The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 — 11 

“What’s next?”: Maggie MacNeil’s journey to Olympic gold and beyond

KATELYN TURNER

For The Daily

JULIANNE YOON/Daily 

Maggie MacNeil won a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

SportsMonday: Don’t judge Michigan at its highs, 

judge it by its lows

Out of COVID’s shadow, Michigan 

lacrosse has found its identity

LINDSAY BUDIN
Daily Sports Writer

KATE HUA/Daily 

Now, out of the shadow of the pandemic, the women’s lacrosse team is 
ready for a historic season.

The Olympics are the grand-

est stage in sports and the ultimate 
dream of many athletes. For the very 
driven and gifted few, that dream 
becomes a goal. 

Maggie MacNeil, a Canadian 

native and senior on the Michigan 
swimming and diving team, had the 
Olympics as a backdrop from the very 
beginning. Right after the 2008 Bei-
jing Games, an eight-year-old Mac-
Neil started her swimming career. 

MacNeil’s passion arose from the 

most raw aspect of the sport: her love 
of the water. Her mother, a physi-
cian, emphasized water safety from a 
young age, which spurred MacNeil’s 
interest. But back then, she never 
imagined swimming would carry her 
to such heights. 

“Whenever someone starts sports, 

the Olympics are always a goal,” Mac-
Neil said. “But I didn’t think swim-
ming would take me this far.”

MacNeil initially realized the 

exceptionalism of her talent in 2015 
when she first joined Canada’s 
Junior National Team at age fifteen. 
Even after reaching that elite level, 
she never acknowledged the Olym-
pics as a potential reality until 2019 
at her first FINA World Champion-
ships. 

MacNeil won the 100-meter but-

terfly, defeating Sweden’s Sarah Sjos-
trom—the 2016 Olympic champion 
— and breaking the Americas’, Cana-
dian and Commonwealth records in 
the process. As the world champion, it 
began to sink in that she could qualify 
for the Tokyo Olympics the following 

year. 

But in March 2020, all of Mac-

Neil’s plans were derailed. With the 
NCAA Championships canceled, she 
returned home to Canada, where she 
was isolated from her teammates and 
her regimented training schedule. 
MacNeil went six months without a 
regulation-size pool and was forced 
to find other ways to stay in shape. 

“None of us (swimmers) are great 

at land sports,” MacNeil said. “Run-
ning is my enemy.”

To help her get any minimal feel 

for the water during quarantine, 
MacNeil’s parents opened their back-
yard pool at the end of March. While 
it was nowhere near the 50-meter 
Olympic-size pools, MacNeil trained 
in the heated waters during the brisk 
Canadian spring, even if it was merely 
for ten minutes a day. 

“Motivation was really hard,” 

MacNeil said. “In retrospect, I prob-
ably should have done more than I 
did.”

Her atypical training paid off 

when she qualified for the resched-
uled Tokyo Games. But the 2021 
Olympics were far from the typical 
competitive atmosphere. No fans 
were allowed at the natatorium, and 
athletes were divided into quaran-
tine bubbles by country and sport. 
But this being her first Olympics, 
there was nothing for MacNeil to 
compare the conditions to, so she 
used that to her advantage. 

One of the most impactful altera-

tions was changing the time of day 
that the 100-meter butterfly finals 
were swam. Rather than taking place 
in the evening, the finals were held in 
the morning, giving MacNeil no time 
to overthink. 

“I just woke up and knew I had a 

job to do,” MacNeil said.

Entering the finals ranked No. 

6, MacNeil was not deterred by her 
seed. As long as there was a lane for 

her, winning was still a possibility. At 
the 50-meter turn, halfway through 
the race, MacNeil’s split was not even 
in the top three. But in the last 15 
meters, MacNeil put her head down, 
touching the wall in 55.59 seconds 
to capture a new Americas record. 
Winning gold made MacNeil the first 
female Michigan swimmer to place 
first individually at the Olympics 
since 1964. 

But earning gold was not the same 

without her family present to cel-
ebrate with her. The endearing video 
footage that MacNeil’s cousin sent to 
her displaying her family’s reaction 
and excitement was not nearly the 

same as being in person. Instead she 
celebrated with her Canadian team-
mates and also those she swam with 
at Michigan. 

Training for four years in Ann Ayr-

bor with those swimmers left strong 
ties, with the collegiate season lasting 
from early September to late March. 
In between, from April through 
August, MacNeil competes in the 
international season. 

And this is an annual occurrence, 

not only during Olympic years.

Swimming is arguably the most 

grueling 
yet 
underappreciated 

sport in the world of athletics. Many 
spectators tune in every four years 

for the Olympics 
and then neglect 
swimming’s 
rel-

evance after the 
Games 
conclude. 

But for athletes 
such as MacNeil, 
the work never 
stops.

“Swimming 
is 

not an easy sport,” 
MacNeil said. “We 
don’t have an off-
season.”

While she tries 

to 
take 
two-to-

four weeks off in 
between each col-
lege and interna-
tional season, the 
training 
drought 

MacNeil 
and 

every other athlete 
endured 
during 

quarantine 
was 

unlike any other. 
But 
despite 
the 

unorthodox condi-

tions, MacNeil and many others had 
stellar performances as a result. 

“I’m really grateful I was able to 

succeed despite all the challenges,” 
MacNeil said. “But it definitely 
makes me reevaluate my plans going 
into the next Olympics.” 

Leading up to the 2020 Games, 

MacNeil’s training was significantly 
lighter than what it would have been 
in a typical year. While practicing 
with teammates is something that 

is imperative, she is looking to adopt 
some of the aspects that transpired 
into a gold medal. 

Going forward, MacNeil recently 

announced her commitment to exer-
cise her final year of NCAA eligibil-
ity to compete at the University of 
California Berkeley while pursuing a 
master’s degree. After graduating in 
2023, she will have complete control 
over her training the year before the 
2024 Olympics.

Although it seems as if MacNeil 

just won Olympic gold, but the turn-
around is swift. With the 2020 Olym-
pics postponed a year, Paris is quickly 
approaching. While MacNeil has her 
eyes set on the 2024 Games, her focus 
has not come without doubt. 

“I’ve definitely questioned swim-

ming and goals because I feel like 
I’ve done a lot of everything I’ve ever 
wanted,” MacNeil said. “I felt lost in 
the ‘What’s next?’”

MacNeil has decided to train for 

Paris, but beyond that, she is not 
tying herself to anything. Every ath-
lete’s career comes to an end at some 
point, and she is going to determine 
her future based on her happiness 
and the satisfaction she derives from 
swimming. 

There could be a long professional 

swimming career on the horizon, or 
she may pivot into something else. No 
matter what comes her way, MacNeil 
is taking her training and her career 
day by day. 

“As long as I’m enjoying it, whatev-

er happens along the way will be icing 
on the cake,” MacNeil said.

She has turned her dreams into 

goals and her goals into reality. All 
that is left is for MacNeil to answer 
her own question: “What’s next?”

The implications of COVID 

stretch far past health, and for the 
Michigan women’s lacrosse team, 
the 
pandemic-inflicted 
burden 

hampered their 2021 season.

Being part of a team entails much 

more than the product on the field. 
Goals and assists may appear in the 
boxscore, but without camaraderie 
and trust, little production — and 
subsequent winning — can occur 
during games. 

As someone who’s been around 

the game of lacrosse all of her life, 
first as a decorated player and now 
as the Michigan coach, Hannah 
Nielsen understands that better 
than anyone.

“It’s about road trips and eating 

together and being on the same bus,” 
Nielsen said. “Just those little things 
you have along the way. That’s how 
you build relationships.”

In a year where student athletes 

around the country lived in fear of 
falling ill, sacrificed their social lives 
and played in front of empty bleach-
ers, building strong connections 
seemed inconceivable

Last year, despite having tal-

ented pieces, the blockage of any 
normalcy proved too severe for the 
Wolverines. They finished 3-9, con-
cluding their season with a demoral-
izing loss to Maryland in the Big Ten 
Tournament.

Activities as basic as eating 

meals together and spending time 
as a group are often overlooked, but 
without them, chemistry is unat-
tainable. 

“We couldn’t (do) the little things 

you do off the field,” Nielsen said. 
“Wins and losses are great but 
lacrosse and the collegiate-athlete 
experience is so much more than 
that.”

The team experienced firsthand 

that the impacts of the pandemic ran 
deep. 

At a school that excels in athletics, 

people often focus on the “athlete” 
part in “student-athlete,” but first 
and foremost, these players are stu-
dents. In late 2021, as the Omicron 
variant soared and outlook on life 
seemed grim, the expectations for 
collegiate athletes to perform grew 

even higher. 

But with immense sacrifice and 

little optimism, it’s difficult to live up 
to the expectations.

With vaccinations in full effect 

and the pandemic winding down, 
normalcy was beginning to resur-
face. As the world inched closer to 
equilibrium and the 2022 season 
neared, many unanswered ques-
tions remained, the most glaring one 
being:

What now?
The team could dwell on the pre-

vious season’s shortcomings or focus 
on the future; the choice was obvi-
ous to them.

“It was ‘Hey guys, let’s forget 

about it, it happened and we’re mov-
ing on,’ ” Nielsen said. “The girls 
are motivated because 3-9 … wasn’t 
really a true illustration of who we 
are and what we could accomplish.”

The silver lining of the pan-

demic, though, was an extra year 
of eligibility. The love of their team, 
their school and their sport drove 
fifth-year captains Caitlin Muir and 
Arielle Weissman to exercise that 
privilege. 

“(Coming back) was never any-

thing that I thought about before 
COVID happened,” Muir said. “But 
with not getting to finish out my 
years on my own terms, it was really 
a done deal.”

As 
COVID-induced 
crutches 

lifted and the team began to focus 
on building relationships and nur-
turing talent, the players set out to 
show that the driving force of the 
abysmal 2021 season was the loom-
ing pandemic and not the players 
themselves.

The Wolverines opened their sea-

son with seven straight wins — mak-
ing it clear to everybody what they 
were capable of.

Leadership from seniors Erin 

Garvey, Kaitlyn Mead and Morgan 
Whitaker in addition to the two 
fifth-years displays the potential 
that the pandemic was covering in 
the previous season.

“They’re doing a great job,” 

Nielsen said. “It makes me want to 
coach harder because of the effort 
they’re putting in so that we can 
reach our goals this year.”

If you’ve been following the 

Michigan women’s basketball team 
for the past couple of years, you 
know how many history-making 
moments it has had. 

In 2017, the Wolverines won their 

first WNIT Championship. 

In 2021, then-junior for-

ward Naz Hillmon broke 
the Michigan record – for 
both the men’s and women’s 
programs – with 50 points 
in a single game, and the 
Wolverines made their first 
Sweet Sixteen appear-
ance.

This 
season, 
they 

secured a No. 3 seed in the 
NCAA Tournament — the 
highest in program history. 

Along the way, Michigan coach 

Kim Barnes Arico has become the 
first coach in program history to 
lead the team to a top 10 ranking, 
reaching as high as top five. The first 
to surpass 200 wins with the pro-
gram. The only coach to have eight 
20-win seasons. 

On Monday, the Wolverines will 

add another line to their list of firsts:

First Elite Eight appearance. 
“Obviously we have made his-

tory throughout this entire season, 
but we wanted to continue to keep 
doing things that have never been 
done before and go through the 
highs and lows that we did this sea-
son,” senior guard Leigha Brown 

said after Saturday’s win 
against South Dakota. “ … 
But we’re not done yet. We 
want to keep making his-
tory.”

You can judge Michigan 

by its extensive list of acco-
lades. But it’s even more 

telling to look at what’s 
not on its résumé.

It was less than two 

months ago that a snow-
storm and a canceled 

road game essentially lost Michi-
gan what would have been its first 
Big Ten title. And it was less than a 
month ago that No. 6 seed Nebraska 
took the Wolverines by surprise 
in the second round of the Big Ten 
Tournament. 

“That’s crushing and that can 

be devastating and that can change 
the outcome of the year, for sure,” 
Barnes Arico said. 

And, yet, it didn’t. Michigan took 

to the court in the first round of 

March Madness, seemingly unfazed 
by its earlier challenges, and blew 
out American, 74-39. 

What’s not noted on the Wol-

verines’ stats sheet is senior guard 
Amy Dilk’s injury that kept her out 
of most conference games. And the 
fact that they pulled off a 13-4 Big 
Ten record even without one of their 
biggest defensive assets. 

It’s not just the record-breaking 

moments, but the times they’ve been 
tested that makes this team what it 
is. 

That combination of confidence 

and resilience is tested more and 
more as Michigan makes its way 
through March. Even as their wins 
have gotten progressively closer — 
their first win by 35, their second by 
15 and their most recent by just three 
— the Wolverines have maintained 
their composure. 

“There were a lot of things that 

happened during the course of the 
year that we could have crumbled 
and said ‘Well, woe is me’ and ‘Why 
did this happen to us?’ ” Barnes 
Arico said. “I’m sure alone in our 
moments we do say that, but I think 
the great quality about this team and 
this program has been the ability to 

get back up every day and to come 
together and say, ‘Well, now we have 
something to prove.’ ”

This dynamic is maybe best seen 

in the ending of Saturday’s game. 
After trailing by five points with less 
than two minutes left, the Coyotes 
managed to tie the game. In the final 
minute with the team’s hopes on the 
line, Barnes Arico’s message from 
the sidelines encompassed all of the 
confidence and resilience this sea-
son has built: 

Just score. 
“That right there, that gave me 

the most confidence in the world,” 
freshman guard Laila Phelia said. 
“I felt like just being able to have the 
head coach sit there and tell me to go 
score and don’t hesitate at all, I felt 
like that really helped a lot.”

You can judge the Wolverines by 

the records they’ve broken and the 
games that they’ve won, or you can 
judge them by the number of times 
they’ve fallen and had to get back 
up. Either way, the conclusion is the 
same: 

Michigan is a force to be reckoned 

with.

LANE 

KIZZIAH

Paul Nasr: Quinnipiac’s early goaltender pull 

saved Michigan’s season

ALLENTOWN, 
Penn. 
— 

Despite entering the third period 
with a 4-0 lead, the Michigan 
hockey team still struggled to put 
Quinnipiac away. The Wolverines 
completely 
collapsed 

throughout 
the 
first 

15 minutes of the final 
frame. 

And Bobcats coach 

Rand Pecknold’s decision 
to pull goaltender Dylan 
St. Cyr with almost four 
minutes left saved Michi-
gan’s season. 

That’s not an indict-

ment on the Wolverines. 
They manhandled Quin-
nipiac’s 
nation-leading 

defense 
throughout 

much of the contest. They earned 
their place in the Frozen Four. 

But the Bobcats could’ve taken 

Michigan’s spot in Boston. Quin-
nipiac took over the game, seized 
all the momentum and then freely 
handed it right back to Michigan 
on Pecknold’s baffling decision. 

“It was a pretty normal decision 

for how I operate,” Pecknold said 
of pulling his goaltender while his 
team was surging, having scored 
three unanswered goals. “… Prob-
ably the last 13 (to) 14 years, we’ve 
done that pretty regularly, getting 

the goalie out early. … It works a 
lot more than it doesn’t for us.” 

As Pecknold made that state-

ment, celebratory music from 
Michigan’s locker room blared 

into the media room 
while he spoke som-
berly. Clearly, pulling 
the goalie worked for 
the Wolverines, not his 
own team. Michigan 
is uber-talented, but 
young and untested. 
It’s a critique Michi-
gan coach Mel Pear-
son called out after 
the game, but one 
that made itself clear 
throughout the third 
period. 
The 
Wol-

verines have the talent to win a 
national championship, but older 
and more battle-tested teams 
have an advantage in composure 
and game management. 

After the Bobcats scored their 

three unanswered goals, they 
continued to methodically des-
ecrate Michigan’s young, falter-
ing roster. Quinnipiac was calm 
and poised, and with its regularly 
dangerous attacks, it had a clear 
blueprint to victory with plenty 
of time.

That blueprint was thrown into 

the Lehigh River when the goal-
tender was pulled, a saving grace 
for Michigan’s young squad. 

“We were reeling,” Pearson 

said. “… They had us on the ropes. 
It was an interesting time to pull 
the goalie.” 

Interesting indeed. 
Halving almost four minutes 

left wasn’t the only shocking 
thing about the goaltender being 
pulled, it was the on-ice context as 
well. Instead of at least pulling the 
goalie while his team controlled 
possession in its offensive zone, 
Pecknold ordered St. Cyr to the 
bench before a faceoff, where the 
puck’s possession was in question. 

Who does that?
The Wolverines could very 

well have won that faceoff and 
launched the puck into the empty 
net right then and there. Pecknold 
added extra strain to his decision 
by betting on his team to win the 
faceoff too. Although the Bobcats 
won the draw, sophomore for-
ward Thomas Bordeleau quickly 
challenged and stole the puck. 

He then raced down the ice, 

passing it across to wide open 
fifth year senior Michael Pastujov 
for the empty-net goal that essen-
tially sealed the game with over 
three and a half minutes left. 

“They had all the momentum, 

and there’s like four minutes left 
in the game,” Pearson said. “I’m 
not going to question any coach. 
… (Pecknold’s) been around a 
long time, ton of respect for him 
… (but) they were pushing, they 
didn’t need to pull the goalie, they 
were all over us.” 

With 22 seconds left in the 

game, defenseman Zach Metsa 
removed any room for debate, 
scoring Quinnipiac’s fourth goal 
on even strength. Had the Bobcats 
left their goaltender in, the fourth 
goal could have very well tied the 
game, giving Quinnipiac all the 
momentum entering overtime. 

When asked if he regrets pull-

ing his goaltender so early in 
hindsight, Pecknold’s answer 
was blunt: 

“No.” 
Michigan certainly doesn’t 

regret it either. It was a team 
sliding into an embarrassing 
loss, and its opponent saved it 
from demise. By pulling his goal-
tender with almost four minutes 
left as his team was surging, 
Pecknold threw the Wolverines 
a life raft. 

A raft that will carry Michi-

gan to Boston for the Frozen 
Four.

PAUL

NASR

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