Graduation Edition 2022 — 11
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan clinches first National Championship title in school history
SAMI RUUD
2021 Daily Sports Writer
The 2021 gymnastics National
Championship came down to the
very last routine of the meet. Junior
Abby Heiskell stared down the beam
as she mounted it. As she performed
her routine, she completed each skill
with an intention to do it perfectly, a
lesson Michigan coach Bev Plocki has
drilled into the mind of her gymnasts
all season. Heiskell showed no ounce
of doubt in any of her skills, and when
she finished the routine with a stuck
dismount, she proved that she was
capable of being there for her team in
the moment it needed it most.
Heiskell, joined by her teammates,
could not peel her eyes from the
scoreboard,
and
neither
could
Oklahoma. Waiting for only junior
Olivia Trautman’s score on floor and
Heiskell’s score on beam, the teams
sat tied at 198.0750.
When the number came in on
the scoreboard, a 9.9250, the team,
the coaches and the fans erupted.
Michigan would be the 2021 National
Champion,
the
first
Michigan
women’s gymnastics team to ever
win a National Championship.
“We’ve talked about this for so
long, and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh,
this is actually happening. Oh my
gosh, the meet is over, and we’re
national champions,’ ” sophomore
Sierra Brooks said. “So much went
into this, it’s so amazing seeing our
hard work pay off.”
Michigan clinched the win, in the
end, by securing the lead they held
onto the entire meet. Coming into
the Finals, Oklahoma was ranked
first and Michigan second, based on
the semifinal scores, but the Sooners
were never given a chance to shine.
Michigan started the meet on floor
with six strong routines, all counted
scores at a 9.9125 or higher. Junior
Natalie Wojcik led the pack, scoring
a 9.9500, landing all of her tumbling
passes smoothly and without fault.
Sophomore Gabby Wilson also posted
an impressive score of 9.9375, and the
solid performance from the rest of her
teammates landed the Wolverines at
a 49.6250.
Michigan carried that energy
to the vault for the second rotation,
where it extended its lead over the
rest of the field even further, gaining
a 0.1375 lead over Oklahoma at the
halfway mark.
“(Vault’s) just been amazing,”
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Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. “At
the beginning of the year, we were
doing big vaults, but we couldn’t get
the landings, and it was a process.
We absolutely peaked at the right
time this year. … Right before the
championship part of the season, we
started being able to nail those 1.5s.”
Heiskell started off Michigan’s
next rotation on bars with a stuck
dismount. The Wolverines’ top scores
of the rotation came from Brooks
and junior Abby Brenner in her first
competitive routine in months since
hurting her ankle at the Big Five meet
on Feb. 27, and Michigan maintained
its lead.
That lead, though, was deceptively
large. The Wolverines had to move
to the beam, a nerve-racking event to
conclude a meet on, while the Sooners
ended on floor, whose scores were the
highest of any event throughout the
whole meet.
“I just said to them: ‘Take a deep
breath, exhale out all of the nervous
energy and let’s just go do what we do,
one routine at a time for six routines,’ ”
Plocki said “We got this, breath in the
confidence, be aggressive. That’s what
we wanted them to do, was just go do
confident, aggressive balance beam.”
Michigan’s beam rotation did not
start as strong as it would have liked,
but Brooks turned the rotation around
for the Wolverines.
“Before I even went, I was on the
verge of tears because I wanted it so
bad for this team,” Brooks said. “I
knew those routines were semi off,
but I also trusted myself and the rest
of the lineup, so I wanted to get out
there and do my thing. I got on the
beam and I just honestly approached
it with as much confidence as I could
ever have.”
Brooks performed her beam series
perfectly, making up for some of the
points her former teammates had
lost, but Wojcik and Heiskell still had
to nail their routines for Michigan to
have a shot at the win.
Wojcik one-upped her teammate,
sticking every skill just as solidly and
scoring a 9.9875, the highest beam
score of the day, then Heiskell handled
the pressure of a tied score with ease.
“It’s very hard to describe how it
feels,” Plocki said. “This is 32 years
I’ve been waiting for this feeling …
It’s just an unbelievable pride and
just an admiration for what our team
has been through and the sacrifices
that they’ve made. I knew this was
possible because, for the first time,
they have belief in themselves.”
Michigan escapes Sweet Sixteen with win over South Dakota, 52-49
ABBIE TELGENHOF
2022 Assistant Sports Editor
WICHITA, KAN. — The Michigan
women’s basketball team knew it was
do or die.
With a trip to the Elite Eight on the
line — potentially the first in program
history — the third seeded Wolverines
(25-6 overall) rose to the challenge.
Taking down No. 11-seed South
Dakota (29-6), 52-49, in the Sweet
Sixteen, the Wolverines once again
made history.
“The moment we had today is
never going to go away,” Michigan
coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “So
I’m just so happy for this group. …
We’re still playing. There are eight
darn teams left in the country playing
and we are one of them. That’s pretty
incredible.”
From the opening tip, it was a gritty,
back and forth game. Throughout the
entire game Michigan struggled to
score, never truly finding an offensive
groove. Instead, short spurts of
efficient scoring kept the Wolverines
afloat against a physical Coyote
defense.
In the first quarter, sloppy
turnovers plagued Michigan. The
Wolverines looked to their one-two
punch of senior forward Naz Hillmon
and senior guard Leigha Brown, but
to no avail.
Hillmon — who was triple-teamed
on every possession — notched zero
points in the first quarter and just six
in the second. Brown fared slightly
better, but any limited success she had
was unsustainable. Working deep
into the rotation early, Michigan tried
to get something going. A short run at
the end of the first quarter kept the
Wolverines from fully breaking.
But opening the second quarter
with two missed 3-pointers from
junior guard Maddie Nolan and
a shot-clock violation, Michigan
quickly fell out of what little rhythm
it had gained. Short offensive spurts
from freshman guard Laila Phelia
kept the Wolverines in the game —
and a strong defensive showing forced
South Dakota into tough shots — but
nothing seemed to stick.
It quickly became clear Michigan
wouldn’t magically overcome its
struggles, but would have to fight
for every possession. On this night,
nothing would come easy.
With their offense faltering, the
Wolverines dug into their defensive
identity, trying to keep South Dakota
contained
on
offense.
Clogging
the paint and hedging high on ball
screens, Michigan tried to disrupt the
Coyotes offensive game plan.
“We play a different style than a
lot of the teams that (South Dakota)
played,” Barnes Arico said. “Just going
back and watching the film of their
first two tournament games, who they
beat, two Power Five opponents that
are awesome teams, they defended it
differently than we did tonight. We
wanted to give them a different look. I
think it sped them up and made them
take quicker shots than maybe they
wanted to take.”
Yet, South Dakota still jumped out
to an early lead. Failing to put together
a complete game, the Wolverines
allowed the Coyotes to hang around
throughout the half, entering the
locker room down by two points.
Despite
obvious
halftime
adjustments,
the
third
quarter
followed the same narrative of
offensive struggle. Doubling down on
finding Hillmon and senior forward
Emily Kiser in the paint, Michigan
finally found the shots it wanted — but
failed to capitalize.
The Coyotes continued to force the
Wolverines out of rotation and score
at every level. Draining 3-pointers and
finding their forwards inside, South
Dakota kept Michigan from gaining
any momentum. With the game very
much within reach for either team
throughout the entirety of the fourth
quarter,
Michigan
continued
to
struggle finding offensive consistency.
Coming down to the
final play, the Coyotes
had a chance to secure
the lead with 20 seconds
left on the clock. South
Dakota
launched
an
open 3-pointer for the
lead — only for the ball to
bounce off the rim into
Hillmon’s hands, with
a foul following. The
next possession, another
Coyote foul sent Brown
to the line for the first
time all night. Draining
both, Brown put the
Wolverines
back
in
control with a four point
lead.
Michigan would hold on, emerging
victorious.
And for the first time in program
history, with just eight teams left
vying for a national championship, the
Wolverines are still dancing.
Michigan shocks Ohio State, ends
eight-game losing streak in The Game
JARED GREENSPAN
2022 Managing Sports Editor
For 3,653 days — long, arduous,
hollow days — the Michigan football
program lived in the shadows of its
unremitting failures against Ohio
State.
There won’t be a 3,654th day. At
long last, that futile streak is over.
After eight consecutive bitter
losses
to
the
Buckeyes,
the
Wolverines emerged from The
Game victorious. No. 5 Michigan
(11-1 overall, 8-1 Big Ten) shocked
No. 2 Ohio State (10-2, 8-1), 42-27,
clinching the Big Ten East and
punching a ticket to next Saturday’s
Big Ten Championship Game.
“One of my favorite sayings of
all time is, ‘When there’s a will,
there’s a way,’ ” Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh said after the game.
“And the will was very strong for
our team.”
As the fourth quarter wound
to a close, reality melded with
imagination. Senior running back
Hassan Haskins stood in the
endzone with outstretched arms,
celebrating
a
touchdown
that
handed Michigan a 15-point lead
with 2:17 minutes to play. He blew
kisses to the crowd, beckoning the
raucous sea of maize pom poms that
serenaded him for an electric five
touchdown performance.
Pandemonium had officially set
in.
When the clock struck double-
zeroes, everyone seemed to forget
about the freezing cold and the
endless nightmares from previous
defeats. Droves of fans plunged
from the stands and spilled out onto
the turf, reveling in their newfound
glory.
Michigan, champions of the Big
Ten East.
“It was a surreal moment,” junior
quarterback Cade McNamara said.
“It’s something we’ve dreamed of.
Every 6 a.m. (practice), that feeling
is the reason why we do it.”
Saturday offered an opportunity
for the Wolverines to exorcise
past demons, escaping the recent
doldrums and persistent pain of the
rivalry. A win would vault them into
the Big Ten Championship Game
and buoy aspirations of a berth in
the College Football Playoff, two
hurdles that the program had yet to
clear as of the morning, seven years
into Jim Harbaugh’s tenure.
But just as toppling the Buckeyes
began
to
feel
sisyphean,
the
Wolverines punched first on an A.J.
Henning touchdown — and refused
to relent.
“It was really like a war out
there,” senior defensive end Aidan
Hutchinson, who wreaked havoc on
Ohio State’s offense with three sacks,
said.
In the second quarter, even
as Ohio State took a brief 10-7
lead, Michigan proved unfazed,
embodying its season-long serenity.
A 13-play, 82-yard touchdown drive
sent the Wolverines into halftime
clenching a 14-13 lead.
In past years, Michigan unraveled
in similar moments, particularly in
The Game. On Saturday, the team
merely grew stronger.
The second half started to a tee.
The Wolverines’ defense forced a
crisp three-and-out, and the offense
blazed down the field, running the
ball three times for a total of 81 yards;
Haskins capped the drive with a
touchdown.
They had kicked
Ohio
State
back
onto its heels, and
the Buckeyes would
never recover.
So hapless were
the Buckeyes that
only a brief kerfuffle
could slow down the
Wolverines. After a
scrum triggered an
unsportsmanlike
conduct on Ohio
State’s
Cameron
Brown,
Michigan
found the endzone
again.
Haskins
bounced
outside,
scoring
for
the
third time on the
day,
staking
the
Wolverines
to
a
stunning
15-point
lead.
The
result
incited
delirium
and
momentarily
broke the Michigan
Stadium scoreboard
— an apt microcosm
for the shock of The Game’s result.
In the game’s waning minutes,
when Stroud’s fourth-and-18 heave
fell shy of a first down, the reality set
in. Bleachers rattled. The stadium
shook. Hutchinson and fifth-year
safety Brad Hawkins shed tears.
“We
have
(a
sign)
inside
Schembechler Hall, ‘What are you
doing today to beat Ohio State,’ ”
Hawkins said. “And today, we beat
them. It’s a blessing.”
A blessing, perhaps, but certainly
not a product of luck.
“Every workout, every practice,
every game, everything that we put
into this season — that’s something
that we kept in the back of our minds
every single day that we entered
Schembechler Hall,” McNamara
said of Ohio State. “We did enough to
beat them today.”
After nine years of perpetual
suffering, Michigan had achieved
the unthinkable. It’s a game that no
one will soon forget.
“We’ve got a lot of hours left
today,” Harbaugh smirked, allowing
himself to digest the gravity of the
moment. “… Celebrating long into the
night.”
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Michigan won its first National Championship in school history.
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Hassan Haskins scored five touchdowns in Michigan’s win
over Ohio State.
EMMA MATI/Daily
Michigan beat South Dakota to secure its first ever spot
in the Elite Eight.