The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OLYMPIC SPORTS from Indiana (1,207.5) for the title and ended Minnesota's four-year stretch of conference domination. In the four-day competition, Michigan broke 10 school records and senior Ali DeLoof was a big part of the ti- tle-capping 400-yard freestyle relay team that set school and pool records (3:13.81) on the final day. "Honestly, we just wanted to have fun this year," DeLoof said. "We knew that we could win, and I think on Friday we knew we had a really good chance to win and almost felt like it was in the bag. It was an awe- some feeling. "After watching Minnesota win it all three years I've been here, we fi- nally just wanted it to be our turn." Men's senior Anders Lie Nielsen watched his teammates Dylan Bosch (200-yard butterfly), PJ Ransford (1,650-yard freestyle) and Tristan Sanders (200-yard backstroke) all claim individual titles during the competition, and knew that after watching the women claim a title they had a chance to do something that hadn't happened at Michigan in nearly 20 years. "We knew the women won the week before, and knowing that we haven't won both titles since 1997 gave us a great opportunity to do something special," Nielsen said. "It was awesome — it was such a great experience." Bottom couldn't say enough about his two seniors and believes that, while they may not have been in- dividual winners in terms of titles and times, they were instrumental in leading their respective teams to victories. "Both of those athletes understand what we've been doing over the last five or six years for the men and four years for the women," Bottom said. "Those are two great athletes because they have a lot of synergy between the two of them in leading the teams together, not just the singular team that they're actually on. "I think that those two understand what needs to be done with both teams and work together to have both teams supporting each other. I think that was the big difference in the last two years. It's been great to see how much the men's program got behind the women's program, as well as the women's program getting behind the men's program. "That includes the diving, too. The strength of the diving has been de- veloped as a result of that combined support and understanding, and An- ders and Ali are a big part of that." Despite the historic accomplish- ments from the conference meets, Bottom and his athletes aren't done yet. The NCAA Championships are right around the corner (March 16-19 for the women and March 23-26 for the men) and he has his sights set high. "We have NCAAs for women and we leave next week," he said. "We're in a battle. A top-10 finish for this team would really give us an under- standing that we're ready to compete at the top of the national level. "With the men, we'll be the week after that and we're battling for a