The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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Olympic Sports Recap Men's Swimming And Diving Continuing their dominating ways, the fourth-ranked Wolverines rolled through their latest competition at the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City. Michigan ran away with the meet, tallying 967 points — 244 more than second-place Iowa. Sophomore Connor Jaeger won the 1,650-yard freestyle by nearly five seconds, and freshman Richard Funk won the 200-yard breaststroke by 3.24 seconds. Meet To Watch: at Ohio State, Jan. 28 The eighth-ranked Buckeyes are the Wolverines' main competition for a Big Ten title, so the dual meet will be a heated one, heading into the conference championships on Feb. 22. Women's Swimming And Diving Michigan had a rough start to the year, losing dual meets to Stanford, Florida and Indiana, and finishing sixth out of six teams at the diving-only Pittsburgh Invitational. But the tide turned in December, when the Wolverines took first place at the Hawkeye Invitational, crushing second-place Denver, 980-632.5. Three Michigan swimmers placed in the top five of the 1,650-yard freestyle, with junior Adrienne Bicek winning. The Wolverines were in last place heading into the final day of competition, but won five of six swimming events to win the title. Meet to Watch: vs. Indiana, Jan. 7 Despite their Hawkeye Invitational crown, the Wolverines have won just one duel meet (against Toledo), and face the Hoosiers on Jan. 7. Men's Gymnastics Michigan hasn't kicked off the season yet, with the initial meet, the Windy City Invitational, slated for Jan. 14. After last season's fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the Wolver- ines have a younger, albeit very talented, lineup this season. Sophomore Sam Mikulak, who won the NCAA all-around national championship as a true freshman last year, will lead the team, and freshman Adrian de los Ange- les, who trained with Mikulak in California and won the 2011 Junior Nationals all- around title, will add some flair. Meet To Watch: at Illinois, Jan. 28 The Fighting Illini, ranked No. 2 na- tionally in the preseason, are one of the conference powerhouses, and the No. 3 Wolverines can test their mettle with this early-season meet. To makes things even more interesting, this will be a double- duel meet with No. 1 Oklahoma. Zeerip has always had potential, and in his final season in the Maize and Blue, he's starting to reach it. "I think he's doing a great job," McFarland said. "When he's able to go out and attack, relentless attack for seven minutes and score points, he can be a very dominating wres- tler. In the past, he's been hesitant at times to do that. He's held back; he's held on to small leads. He's sort of shut down, at times, in big matches. "One of the things we've been working on with him is making sure we're paying attention to our style of wrestling. We're not just talking about becoming better technicians, we're talking about how we're going to com- pete when we step on the mat. Scoring a lot of points and staying aggressive." For Zeerip, it all comes back to the work he put in this summer. "This summer, when we got Coach Bormet and Coach Pritzlaff on board, I was really excited, because I knew how great they'd be," Zeerip said. "I knew the coached would help me de- velop as wrestler and development my confidence". Coming into the season, I had high goals for myself. I want to be a Big Ten champ and fin- ish high on that podium at nationals. "I wrestle more aggressively and take a lot more shots. They taught me to believe in myself a lot more and just wrestle with more intensity and attack a lot more." The Wolverines got off to a slow Sam Mikulak, who won the NCAA all- around championship as a freshman last year, will lead the way for the Wolverines in 2012. PHOTO COURTESY U-M SPORTS INFORMATION Women's Gymnastics The Wolverines will look to repeat their Super Six performance from last season, with three returning All-Americans — junior vaulter Katie Zurales, junior uneven bar specialist Britnee Martinez, who were both first-team selections, and junior Natalie Beilstein, who earned second-team honors on floor. Meet To Watch: vs. Utah, Feb. 17 Michigan coach Bev Plocki likes to schedule top-flight competition, and the Utes are preseason ranked No. 5 in the country. — Andy Reid 58 THE WOLVERINE JANUARY 2012 start this season, losing to Pitt in the second meet of the year while bat- tling injuries. Early in the campaign, Grajales and fifth-year senior Kellen Russell, who won the 141-pound na- tional title last season, were held out of the lineup. Both are back now, and Michigan finished second at the Cliff Keen In- vitational and beat Wisconsin (21-12) in its first Big Ten duel meet. Unfortunately, junior 125-pounder Sean Boyle, who McFarland believed was an All-America candidate this year, needed surgery for a persistent injury and will redshirt this season. But top to bottom, McFarland is excited about the Wolverine lineup this year. "We're still sort of a work in prog- ress," McFarland said. "Our guys are still getting used to the changes, but it's all been good. We're going to con- tinue to get better through the season and the next and the next." ❑