The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1534644
MAY 2025 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 59 ❱ OLYMPIC SPORTS UPDATE Winter/Spring Sports Roundup BASEBALL Pitcher Tate Carey grabbed Big Ten Freshman of the Week and National Col- lege Baseball Writers Association Pitcher of the Week honors for the period ending April 13 after pitching 12 scoreless innings across two appearances with two wins, headlined by a 7-inning no-hitter against Akron. It was the first for a Michigan pitcher since 1994. Pitcher Will Rogers and shortstop Benny Casillas made national postseason award watchlists. Rogers is up for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award, while Casillas is in the mix for the Brooks Wallace Player of the Year honor. SOFTBALL Michigan earned a series sweep over Rutgers on April 14 with an 8-4 vic- tory and a milestone moment for head coach Bonnie Tholl, who grabbed her 100th career win in Ann Arbor. As of April 22, the team sat at 31-15 overall and 9-7 in Big Ten play. MEN'S GOLF The regular season came to an end with a seventh-place finish at the Pur- due Invitational, which wrapped on April 20 in West Lafayette, Ind. Senior Hunter Thomson closed out his regular-season career with a first-place fin- ish and his sixth top-five placement of the season. He was minus-10 for the event, his fifth straight showing with a sub-par 54-hole mark. Classmate Yuqi Liu tied for 13th with a minus-2 on the weekend, sparked by a career-low 65 (-6) in the second round. WOMEN'S GOLF Top-20 finishes from junior Lauren Sung (tied for 12th) and redshirt sopho- more Mara Janess (T-19th) helped lead U-M to eighth place at the Big Ten Championships played at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Md., on April 20. Oregon won the Big Ten title, with Michigan State and Illinois finishing sec- ond and third, respectively. Ohio State, Northwestern, Wisconsin and UCLA finished ahead of the Wolverines. MEN'S GYMNASTICS The men's team captured its fifth consecutive Big Ten championship on April 4 at Crisler Center, finishing with a score of 330.750, its second-highest team score of the year. The Wolverines' fifth straight conference title is their longest streak since winning six in a row from 1961-66. Penn State (323.850) and Nebraska (322.850) finished in second and third in the event, respectively. U-M capped off its season with its first NCAA title since 2014 (see national championship article on page 9). WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS Freshman Sophia Diaz represented the program at the NCAA Individual Event Finals on April 17 in Fort Worth, Texas, recording a 9.7125 on the vault in her first NCAA nationals appearance. Diaz was a standout for the Wolverines this season, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors and grabbing a spot on the All-Freshman team while competing on vault, uneven bars and floor exercise. She won six event titles this year, including three on the vault, two on uneven bars and one on floor. The season ended for the team on April 3, after finishing third in the sec- ond round of the NCAA Regionals. Michigan finished fourth at the Big Ten Championships. MEN'S LACROSSE The regular season came to a bitter end on April 19 with a 10-8 loss to rival Ohio State, dropping the Wolverines to 7-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play entering the Big Ten Tournament, The defeat put them in as the No. 4 seed with a game against No. 5 seed Rutgers on April 26 in Ann Arbor. WOMEN'S LACROSSE The 12th-ranked Wolverines (11-5 overall, 5-3 Big Ten) earned the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament after their regular-season finish, a 12-9 win over Rutgers at home on April 19. Sophomore Emma Bradbury and senior Jane Fetterolf both had hat tricks, while senior Jill Smith and junior Calli Nor- ris had 2 goals apiece in the victory. MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING Junior Eitan Ben-Shitrit, senior Connor Hunt, junior Tyler Ray and junior Logan Zucker were named CSC Academic All-District members for the 2024- 25 season. Eligibility is determined by being a sophomore academically and maintaining at least a 3.50 grade-point average. U-M was a runner-up at Big Ten Championships and finished 11th at the NCAA Championships. WOMEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING Juniors Malia Amuan, Kiarra Milligan, Ella Jo Piersma and Letitia Sim earned CSC Academic All-District nods for their efforts this season. The Wolverines wrapped their season at the NCAA Championships on March 22, finishing ninth overall. The team took third at the Big Ten Championships in February. MEN'S TENNIS Senior Will Cooksey upset No. 12-ranked Ozan Baris in straight sets, the highest-ranked win of his career, but it was not enough to prevent a 4-2 team loss to Michigan State in the regular-season finale April 19. Cooksey, who ranks No. 85 nationally, grabbed back-to-back 7-5 matches in his showdown with Baris, his second-ranked win of the year. He avenged a loss from October in the ITA Midwest Regional Championships, where Baris won in a two-match set. WOMEN'S TENNIS The third-ranked Wolverines clinched their third consecutive outright Big Ten regular-season championship after taking down Michigan State, 4-0, on April 19 at Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor. The win moved U-M to an 11-0 mark at home during the regular season. Michigan had already clinched at least a share of the title on April 13 with a win at home over Washington and now stands alone at the top of the stand- ings. It is the 13th Big Ten title in program history, which now ranks second all-time among Big Ten schools. It is head coach Ronni Bernstein's 12th Big Ten title, which is third all-time in the conference. TRACK AND FIELD Trent McFarland (3:38.45) and Brendan Herger (3:38.72) posted personal bests in the 1,500-meter run, finishing second and third at the Wake Forest Invitational on April 18. The duo set top-10 times on the program perfor- mance list for the second meet in a row with McFarland standing at No. 3 and Herger at No. 4, respectively. On the women's side, the team set a program record in the 4x400-meter relay event at the Tom Jones Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., on April 19. Pay- ton Smith, Savannah Sutherland, Sidney Green and Noelani Phillips clocked a 3:30.17, beating the previous record by 0.33 seconds. WATER POLO The 16th-ranked Wolverines ended their regular season on April 19 at Indiana, falling 14-11 to the 12th-ranked Hoosiers at Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center. U-M heads into the postseason with a 17-10 record on the year and a 9-3 mark in CWPA play, earning the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. — Anthony Broome