The Wolverine

June-July 2012

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Student-Athlete Of The Month Swimming Junior Valerie Barthelemy ming since before she could remember. It feels almost natural that she gravitated toward a major that would keep her in the water. When Barthelemy, an Ann Arbor native, was at Pioneer High School, Valerie Barthelemy was born to be in the water. The junior individual medley and butterfly specialist has been swim- her calculus teacher brought in an oceanographer for a special pre- sentation. "He talked about how he uses math, and he showed us all these equations that he uses for oceanography," she said. "I remember thinking that was really interesting. I had a family friend who was an atmospheric and oceanic engineer. She spent some time chasing tornadoes, and I always find that kind of stuff really interesting. So I knew I might want to go into something similar. lemy joined the School of Literature, Science and Arts and took an introduction to oceanography course. But it wasn't exactly what she imagined it would be. "Truthfully, I found it a bit As a freshman, Barthe- " player in each of the past two sea- sons, King was named the team's MVP for the second consecutive year at the tennis banquet May 10. The Chicagoan was named the 2012 Big Ten Athlete of the Year af- ter posting a perfect 11-0 mark in conference competition. The junior became the seventh Wolverine in program history to receive the league's top accolade and the first since Peter Pusztai took home the honor in 1996. Women's tennis freshman Emina Betkas: One PERFORMERS OF THE MONTH Men's tennis junior Evan King: Michigan's top MICHIGAN'S TOP of two U-M players named to the All-Big Ten first team, along with sophomore Brooke Bolender, Betkas became the third straight Wolverine to garner Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors. The Indianapolis native went 8-3 in conference competition and was 21-5 overall in dual matches at the No. 1 singles position through May 14. Including tour- naments, she boasts a 32-9 record this season — her 32 wins ranking fifth in the single-season annals and second for victories by a freshman. Baseball junior Patrick Biondi: On a team boring. I was not as inter- ested in the earth sciences aspect," Barthelemy said. "I was in calculus 3 at the time, and I realized that I really like mathemat- ics. So I started to look into engineering, and I saw naval architecture, and I thought, 'Perfect — this could be a mix of all my interests: the ocean, physics and math.' I transferred into the School of Engineering halfway through my sophomore year. Barthelemy, an individual medley and butterfly specialist, earned a spot on the Academic All-Big Ten team this year. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS work and several labor-intensive group projects. But her years of commitment to swimming and diving helped her push through and achieve a spot on the Academic All-Big Ten team. "It became more difficult when you had to work in groups and on lab In her junior year, Barthelemy had to balance practice, class, school- " reports and things like that, organizing meetings and working with people who aren't on the same schedule as an athlete, Barthelemy has another year of undergrad left, and she is weighing the options for the future. There are two major paths of naval engineering/architecture majors: we've been trained since we were really young to get used to waking up early to go to morning practices, then go to school, then study all night. In that sense, you kind of train your body to just go all day. " enter the commercial sector or work on projects for the U.S. Navy. "I hope to work overseas, and there's a postgraduate program that sends students out there, to learn more about manufacturing and the business aspect of naval architecture and engineering. "I'm hoping to immerse myself in that and see if the commercial " " she said. "There's a huge shipyard in Korea, " she said. "But wracked by injuries in 2012, the Woodhaven, Mich., native has been a model of stability, starting all 52 games this season through May 14. The junior is hitting .309 with a .422 on-base percentage and has notched a career-high 31 steals to rank fourth in the single-season annals. The 5-9, 163-pound speedster now ranks second all time at Michigan with his 87 stolen bases, trailing record- holder Eric Rose (2004-07) by just three. Water polo sophomore Kelsey Nolan: Though Michigan bowed out of the postsea- son one win shy of qualifying for the NCAA Championships, the future remains extremely bright thanks to the presence of players like Nolan, who finished third among the Wol- verines with 39 markers this past season. The San Jose, Calif., native was named to the Eastern Championships All-Tournament sec- ond team after scoring six goals in the three-game playoff weekend. Women's track and field sophomore Kiley To- side is intriguing. Our engineering department has strong ties with the Navy, so there are a lot of opportunities to work on that side, too, whether it's design or manufacturing. — Andy Reid 18 THE WOLVERINE JUNE/JULY 2012 bel: Michigan's indoor and outdoor pole vault records had stood since 2003 and 2004, respectively, but this year Tobel has edged past Elizabeth Boyle by setting new marks. Tobel cleared 13-11 at the Big Ten Cham- pionships May 13 to take the out- door record away from Boyle and shattered Boyle's indoor mark of clearing the bar at 13-10½ at the Silverston Invitational Feb. 18.

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