The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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14 THE WOLVERINE ❱ MAY 2026 ❱ INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS ❱ Student-Athlete Of The Month Senior Men's Gymnast Landen Blixt U-M is coming off its sixth consecutive Big Ten championship in men's gym- nastics, and Fowlerville, Mich., native Landen Blixt has been an integral part of four of those teams. The senior and two-time NCAA All-American says each one is cherished differently. "Every championship that we share with every new team that comes in is very special because every team's different," Blixt told Jon Jansen on the "Conqu'ring Heroes" podcast. "It's nice to have, especially with the new freshmen coming in, being on the senior side and still continuing that legacy." Blixt, who is enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, made the Academic All-Big Ten squad for the first time this spring. He shared some of the things he has preached to his younger teammates about handling business both in competition and in the classroom. "The most important thing is just getting a jump start, especially in your educa- tion," he said. "If everything with that is set in stone, then athletics becomes very easy because you don't have the pressure of trying to figure out homework, meet- ings, internships, stuff like that. We help them as much as we can with that, and then their athletics shine a little more because it takes pressure off their shoulders. Blixt wants to pursue a master's degree in management design and architecture. "It's something I've always wanted to do since I was a little kid, and I want to do it probably outside of the state of Michigan," he said. "Once I'm done with gymnas- tics, that's when I want to do the master's program. Then I can focus all my atten- tion on education, maybe somewhere warmer. But I definitely want to do that when I'm older because I love architecture. It's very creative, it's very mathematical." Blixt says that his interest in architecture stems from his family and the back- ground they created for themselves. "On my dad's side and my mom's side, I had a lot of engineers, graphic designers and contractors," Blixt said. "When I was little, I saw what they do for work. I would draw with my dad on the floor, and I think that's where the creativity sparked. I just wanted to do a profession where I could use creativity. "Like they always say, if you love what you're doing, you're not really working. That's part of it, and it's something I wanted to pursue." — Anthony Broome MICHIGAN'S TOP PERFORMERS Men's track and field junior Trent McFar- land: The Utica, Mich., native captured bronze in the mile run at the NCAA Indoor Champi- onships March 14, help- ing the Wolverines tie for 26th place with 11 points. McFarland was 10th heading into the final lap but ran the fastest last lap of the field (26.35 seconds) and moved up to third with a time of 3:59.45. He earned a first- team All-America citation with the distance medley relay team. He's the program's first individual indoor medalist since Ayden Owens-Delerme collected a bronze medal in the heptathlon in 2021. Women's gymnastics graduate student Carly Bauman: The West Des Moines, Iowa, native was tabbed as the 2026 Big Ten Event Specialist of the Year and earned first-team All-Big Ten rec- ognition, the third of her career. This season, she took home 10 indi- vidual event titles, including two on uneven bars, two on balance beam and six on floor exercise. Women's swimming and diving junior Bella Sims: The Henderson, Nev., native was named the Big Ten Women's Swimmer of the Year in her first season with Michigan after transfer- ring in from Florida as a three-time NCAA champion. She won Michigan's first-ever individual national title in the 400-yard in- dividual medley and two individual Big Ten titles to help the Wolverines earn their first team conference championship since 2018. M e n 's g y m n a s t i c s senior Fred Richard: Richard was named Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, capturing six event titles, including three on paral- lel bars. He previously earned the honor in 2024. Richard was then tabbed as the Gymnast of the Champion- ships and first-team all-conference at the Big Ten meet. — Clayton Sayfie Blixt is a two-time NCAA All-American (2023, '24) in the floor exercise, whose 2025 season was cut short by injury. He returned to competition for U-M in January. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETICS