“Can’t break steel.”
All season long, that’s what Michigan’s 

gymnasts have preached. Through injury, 
through tough competition, through 
controversy and a long season of twisting 
and turning and tumbling — you can’t 
break steel. 

Saturday night, the culmination of that 

mentality was put to the test. A day of 
competition in the NCAA Regional Final 
left reigning national champion UCLA 
with a hefty lead and the Wolverines 
in second with a not-so-hefty lead over 
Alabama. 

A quick vault rotation at the end of 

Saturday’s meet left Michigan waiting — 
waiting to see if Alabama would make a 
comeback on beam, waiting to see if its 
lead was big enough, waiting to see if SEC 
beam champion Lexi Graber would score 
a 10.000 on her best event, waiting to see 
if Alabama’s last-ditch effort for a trip to 
Fort Worth would jeopardize a potential 
National Championship appearance. 

For anyone in maize, every second 

of the routine was agonizing. For the 
Crimson, it was gold.

Graber gave everything Alabama 

could have asked her for. Every turn 
was controlled, every toe was pointed, 
every connection was hit. For a team that 
needed a 10.000, having Graber anchor 
was the best possible option.

She dismounted the beam, and all 

eyes, Alabama and Michigan alike, were 
trained on the scoreboards. In neon lights, 
the number flashed on the screen.

9.950. 
The waiting game was over — 

Michigan was going to the NCAA 
Championship. Sam Roy threw her arms 
in the air, Emma McLean hugged Lexi 
Funk (and anyone else she could find) and 
a tearful Olivia Karas was overcome with 
emotion.

“It was a nail-biter. It was one of those 

things that you don’t know until the 
last score comes up,” Karas said. “To be 
honest, I don’t think anyone really knew 
what to expect. You just don’t know with 
scoring, and I didn’t watch any of the 
routines because I was too nervous. But it 
was definitely one of those very raw, ‘Oh 
my god, we did it!’ moments, and you don’t 
get those a lot in life.”

Michigan’s final score of 197.275, a 

thread above Alabama’s 197.225, was built 
up through an evening of heavy scoring 
and intense competition. The all-around 
left Karas and Natalie Wojcik tied with 
Nebraska’s Sienna Crouse at second with 
identical scores of 39.475, which would 
have topped the charts if the Bruins’ Kyla 
Ross wasn’t Kyla Ross.

But she was, and she swept the beam 

and bars rotations with a 10.000 in 
each, along with a 9.950 to tie teammate 
Katelyn Ohashi for floor. 

UCLA rounded out the top-three 

on floor with Gracie Kramer, and if 
you haven’t seen a Gracie Kramer floor 
routine, it’s a completely different breed 
of energetic, passionate gymnastics. The 
Bruins stacked the event, and with top 
placers in every other rotation, they built 
a first-place finish early on that no team 
could replicate. 

That left three teams bidding over one 

ticket to Fort Worth. It was going to be 
tough, a complete battle, for any of the 
three to earn it over the others. 

Cue the motto: “Can’t break steel.”
After Kramer came three Wolverines 

in a nine-way tie for fourth on the floor 
— McLean, Karas and Abby Brenner. No 
Michigan gymnast took an individual 
title from the event like Ross did for the 
Bruins, but each placed high enough to 
rack up points for a tiny, gutsy lead over 
Alabama.

Wojcik did her part, leading the 

Wolverines on beam and barely topping 
Karas’ 9.900 to be the lead scorer for 
Michigan in the event. Lauren Farley 
dominated the bars for the Wolverines, 
earning a 9.875, while three gymnasts — 
McLean, Brenner and Anne Maxim — all 
earned a team-high 9.850 on vault. 

Individually, there were no titles. But 

that’s not what the NCAA Regional Final 
meant to Michigan. 

“It’s incredible,” said Michigan 

coach Bev Plocki. “This team has been 
through a lot, and they say what doesn’t 
kill you only makes you stronger and 

that’s sort of the motto 
this team has 
taken. ‘Can’t 
break steel.’ 

“I’m just so 

incredibly proud 
of them, just 
really staying 
together as 
a team. And 
people say this 
is an individual 
sport. It’s not. 
We succeeded 
because we 
have stayed 
together 
as a team, 
and when 
there’s one 
blip on the 
screen, 
everyone 
else steps up and has that person’s back. 
We’ve been doing that all season long, and 
last night and tonight.”

UCLA punched its ticket early, by no 

surprise. For the Wolverines, it took a 
little bit longer, a little more waiting. 

But when the moment came to punch 

that second ticket to Fort Worth, they’d 
put in the work. They earned their spot 
as one of eight teams left in the nation 
to compete next Friday, collectively, as a 
whole, together. 

“Can’t break steel.”

Katelyn Mulcahy & Madeline Hinkley / Daily 
Design by Jack Silberman

The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | April 8, 2019

NEMITZ WALK-OFF PROPELS MICHIGAN TO WIN

INSIDE SPORTSMONDAY

See Page 3B

SPORTSMONDAY

197.275

CAN’T

STEEL

National Championship

Laney Byler
Daily Sports Editor

WOLVERINES ADVANCE TO

