The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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APRIL 2024 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 15 ❱ INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS FIVE YEARS AGO, 2019: Michigan's Big Ten champion women's gymnastics squad advanced to the NCAA Champi- onships with a clutch performance in Crisler Arena on April 6, 2019. The Wol- verines took second in the NCAA Re- gional Final with a score of 197.275, edg- ing out Alabama (197.225) to join UCLA (198.075) in moving on to become one of the final eight teams standing. Michigan carried a team slogan of "Can't break steel" and never gave in. Olivia Karas and Natalie Wojcik tied for second in the overall competition, scor- ing 39.475. The Wolverines struggled in the vault competition, placing no one in the top six. Their best in the uneven parallel bars involved Lauren Farley's eighth-place finish. But they turned it up in the other events. Wojcik took second and Karas sixth in the balance beam, while Abby Brenner, Emma McLean and Karas tied for fourth in the floor exercise. Those efforts and Michigan's overall depth allowed U-M to keep the Tide from rolling into the elite of the NCAA in 2019. At the national championship meet, Michigan failed to advance to the semi- finals in the team competition, but the Wolverines' Natalie Wojcik won the gold medal on balance beam in the individual competition. 10 YEARS AGO, 2014: Michigan's men's gymnastics team reached the top of the mountain, securing its second consecutive national championship in a memory for the ages in Crisler Arena on April 11, 2014. The host team for the NCAA Championships left no doubt, piling up 445.050 points, led by another all-around national championship ef- fort by senior Sam Mikulak, who posted an all-around score of 91.10 to claim his second straight and third overall such national championship. Mikulak won national championships in the floor ex- ercise (16.05), pommel horse (15.60), still rings (14.75), vault (15.30) and parallel bars (16.05), delivering a dominant per- formance that allowed the Wolverines to gain significant separation from the field. Runner-up Oklahoma finished more than three points behind the Wolver- ines at 441.650, while the rest of the field could barely see the champions. Several Wolverines backed Mikulak well enough to make the NCAA Individual Event Finals, including senior Matt Free- man, junior Nick Hunter, grad student Syque Caesar, freshman Tristian Perez- Rivera and junior Stacey Ervin. They and their teammates celebrated Michigan's doubling down on the national cham- pionship status they'd achieved a year earlier under coach Kurt Golder. "It doesn't get any better than win- ning at home," Golder said afterward. "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 himself became so caught up in the moment, he struggled to recall in- dividual components of it after a title- clinching floor exercise. "I got vicious," Mikulak said. "I don't think I've ever had my heart race that fast as I did right after my routine. I came over and just gave everybody a hug. I al- most can't remember it was so good." 25 YEARS AGO, 1999: Michigan's women's gymnastics squad came within three-tenths of a point of a national championship, finishing No. 2 in the NCAA Championship Super Six Team Finals in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 24, 1999. The Wolverines took national cham- pion Georgia to the brink, scoring 196.550 to Georgia's 196.850. The sec- ond-place finish matched Michigan's best-ever effort in the sport, up until that point. Senior Nikki Peters fueled the Wolver- ines' effort, tying for the championship on the uneven bars and scoring 9.900 or better on all three of her events. Sarah Cain took second in the all-around to bolster Michigan's surge. "We knew how close the meet was, and our girls came through under pres- sure in a big way," Michigan head coach Bev Plocki observed. "It just so happened that Georgia also came up big on the floor exercise at the same time." — John Borton MICHIGAN'S TOP PERFORMERS Women's basketball junior Laila Phelia: The 6-foot guard was named first- team All-Big Ten by both the coaches and media, and was U-M's lone representative on the all-conference teams. Graduate guard Lauren Han- sen, meanwhile, earned an honorable mention nod. Phelia started 29 games in the regular season, averaging 16 points and 3.6 rebounds per contest, and scored in double figures in all but four outings. She was a second-team honoree by the coaches and media as a sopho- more and was on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team in 2021-22. Women's tennis senior Gala Mesochoritou: She was tabbed as the Big Ten Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week for the first time in her career Feb. 28, after helping U-M go 2-0 on the week with wins over No. 5 NC State (4-1) and Columbia (4-0). She recorded a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles over NC State's No. 27-ranked Anna Zyryanova and clinched the Wolverines' win over Columbia with a 6-0, 6-2 triumph at No. 3 singles over Gayathri Krishnan. Men's lacrosse senior Michael Boehm: In a 13-8 win over No. 19 Delaware March 2, the attackman be- came just the second Wolver- ine in history to surpass 200 career points, assisting on a goal with 1:40 remaining in the first quarter. Josh Zawada (2020-23) currently holds the program's record with 213 points (119 goals, 94 assists). Through March 16, Boehm is at 209 points — 4 shy of the all-time mark. Boehm was also named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after putting up 7 points each in wins over Canisius Feb. 13 and Hobart Feb. 17. Water polo senior Kata Utassy: The attacker was recognized as Collegiate Wa- ter Polo Association Player of the Week Feb. 29, her second time winning the award this season. She put up 14 points in a 3-1 weekend at the Bar- bara Kalbus Invitational in Irvine, Calif. The Budapest, Hungary, native tallied 7 goals and 7 assists in wins over Cal State Fullerton, No. 13 UC Santa Barbara and No. 7 Arizona State. — Clayton Sayfie THIS MONTH IN MICHIGAN ATHLETICS HISTORY