The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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58 THE WOLVERINE ❱ JUNE/JULY 2023 BY ANTHONY BROOME A coronation took place on May 6 in the Big Ten Tournament final with Michigan (9-6, 2-3 Big Ten) taking down No. 7 Maryland — the defending Big Ten and national champion — by a score of 14-5 to capture the program's first ever conference crown and trip to the NCAA Tournament. The victory took place at Johns Hopkins' historic Homewood Field in Baltimore. Michigan's run through the conference tourney included a 14-10 win over rival Ohio State and 17-15 victory over No. 4 Penn State to set up the historic moment for the program. Junior attackman Michael Boehm had 5 goals — 2 of which came in the span of four seconds — in the victory against the Terps, and he took home tournament MVP honors for his performances. "It's pretty unbelievable," Michigan head coach Kevin Conry told The Michi- gan Daily. "I have a lot of respect for our seniors and graduate students. … They believed, they stayed, they battled, and now we're Big Ten champs. We have a saying back at home: 'Those who stay will be champions.' These guys are the epitome of that." Graduate attackman Bryce Clay had 4 goals in the rout of Maryland, which gave him 100 points for his career. "I don't think there was anyone outside of our group that thought we were going to win that game today," Clay said after beat- ing Maryland. "But that's fine. That's how we get it done. … There is a lot of belief in our guys, and it's a team effort out there, so that's how we were successful today." Senior defensive midfielder Oliver Mirer was among the players who decided to stick it out after a few roller-coaster seasons. It wound up being a trait that defined the squad and fueled a confer- ence title. "We've definitely had a lot of ups and downs in my four years here — probably more downs," Mirer said about a team that went 0-5 in the Big Ten in 2022. "We sat down at the beginning of the year, coach talked to us and told us, 'This year is going to be different.' "We took it upon ourselves to turn it around, change the culture. And really, this championship, a lot of people saw it as a surprise, but we really knew that we could do this. This was not something that really shocked us. The rest of the country probably didn't see us pulling it off, but we knew right from the jump that we had a talented roster and this was something we could do. It was really just awesome to see it all come together. "Guys were pretty fed up with losing." Taking down defending national cham- pion Maryland felt like a moment that might never come, and now it will be something Mirer and his teammates will carry for the rest of their lives. "I've never seen so many guys that fired up about anything in a long time," he said. "It was really special to see." Michigan does not want this to be a one-off moment for the program, though. "This should definitely just jump-start what I would imagine to be us becoming pretty much a consistently top-10, pow- erhouse program," Mirer said. "I think this is something we all knew was coming for quite some time, but it never really ma- terialized. "Going forward, this should definitely help with things like recruiting. But more than that, just the consistent mindset that we're here to win the Big Ten. We're not here to just be complacent with being in it — we want to win. And I think the coaches are going to be able to push that to the new guys going forward." ❏ ❱ OLYMPIC SPORTS UPDATE Men's Lacrosse Captures First Big Ten Crown, NCAA Tournament Berth Michigan head coach Kevin Conry (front row, center, with block M hat) led the men's lacrosse program to its first Big Ten Tournament champi- onship with a convincing 14-5 win over defending national champion Maryland on May 6. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY