love feeding 
off of because I love finding 
out who people are,” she said. 
“Obviously, I can’t let (sports) 
go after four years, so I want 
to go into (broadcasting) and 
be able to help people tell 
their stories and express that 
different perspective.”
In terms of ambition, she 
considers the community of 
Wolverine Women to be very 

similar to that of her team.
“Everyone is so supportive 
and so uplifting and wants 
everyone to succeed,” she said. 
“They helped me realize that 
yes, you can be competitive, but 
you can also bring others along 
with you.”
In 
December 
2017, 
she 
interned with Tracy Wolfson 
— a CBS sports broadcaster and 
a Michigan alum — whom she 
views as a role model both as a 
woman in sports 
and as a person. 
Hendershot 
got to spend a 
weekend 
with 
Wolfson 
when 
she 
worked 
as 
an 
NFL 
correspondent 
with 
the 
New 
England Patriots 
and 
Buffalo 
Bills.
At the end of the day, 
Hendershot 
feels 
that 
everything distills down to 
a statement of purpose. As 
a woman in sports, she feels 
that her role is to push down 
boundaries.
“Hopefully, 
when 
I 
have 
a career, I want to help open 
doors for other women that 
want to get into the industry,” 
she said.
To Hendershot, graduating 
this May will be bittersweet. 
She 
is 
grateful 
for 
her 
experience over the past four 
years and is obviously sad that 
it is ending, but is extremely 
excited to navigate the world 
with the skills she has learned 
at Michigan.
“I am really happy that I 
came here for my experience,” 
she said. “There is nothing like 
representing the University of 
Michigan with a block M on 
your back. That is the biggest 
thing I’m going to miss.”

COURTESY OF MICHIGAN ATHLETICS/Daily
Senior rower Caroline Hendershot hopes to go into the sports broadcasting industry when she graduates from Michigan in May.

LILY ALEXANDER
For The Daily

From her sports broadcasting aspirations to her rowing prowess, Caroline Hendershot has left her mark at Michigan

Men’s golf improves during final 
round of Tar Heel Intercollegiate

The Michigan men’s golf 
team entered the final round 
of the Tar Heel Intercollegiate 
at the UNC Finley Golf Course 
looking to recover from a 
disappointing 
opening 
two 
rounds. The Wolverines were 
left trailing the rest of the field 
by the time players teed off 
Sunday morning in Chapel Hill.
After shooting a combined 
37 strokes over par as a team 
during the first two rounds and 
sitting in last place out of 14 
teams after Saturday, Michigan 
coach Chris Whitten and the 
Wolverines were determined 
to respond.
“It was unacceptable the way 
we played the first two rounds 
and we know we’re better than 
that,” Whitten said.
In 
previous 
tournaments 
this season, Whitten felt that 
his team played well in final 
rounds, and the Wolverines did 
just that on Sunday.
Despite being 39 strokes 
out of the lead and without a 
viable path back to contention, 
Michigan was unfazed and 

settled 
down 
to 
improve 
its overall team score. The 
Wolverines 
rebounded 
by 
scoring three under par to 
elevate themselves from last 
place to twelfth. The Michigan 
coaching 
staff 
noticed 
an 
increased level in confidence 
and comfort on the course 
on Sunday after lackluster 
performances up to that point.
“We were determined to 
play very solid golf with good 
decisions and good attitudes 
today and take a step in the 
right direction going into the 
next 
tournament,” 
Whitten 
said.
The 
home 
squad, 
North 
Carolina, took the top spot on 
the leaderboard as a team over 
the weekend, while Illinois’ 
Adrien Dumont de Chassart 
dominated 
the 
competition 
individually 
by 
outshooting 
the next closest opponent by 
six strokes. North Carolina 
was the only team to remain 
under par by the tournament’s 
conclusion.
Standout 
performances 
by 
Michigan 
came 
from 
sophomore 
Henry 
Spring 
and 
senior 
Nick 
Carlson. 

Spring finished as the team’s 
lowest scorer for the second 
consecutive tournament, tying 
for 18th place after a successful 
two-under-par 
outing 
on 
Sunday. Carlson finished tied 
for 31st overall by shooting two 
under par on Sunday and seven 
over par in total.
The Wolverines now turn 
their attention to the Aggie 
Invitational in Bryan, Texas, 
where they will most likely face 
their toughest field all year. 
Thus far this season, Whitten 
believes that Michigan has not 
arrived at its full potential. 
But the next tournament could 
offer the chance to change that 
narrative.
“We know we have a good 
team and we haven’t put it on 
the scoreboard as many times 
as we wanted to this year,” 
Whitten said. “So this would be 
a great opportunity to go show 
some people that we can post 
the scores that we know we’re 
capable of.”
The Wolverines will need to 
start off future tournaments 
as well as they did in the final 
round on Sunday to reach the 
top of the leaderboard.

CHRIS SULLIVAN
For The Daily

Youth offers high hopes for future

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Right 
now, the wound is likely still 
fresh.
On Sunday afternoon, the 
Michigan women’s basketball 
team saw its season end when 
it bowed out of the NCAA 
Tournament following a 70-51 
loss to top-seeded Louisville. 
While it may be hard to see it 
now, this year’s tournament 
run may have laid the bricks 
that will eventually serve as the 
program’s foundation.
Not 
long 
ago, 
Michigan 
head 
coach 
Kim 
Barnes 
Arico announced the nation’s 
12th-ranked recruiting class, 
which 
was 
headlined 
by 
freshmen forward Naz Hillmon 
and guard Amy Dilk.
Tasked with the impossible 
job of replacing the production 
of 
the 
program’s 
all-time 
leading scorer Katelyn Flaherty, 
Dilk ran the offense with great 
efficiency — as if she was a 
seasoned veteran. While there 
were some bumps along the 
way, Dilk looks poised and 
ready to handle having the keys 
to the Wolverines’ offense.
“I’ve learned a lot obviously, 
mentally 
and 
physically, 
growing as a player,” Dilk said 
on Friday after the team’s win 
against Kansas State.
Hillmon, on the other hand, 
became one of the biggest 
surprises 
of 
the 
season, 
averaging 
a 
team-high 
13.1 
points and 7.0 rebounds per 
game despite coming off the 
bench. 
The 
season 
helped 
Hillmon earn two honors: the 
media’s Big Ten Freshman of 
the Year and the coaches’ Big 
Ten Sixth Player of the Year.
If 
she 
continues 
her 
exceptional play, it’s hard to 
imagine that these accolades 
won’t be the last she receives 
in her career. For Hillmon, 
though, the bond she shares 
with her teammates means far 
more than whatever awards 
might come her way.
“This has been the most 
fun 
year 
I’ve 
had 
playing 
basketball,” 
Hillmon 
said. 

“We’re really close as a team, 
that’s what makes it a lot of fun. 
That’s all that matters.”
Despite having just finished 
their first collegiate seasons, 
Hillmon and Dilk represent the 
next generation of Michigan 
basketball. 
While 
seniors 
forward Hallie Thome and 
guard Nicole Munger helped to 
establish Michigan basketball as 
an NCAA Tournament-caliber 
squad, the next generation will 
be responsible for keeping it 
there. Barnes Arico believes 
that her squad is more than up 
to the challenge.
“We are going to respond 
and we are going to show that 
it’s not just one year,” Barnes 
Arico said following the loss 
to Louisville. “We’re going to 
be (in the NCAA Tournament) 
year-in and year-out and we 
want to take the next steps in 
the program.”
Next season, the Wolverines 
will be without Munger and 
Thome, who helped set the tone 
for the team’s culture both on 
and off the court. Despite losing 
two of its key pieces, Michigan 
will return virtually its entire 
roster, all of whom should only 
continue to grow and develop 

with a season or more under 
their belts.
“This is probably one of the 
first teams in my career that I 
have to throw them out of the 
gym after practice,” Barnes 
Arico said. “They want to 
continue getting shots up or 
they want to continue working 
or they want to get better.”
Of 
course, 
a 
second 
consecutive defeat at the hands 
of one of the nation’s most 
dangerous squads will be a 
tough pill to swallow. That being 
said, if this Wolverine team has 
proven anything this season, it’s 
that it is more than prepared to 
put in the extra work to not only 
stay on the mountain that is the 
NCAA Tournament, but also 
reach its peak. And while this 
year’s departing class was never 
able to reach that point, those 
who will be able to fight another 
season are more than prepared 
to get there.
 “We have a lot of great pieces 
coming back and our kids know 
that they are hungry to take 
those next steps in the NCAA 
Tournament,” 
Barnes 
Arico 
said.
With this group, these next 
steps look within reach.

TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer

FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan golf team rebounded from a poor first two rounds at the Tar Heel Intercollegiate with a strong showing. 

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Freshman forward Naz Hillmon will be a major contributor in the coming years.

I want to help open 

doors for other 

women to get into 

the industry.

