The Wolverine

February 2013

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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all three dives this season, hitting a 331.5 on the one-meter dive Sept. 26, a 342.05 on the three-meter dive Nov. 17 and a 326.35 on the platform dive Nov. 18. Those scores would have been good enough for second place on all three dives at last year's Big Ten Championships. "Jack Lee has done a great job for us and continues to get better," Bottom said. "We are going to get better there. At the Big Ten level, you can't compete with the other teams unless you have four divers who can score at the championship meet. That's our goal, to have four divers who can score. "Right now, we have a couple divers that can score, and we continue to recruit and develop our divers to the point where they understand that's where they need to be." The divers have transformed into an asset — and that's going to be huge, especially once the Wolverines are battling for position among the nation's elite teams at the NCAA Championships. "We have to hold up our end of the pool, because we know what the swimmers are doing," Lee said. "We aspire to their level of success. "If you look at the teams that have won NCAAs in the last couple years, they all have quality diving programs. When you get to that level, every team is deep, so it's important to score points in as many events and areas as you can." Women's Team Showing Improvement The women's team was asked to perform a massive cultural and competitive shift in the middle of the summer, with the season just around the corner. The results did not immediately reflect the leaps and bounds the team was taking under the direction of Bottom. Through Nov. 18, the Wolverines had lost three of four dual meets, with all three losses coming in blowout fashion: 196-99 versus Minnesota, 223‑77 versus Indiana and 217‑83 at Texas. At the Purdue Invitational, Michigan finished in last place among the seven contenders with 117 points. The Boilermakers won the event, posting a score of 1,119. The Wolverine have continued to work within the structure of Bottom's regimen, however, and they are beginning to shed seconds off their season-best times all across the pool. At the Hawkeye Invitational Nov. 30-Dec. 2, Michigan finished first of 10 teams. The Wolverines earned 16 NCAA consideration times at the single tournament. "It has been great," senior distance swimmer Adrienne Bicek said. "I have been looking forward to combining with them, and it has been terrific so far. "We're absolutely seeing improvements. We have been coming together as a team to change the culture. We are really focusing on the details every day, making each practice worthwhile. We have a mindset of coming into each practice to improve on the little things we learned the day before."

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