The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MAY 2022 THE WOLVERINE 57 OLYMPIC SPORTS a 9.9125. Juniors Sierra Brooks (9.900) and Gabby Wilson (9.9125) rounded out the floor exercise. Michigan's 49.425 on the floor, which was the third-best score at the NCAA Championships in team history, helped U-M get out to a great start. Despite that, it emerged from the event with a lead of only 0.0125. Next up was the vault, with the team earning three sets of 9.8875 scores from Wojcik, Wilson and sophomore Reyna Guggino. Brooks led the Wolverines in the event with a 9.900 score. Despite U- M's strong showing, Auburn's Suni Lee and Derrian Gobourne each scored 9.950 to help the Tigers leap U-M for first place. The Wolverines needed to shine on the uneven bars to provide some wiggle room heading into their last event, the balance beam. This would require three 9.9s or better. Heiskell kicked things off with a bang, sticking her landing and grabbing a 9.9125 score. This was where the meet started to take a turn. Brenner fell in the second slot of the rotation and finished with a 9.000. Her teammates picked her up with sopho- more Naomi Morrison (9.8875), Brooks (9.950) and Wojcik (9.925) giving the Wolverines momentary momentum. Freshman Jacey Vore, operating out of the anchor spot, dismounted too close to the tall bar and fell to the mat, earning a score of 8.975. This forced Michigan to count Brenner's score and dropped it to 0.6375 behind second-place Florida. The pressure from there appeared to be too much. Two more falls occurred during the final rotation on the beam. Despite that, Heiskell (9.900) and Wojcik (9.8625) ended their careers on a high note with standout performances in the event. And that was all she wrote for U-M in the final meet. A year in which the squad held the No. 1 ranking for eight weeks and was consistent all season long was over in the blink of an eye. Re- gardless, Plocki will carry the memories of this group with her for a long time. "I'm incredibly proud of the culture that we have in our program," Plocki said. "After 33 years, last year and this year have been some of the most amaz- ing athletes I've ever coached, not just athletically but personally." ❏ The Wolverines put on a show during the NCAA Championships in Detroit, positioning themselves for a great dis- play in front of local fans. After winning its first Big Ten title since 1973 to kick off the postseason, Michigan parlayed that momentum into a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships at Little Caesars Arena, just 45 minutes east of Ann Arbor. Six wrestlers earned All-America hon- ors, tied for most in the country and a program record for the Maize and Blue, which was set in 1965. The Wolverines' finish in Detroit gave them their fourth straight top-five NCAA showing and the highest since 2005. It was the sixth time in the history of the program they finished second. The effor t was spearheaded by 125-pound graduate student Nick Su- riano's national title and a runner-up finish from graduate student Myles Amine, who wrestled at 184 pounds. Suriano's victory was the 23rd individual NCAA title in U-M history and the first since Kellen Russell's championship in 2012. Suriano captured his second NCAA title after previ- ously taking gold at 133 pounds during his time at Rutgers in 2019. His 2022 title came via a 5-3 victory over Princeton's Patrick Glory. "I have a great coaching staff with Michigan Men, and I'm blessed and fortunate to the day I die for them supporting me," Suriano said after the victory. "The team race was one thing, but for me getting this title again on my mom's birth- day was another. "I feel like tonight I got to learn about myself and had a few lulls at the end there. It's a seven minutes of who you become in your life. And I think that struck me so much more than in my last experience in 2019." Amine joined Suriano in making the championship match but fell 5-3 to defending national champion Aaron Brooks of Penn State. Despite the loss, Amine walked away with All-America honors for the fifth time, making him the only Michigan wrestler ever to achieve that feat. It helped cement his legacy and add to the résumé of the legendary Amine wrestling family. "My grandfather was an immigrant from Lebanon and lived in the Dear- born, metro Detroit area almost his whole life, and he raised my father and my uncle, both successful college wres- tlers," he said after the NCAA semifinals. "My dad was an NCAA finalist at Michi- gan, always a little joke on the side. He always had that over me, so I've got to give him grief for that. "My family has been connected to wres- tling and the whole state of Michigan. My dad and uncle wrestled together in high school, and my brother and my cousin and I were at Detroit Catholic Central, right down the road, and my other cousin was at Brighton High School. There are deep, deep roots from the Amine family. "I said this before the tournament I wanted to focus on this for myself, and after this I will have time to focus on the legacy." Fourth-year U-M head coach Sean Bormet walked out of the NCAA Championships with accolades of his own. He was named National Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, making him the first coach in program history to achieve the honor. He was also the Big Ten's Coach of the Year after the team won the conference tournament, amassing a program-record 143 points. Michigan's other All-Americans included 157-pound Will Lewan (fourth), 165-pound Cameron Amine (fifth), 174-pound Logan Massa (fifth) and 285-pound Mason Parris (fifth). — Anthony Broome U-M Wrestling Finishes Second At NCAA Championships Grad student 125-pounder Nick Suriano earned the 23rd individual NCAA title in school history. PHOTO BY SAM JANICKI