The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 — 9

‘M’ navigates past ranked opponents 

to begin shortened season

With 
every 
other 
match 

clinched, 
Michigan 
freshman 

Merri Kelly found herself in 
a third-set tiebreaker, and all 
eyes turned to her. Kelly and 
Wisconsin sophomore Charmaine 
Seah traded points until Kelly’s 
groundstrokes eventually proved 
too much to handle, taking a 10-8 
victory in the tiebreaker. 

The Michigan women’s tennis 

team’s return to the Varsity Tennis 
Center was flooded with late game 
heroics, yet the highlight of the 
weekend was the Wolverines’ new 
faces and their ability to respond to 
adversity. 

“I think our freshman class is 

as good as any in the country,” 
Wolverines’ coach Ronni Bernstein 
said. “I see them stepping up and 
having a huge impact for us this 
year.”

Freshman 
Jaedan 
Brown 

proved 
Bernstein’s 
point 
by 

opening her second day of singles 
with a dominant first-set win over 
Northwestern sophomore Briana 
Crowley, 
6-0. 
Crowley 
came 

storming back, taking the next set, 
6-4, and jumped out a 2-0 lead in 
the third. Brown responded by 
winning six of the next eight games, 
taking a 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 victory. 

“(Brown’s) maybe one of our 

best,” Bernstein said. “It’s still 
early obviously, but with her skills, 
I think she could be a great player 
for us.”

Freshman Gala Mesochoritou 

joined the mix after falling just 
short in a crushing 6-7 (4) first-
set 
defeat 
against 
Wildcats’ 

sophomore 
Christina 
Hand. 

Showing composure beyond her 
years, Mesochoritou extended the 
match with a gritty 7-5 second-
set victory before cruising 6-2 in 
the third, including an emphatic 
overhead to finish the match. 

Freshman Kari Miller played 

with a lead for most of the 
weekend, but she handled the 
pressure confidently when the 
time came. Ohio State junior Kolie 
Allen pushed Miller to the brink 
on the final day of the tournament, 
where Miller found herself down 
the majority of the first set before 
clawing her way back to tie things 
at six apiece. 

“(Miller) is going to be really 

good and already is,” Bernstein 
said. “She doesn’t take a ball off 
ever.” 

Miller snatched the tiebreaker 

7-5 and never looked back en 
route to a 6-1 victory in the 
second.

Kelly, Brown, Mesochoritou 

and Miller combined for an 11-1 
record over the weekend in their 
singles debut, putting the rest of 
the Big Ten on notice. 

The Wolverines’ freshman 

class 
came 
in 
with 
lofty 

expectations as highly touted 
recruits, but their early success 
is a product of more than just 
talent.

The 
influx 
of 
freshman 

has bolstered a lineup with 
experienced, 
tested 
players 

ready 
to 
lead 
their 
new 

teammates. 
Graduate 
student 

Chiara Lommer’s role on the team 
has expanded to far more than 
winning matches. 

“We talk to our team about this: 

(Lommer) doesn’t give up, doesn’t 
quit on one point,” Bernstein said. 
“She’s an incredible competitor 
and it’s awesome for the younger 
kids to see that because she wins 
by fighting.”

Lommer isn’t just a leader 

by example. Her intensity is 
commanding and infectious. 

“(Lommer) is probably the 

best person to play doubles with 
because she’s always so positive 
with you,” Bernstein said. “I think 
it helps (Brown) at moments when 
the pressure is on.” 

In 
matches 
defined 
by 

momentum swings, the young 
Wolverines often had their backs 
against the wall, but they took it as 
an opportunity to showcase their 
resolve and relentless effort early 
on in Michigan’s season. 

“Their tennis speaks for itself,” 

Bernstein said. “They fit in and 
they work hard. 

“Our girls respect them a lot on 

the court already.”

Freshmen impress in 

Wolverine weekend sweep

Expectedly, the sentence “I’ve 

broken my legs around 16 times” 
often takes people by surprise.

For 
many 
who 
share 
the 

unfortunate 
commonality 
of 

having suffered a leg fracture, the 
experience is regarded as one of 
their most traumatic. The logical, 
justified follow-up to such an 
incredible statement would be to 
explain the ways in which these 
fractures negatively impacted their 
own life — the frustrations, the 
limited mobility, the pain. 

For Michigan Adaptive Sports 

and Fitness athlete and decorated 
grad-student 
and 
wheelchair 

tennis player Chris Kelley — who 
has, in fact, broken his legs 16 
times — this isn’t the case. Instead, 
Kelley quickly follows up with a 
qualification designed to illustrate 
that he’s come away from these 
experiences not with a desire for 
sympathy, but a sense of gratitude 
that things aren’t worse than they 
are.

“I have a pretty mild form of a 

pretty severe case,” Kelley said. “It 
could be significantly worse than 
what it is.”

Kelley 
was 
born 
with 

osteogenesis imperfecta, a very 
rare genetic disease. Also known 
as 
‘brittle 
bone’ 
disease, 
the 

genetic abnormality means that 
the production of the structurally 
important 
protein 
known 
as 

collagen is abnormally produced 
in the body. As a result, parts of 
the body that depend on collagen 
to function properly are negatively 
affected, with bones being the 
primary example. Those with 
osteogenesis imperfecta experience 
bone 
fractures 
at 
very 
high 

frequencies, limiting their ability 
to participate in most contact 
activities.

“Thankfully, I’ve only really had 

it impact my legs. I’ve never broken 
my arms and I’ve never broken 
a rib, so I’m pretty lucky,” Kelley 
continued.

Some of those who have suffered 

more severe leg fractures require 
what’s called a “rodding” surgery, 
wherein a metal rod is inserted 
into the leg to stabilize the bone 
and reduce the likelihood of future 
fractures. The vast majority of those 
who undergo a rodding surgery 

only ever need one. Kelley has had 
four — both of Kelley’s femurs and 
tibias are supported by large metal 
rods.

Through a combination of innate 

talent and sheer determination, 
however, 
Kelley 
has 
rendered 

these tribulations largely obsolete. 
Despite getting a relatively late 
start to wheelchair tennis — he 
only began to play organized 
tennis during his freshman year 
of high school — Kelley has forged 
an extremely successful career for 
himself.

By his junior year of high school, 

Kelley was selected to represent the 
U.S. Junior team at the World Team 
Cup, one of wheelchair tennis’s 
biggest international showcases. 
He performed well and was 
subsequently asked to be part of the 
United States Developmental team, 
putting Kelley in a prime position 
to eventually be promoted to the 
men’s national team, the pinnacle of 
wheelchair tennis in the U.S.

“He can definitely be a part of our 

team USA that goes and represents 
us as part of the World Team Cup 
for the men’s team,” one of Kelley’s 
national 
team 
coaches, 
John 

Devorss, said. “He’s dedicated, he’s 
a great competitor and he works 
hard, so time will tell.”

Upon obtaining his bachelor’s 

degree in social work from Grand 
Valley State University, Kelley 
decided to take some time before 
returning to school for his master’s 
degree to fully immerse himself in 
the world of wheelchair tennis.

“It was definitely one of the most 

fun gap years that I think anybody 
could have,” Kelley said with a grin.

During that time off, Kelley 

crisscrossed the U.S., competing in 
tournaments in places like Oregon, 
California 
and 
Florida. 
With 

each match, his reputation as a 
formidable competitor grew.

“He had an absolutely fabulous 

year,” Craig Kelley, Chris’s father, 
said. “Less than six losses the entire 
season. It was tremendous.

By the end of 2019, Kelley ranked 

second in the United States Tennis 
Association’s Men’s A division 
for wheelchair tennis. Soon, he 
planned to move into the Men’s 
Open division, the most prestigious 
international division in the sport. 
As a part of the Open division, Kelley 
would be competing alongside 
athletes like Shingo Kunieda and 

Gustavo Fernandez, the world’s 
very best wheelchair tennis players.

However, as the year 2020 rolled 

around, the COVID-19 pandemic 
quickly dashed Kelley’s hopes of 
moving into the Open division. His 
ascendancy would have to be put on 
hold — for now. 

With a break in the action, Kelley 

decided that it was time to return to 
school to obtain his master’s degree 
and become part of a collegiate 
wheelchair tennis program. Given 
his meteoric rise in 2019, he was 
hotly recruited by a number of 
renowned programs. Among them 
was the University of Alabama, 
a powerhouse in the collegiate 
adaptive sports world and winner 

of five of the last seven wheelchair 
tennis 
national 
championships. 

Also among them, however, was 
Michigan — a program in its 
infancy looking to gather enough 
athletes to even begin competing at 
the national level.

For the extraordinary amount 

of work required to overcome the 
hardships he’d faced up to that point, 
Kelley certainly would have been 
forgiven for opting for the easier 
route and joining the established 
Alabama program. After all, their 
recent record imparts little doubt 
that they’ll be among the favorites 
to win the wheelchair tennis title 
for years to come.

Instead, he chose Michigan. 

Kelley chose the project.

“I saw the University of Michigan 

not only as a way to be an adaptive 

athlete, but also as a way to help 
grow the program into being one of 
the best in the nation,” Kelley said.

And maybe fate played a bit 

of a role. Shortly after his first 
e-mail correspondence with Dr. 
Feranmi Okanlami, the Director 
of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports 
and Fitness program, Kelley was 
flying home from a tournament in 
New York. After passing through 
security, a voice from behind asked, 
“Hey, are you Chris Kelley?” 

Startled and slightly unnerved 

at being referred to by name 
immediately after a typically uneasy 
TSA encounter, Kelley turned to 
find none other than Okanlami.

“After that, I thought maybe 

Michigan is the place where I’m 
supposed to be,” Kelley said.

Although the lack of competitive 

opportunities in 2020 was a 
disappointment, it wasn’t the end 
of the world for Kelley. With his 
now-slender schedule, Kelley set his 
sights on a different pursuit: finding 
ways to help expand access to sports 
for individuals with disabilities.

When one hears of a story like 

Kelley’s — a highly talented athlete 
arriving late on the scene yet still 
managing to rapidly ascend the 
ranks of their sport — one question 
begs to be answered. Why didn’t 
they start sooner?

In Kelley’s case, and in the case 

of so many other athletes with 
disabilities, the answer seems to 
be that they simply didn’t know 
that opportunities for them to 

participate 
in 
sports 
existed. 

Despite their good intentions, 
Kelley’s elementary and middle 
school physical education teachers 
often simply didn’t know how to get 
him involved safely.

“Giving 
P.E. 
teachers 
and 

educators the tools to introduce 
adaptive sports to students with 
disabilities is a huge part of it,” 
Kelley said.

“The 
other 
main 
one 
is 

physicians,” Kelley added. “I was 
diagnosed at the age of two. I had 
doctor’s appointments constantly, 
and I don’t remember a physician 
ever mentioning that adaptive 
sports were a possibility.”

Kelley is convinced that this can 

be remedied. Over the summer, 
Kelley worked closely with Adaptive 
Sports and Fitness staff members 
to develop the ASIRI project, a 
collaboration with Project Healthy 
Schools to develop a more inclusive 
physical 
education 
curriculum. 

The curriculum aims to embed 
adaptive 
sports 
and 
inclusive 

recreation programming into the 
physical education experience of 
young students with and without 
physical disabilities across the state 
of Michigan.

After he completes his master’s 

in sports management, Kelley 
hopes to continue working with 
the Adaptive Sports and Fitness 
program full-time.

“One of my main goals is to grow 

adaptive sports at the university 
level, so I want to find ways to get 
involved and stay involved as much 
as I can,” Kelley said.

While Kelley aims to continue 

to expand access to sports for 
individuals with disabilities by 
developing more projects like the 
ASIRI project in the future, his true 
passion lies elsewhere — coaching.

“I’ll look for adaptive sports 

jobs first with the hopes of finding 
something where I can either 
develop a program or do some 
diversity, equity and inclusion 
work,” Kelley said. “But if I can 
coach out on the court for even one 
day a week, that fills my bucket. It’s 
my dream job.”

Kelley has been coaching tennis 

for nearly as long as he’s been 
playing. In high school, Kelley got 
his first taste of coaching while 
helping out with local children’s 
programs. Throughout his time at 
Grand Valley, Kelley subsequently 

expanded his coaching to include 
adult classes at a nearby tennis club.

Since then, Kelley hasn’t been 

able to get enough of it — he’s traveled 
across the Midwest with the United 
States Tennis Association to lead 
wheelchair tennis clinics, taken 
on the role of coach for Mary Free 
Bed Rehabilitation Hospital’s youth 
wheelchair tennis team and has 
spent a year as the assistant coach 
of a high school varsity tennis team.

“I love that he’s somebody who’s 

teaching both kids and adults, both 
able-bodied and in wheelchairs,” 
Devorss said. “Truly, that’s an 
amazing thing. It’s rare.”

Kelley’s coaching acumen is 

bolstered by support from his 
father, Craig, an experienced tennis 
coach with a degree from Ferris 
State University in Professional 
Tennis Management. The two have 
coached alongside each other at a 
number of camps, allowing Kelley 
to draw directly from the wisdom 
of his father.

“He’ll even help me too, at times,” 

Craig Kelley said. “He’ll say ‘Hey, I 
think you might be being a little 
too firm with the kids.’ It goes both 
ways.”

From his many years of coaching, 

Craig Kelley has come to realize the 
most important concept to instill 
in the minds of young players, a 
concept Chris has already taken to 
heart in his own coaching. 

“Above anything, it’s the love of 

the game,” he said. “You want to 
make sure that you keep the spirit 
within them, making sure that they 
want to come back and play day 
after day.”

Added Chris: “It’s important 

to realize that sport is supposed 
to be a good opportunity to grow 
a community and to get physical 
activity. It’s not life or death.”

One day, Chris Kelley admits, 

there’ll come a point in time 
when continuing to compete will 
no longer be an option. Years of 
swinging a racket with extreme 
force will mean Kelley’s shoulder 
cuffs and wrists will deteriorate. 
Eventually, his body simply won’t 
be able to sustain the wear and tear 
any longer.

Before fully setting his sights 

on coaching, however, there’s one 
thing Kelley is adamant about 
accomplishing.

“I 
want 
that 
national 

championship ring,” Kelley said.

ALEX WALKON
Daily Sports Writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF GRAYSON BUNING

Chris Kelley has fast risen to the top of wheelchair tennis’s rankings.

Diving 
head-first 
into 
the 

season, 
the 
No. 
9 
women’s 

swimming and diving team (2-0) 
put critics’ questions to bed with 
a convincing double dual meet 
performance.

The Wolverines reigned over 

No. 20 Indiana (1-1) and No. 24 
Northwestern (0-2) on Saturday 
as they beat the Wildcats 185.5-
112.5 and outpaced the Hoosiers 
174-126. Michigan dominated the 
freestyle events in its first meet 
since the Big Ten Championship 
last February. 

Senior Sierra Schmidt and 

sophomore Kaitlynn Sims placed 
first and second, respectively, 
in 
the 
1000-yard 
and 
500-

yard freestyles. Junior Maggie 
MacNeil took home first in the 
200-yard freestyle, while senior 
Daria Pyshnenko won the 50 and 
100-yard freestyles. MacNeil and 
Pyshnenko — along with freshman 
Sophie Housey and junior Olivia 
Carter — teamed up for first in the 
400-yard freestyle relay.

While MacNeil is no stranger 

to freestyle events, she does not 
regularly swim the 200-yard 
freestyle for the Wolverines. Her 
victory was quite special against 
swimmers who train specifically 
for the event.

“(MacNeil’s 
200-yard 

performance) was something that 
coach Rick Bishop did to win the 
200-yard 
freestyle,” 
Michigan 

coach Mike Bottom said. “We’ll 
take them where we can get them. 
That’s part of being a coach.”

MacNeil was also slated to 

swim the 100-yard freestyle, but 
Pyshnenko replaced her at the last 
minute, making a sacrifice to help 
lift her team.

“We had a moment where 

MacNeil was supposed to swim 
the 100 freestyle and wasn’t 
feeling up to par,” Bottom said. 
“(Pyshnenko) had to step up to 
win that 100 freestyle.”

One of the most exciting races 

of the day was the 200-yard 
backstroke, in which sophomore 
Mariella 
Venter, 
freshman 

Casey 
Chung 
and 
freshman 

Sophia Tuinman placed in first, 
second and third, respectively. 
Chung, Venter and Tuinman also 
placed first, second and fourth, 

respectively 
in 
the 
100-yard 

backstroke.

Carter played a key role for 

the team, winning both butterfly 
events and the 200-yard individual 
medley. In the 200-yard butterfly, 
Carter finished more than four 
seconds ahead of her opponents.

Slower times were expected 

at this meet as the teams placed 
focus on the late February Big 
Ten Championship, but the effort 
clearly remained as the athletes 
raced for the first time in what 
seems like ages.

Carter praised Housey and 

junior Victoria Kwan for the 
grueling schedules they faced. 
With 
Kwan 
facing 
a 
quick 

turnaround between the 200 and 
100-yard butterfly, she had little 
time to recover between events. 
Housey took a similar turnaround 
in stride, this time just an event 
separating her performances in 
the 200-yard individual medley 
and 200-yard freestyle relay.

Despite 
the 
Wolverines 

facing more of a struggle in 
the dive events, some positives 
could be taken from the team’s 
performance. 
Senior 
diver 

Christy Cutshaw placed fifth in 
the 1-meter dive and seventh in 
the 3-meter coming back from 
an injury, and freshman Taylor 
Peters made her debut at the 
meet.

Not only does the meet raise 

expectations for the rest of this 
season, but also for future seasons. 
With 
underclassmen 
playing 

a significant role in the team’s 
success, this meet showed that 
the team possesses the tools to be 
a long-term threat for the Big Ten 
Championship.

Despite 
being 
the 
first 

formal meet since last February, 
Michigan looked ready to go from 
the start of the day. Whatever 
rust existed from the long gap in 
competitions seemed negligible 
for the Wolverines, who proved to 
be a well oiled-machine.

GRAYSON BUNING

For The Daily

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Michigan coach Mike Bottom saw his women’s team sweep Saturday.

On journey to the top, Kelley paves the road for those behind him

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Michigan freshman Jaedan Brown impressed in her debut for Michigan.

CONNOR EAREGOOD

For The Daily