The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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14 THE WOLVERINE APRIL 2019 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS FIVE YEARS AGO, 2014: Michigan's men's gymnastics squad earned an NCAA championship in front of a wildly celebratory crowd in Crisler Center. The Wolverines became the first crew in any U-M sport to garner back-to-back na- tional titles in 44 years. Sam Mikulak scored 91.1 points to win the all-around title for the second straight season and his third time overall, bolstering Michigan's winning tally of 445.050. The Wolver- ines beat Oklahoma (441.650), Stanford (436.300), Illinois (435.350), Ohio State (433.500) and Penn State (429.800). The top-seeded Wolverines lived up to their billing, post- ing a season-high 75.10 team score in the very first event, the pommel horse. They registered a 73.20 on the still rings, 74.20 on the vault, 75.95 on the parallel bars, 70.55 on the high bars and 76.05 on floor exercise. Michigan head coach Kurt Golder exulted not only over the victory, but also the venue. "It doesn't get any better than winning at home," he said. "This is my fourth championship, and they're all great, but winning in front of the Michigan crowd in Crisler Center makes it even sweeter. I couldn't ask for anything more." Mikulak relished the experience with his teammates, start to finish. "This was the loudest competition I have ever been in, for a Michigan/collegiate meet, and it was just phenomenal," he said. "It's a whole different experience when you are with your team, your brothers, who you've been with for four years in college. It's just a whole new aspect to the sport, and it's unbelievable. It was awesome, we loved it." Golder also noted how far Michigan's program had come in 15 years. "Going back to 1999, I took over winless team," Golder re- called. "The team that I inherited was 0-16, and three years later we won the national championship, and that was really special. "I had a very young team, and I thought that the next three were going to be easier than this one. And then I won my next one 10 years later. To win three within a five-year span, it's great." 10 YEARS AGO, 2009: Michigan came up just shy of a men's gymnastics national championship, scoring 361.500 in the finals to Stanford's 362.800. The NCAA Championships, conducted at the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis, featured a very tight competition, with Oklahoma (361.200) and Cali- fornia (361.150) finishing just behind the Wolverines. Illinois (359.300) and Ohio State (355.950) rounded out the competition. Michigan's score marked its best effort all season, with team highs for the year in still rings (60.750), vault (62.900) and floor (61.200). "We've worked so hard over the past 12 months, and we haven't had a really good meet since Janu- ary," Golder said. "So I knew we were primed, we were doing the work and that it would happen eventually. "Sometimes it doesn't happen for a whole season, but again, it did here. I am very pleased about that." "I feel pretty awesome," sophomore Thomas Kelley added. "It was a long journey and we have enjoyed every second of it. This is an amazing moment for us to come together as a team and hit routines. "I think we only had two missed routines the entire meet, and that is about as good as we could have done. For us, this is just awesome — an awesome experience and an awesome year." 25 YEARS AGO, 1994: The Big Ten cham- pion women's gymnastics team wound up finish- ing fourth at the NCAA Championships in a very tightly contested battle. Utah captured the national championship with a score of 196.400, followed by Alabama (196.350), Georgia (195.850), Michigan (195.150), UCLA (194.975) and Florida (194.850). Utah hosted the competition, in Salt Lake City at its Jon M. Huntsman Center. Michigan's Beth Wymer emerged as the national champion in the uneven bars, scoring 9.950 on the event for the Wolverines. Wymer garnered All-American status not only in the uneven bars, but also in the balance beam at the competition. She was a second-team All-American in the vault and all-around, while teammate Wendy Marshall earned All-America honors on the vault. — John Borton THIS MONTH IN MICHIGAN ATHLETICS HISTORY The Wolverines' men's gymnastics squad in 2014 won a national champion- ship at Crisler Center to become the first U-M team to win back-to-back NCAA titles in 44 years. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS