The Wolverine

May 2018

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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MAY 2018 THE WOLVERINE 69   OLYMPIC SPORTS UPDATE against Hawai'i in 2007 … The Wol- verines' 20-game winning streak was snapped with an 8-7 sudden-death overtime loss to No. 15 Princeton April 8 in Boston … On April 11, ju- nior attacker Julia Sellers was named the CWPA Player of the Week after she tallied 15 goals and eight steals in five league games from April 7-8 … U-M capped off its regular sea- son with a 10-9 victory over No. 16 Hartwick April 14 … The Wolver- ines enter the CWPA Championships April 27-29 in Lewisburg, Pa., as the league's No. 2 seed. ❏ Best Performance — Feb. 21-24 at the Big Ten Cham- pionships: The Wolverines finished the event by racking up 1,617.5 points (a 235.5-point increase from last year) to place second out of 10 teams, finishing just 40.5 points behind first-place Indiana. Of U-M's 26 student-athletes that participated, 25 of them scored points, while 47 new personal bests were also set. Freshman distance special- ist Ricardo Vargas won two silver medals and a bronze at the event, and was the highest scoring freshman in attendance. MVP — Sophomore distance specialist Felix Aubock: After winning the conference's Swimmer of the Year award and landing on the All-Big Ten first team last season as a freshman, Aubock once again earned first-team all-league honors in 2018. He was also a two-time Big Ten champion (500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle), while finish- ing second in both events at the NCAA Championships. Honors: Senior distance specialist P.J. Ransford took home the NCAA Elite 90 Award for a second straight year, and was also presented with the Big Ten Medal of Honor … Vargas was tabbed as the league's Freshman of the Year … Nine different Wolverines earned All-America recogni- tion — Aubock in the 500-yard freestyle (second) and 1,650-yard freestyle (second), sophomore Tommy Cope in the 200-yard breaststroke (seventh), Ransford in the 1,650- yard freestyle (sixth), sophomore Charlie Swanson in the 400-yard individual medley (sixth), Vargas in the 500-yard freestyle (eighth) and 1,650-yard freestyle (seventh), and senior Paul Powers, freshman Luiz Gustavo Borges, sopho- more James Jones and fifth-year senior James Peek in the 200-yard freestyle relay (eighth) … Eight individuals and three relay teams also earned All-America honorable men- tion recognition … Five Wolverines were tabbed to the All-Big Ten first team — Aubock, Gustavo Borges, Peek, Powers and Swanson, while five more landed on the all- conference second team — Cope, Ransford, Vargas, and junior freestylers Mokhtar Al-Yamani and Kai Williams. Notable: Michigan's season came to an end March 24 at the NCAA Championships when it finished eighth out of 32 teams … The top-10 finish was the 28th for U-M in the last 32 seasons, but its first since 2015 … Freshman diver Ross Todd qualified for the NCAA Championships, becom- ing the school's first diver to do so since Jason Coben in 2004. MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING Best Performance — March 24 at the Big Ten Championships in Champaign, Ill.: Michigan claimed its fifth straight Big Ten champion- ship when it racked up 197.200 points to place first out of 10 teams. U-M was led by its three seniors at the event — Brianna Brown cap- tured a piece of the uneven bars title, Lauren Marinez shared the title on balance beam and Paige Zaziski wound up second in the all-around. MVP — Senior Paige Zaziski: She was named Big Ten Co-Gymnast of the Year (sharing it with Penn State's Briannah Tsang), and also landed on the All-Big Ten first team. In addition, the senior won 10 individual event or all-around titles this season, includ- ing two on vault, five on bars, one on beam and two in the all-around. Honors: Junior Emma McLean was named a second-team regular- season All-American by the National Association of College Gymnastics Coaches/Women … Brown, Zaziski, McLean and sophomore Lexi Funk received first-team All-Big Ten honors, while Marinez and freshmen Lauren Farley and Syd Townsend landed on the conference's second team. Notable: Michigan's season came to an end April 7 when it finished fourth (out of six teams) at the NCAA Regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala. … The Big Ten championship was the 24th in school history … U-M set a new attendance record at Crisler Center, when it drew 7,212 fans for its victory over No. 4 Utah March 10 (the previous record was 5,042) … The Wolverines' seven All-Big Ten honorees were its most since it had eight in 2008. — Austin Fox WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS (26-5-1 OVERALL, 8-1 BIG TEN) Michigan won its fifth straight Big Ten title for the fourth time in school history — joining streaks of six in a row from 1992-97, seven in a row from 1999-2005 and five in a row from 2007-11. Each of these has occurred under 29th-year head coach Bev Plocki. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY

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