wrestling

A few weeks back I did a non-revenue sports piece looking at the fall disciplines, how Michigan's teams fared and who the most decorated athletes in the various sports were. Today we're doing the same, except for the winter sports. A future spring sports edition will be coming in the future and it will be longer than this one, as there are only five sports to cover today: men's and women's swim/dive, men's and women's gymnastics, and wrestling. I've written up summaries for both swim and dives as well as wrestling, while I've enlisted the help of MGoBlog gymnastics correspondent BiSB to cover those two, since he knows a hell of a lot more about it than me. 

 

Wrestling

Michigan Wrestling capped off a solid season at the NCAA Championships back in mid-March, unable to secure a second-consecutive B1G Tournament title, but there's no shame when you compete in a conference as difficult as the B1G. The team went 11-4 in their head-to-head matches, 5-3 in the conference which was tied for fifth with Minnesota and Northwestern. Penn State were kings of the league this year, a perfect 8-0 in conference and winning the national championship. Along the way, the Nittany Lions won the B1G Tournament, which was held at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor this year, where the Wolverines placed fifth. In a sign of the B1G's dominance, Michigan finished sixth in the national championships in Tulsa, behind PSU, Iowa, Cornell, OSU, and Missouri. They were unable to match last season's second-place national finish, but even taking sixth is a sign of the program's strength all the same, not to mention the individual accolades the season produced, which give Wolverine wrestling fans lots to be proud of. 

Speaking of those individual accolades, let's talk about Mason Parris. The fifth-year senior became Michigan's 24th individual national champion when he secured the NCAA heavyweight title in Tulsa and the program's first ever winner of the Dan Hodge Trophy, awarded to America's best collegiate wrestler. Parris' national title capped off an immaculate 33-0 season, the capstone to what was already an illustrious collegiate career. Parris began back in 2018-19 as a freshman, 7th in the B1G that season in the heavyweight class, qualifying for the NCAAs. He was already a captain by his sophomore season in 2019-20 and took 2nd in the B1G, before the year ended early due to COVID.

[UMich Athletics]

2020-21 was Parris' first NCAA All-American campaign, where he was the national runner-up for the heavyweight title, but his senior season was marred by injury in the back-half, robbing him of the chance to win it all. He was still named an All-American again, but Parris wanted to return to school to finally take the national title. He got the clean bill of health necessary and dominated this entire season, culminating in the championship match against Penn State's Greg Kerkvliet, which Parris won to take the title. Word is that this may not be the last we see of Parris: in an interview with Rivals' Josh Henschke, Parris revealed that he plans to train for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (would be fun for puns!) and the Michigan Daily reported after the championships that Parris will stay in Ann Arbor over the summer to continue training for the Olympics. Considering that Parris was the runner-up at the NCAAs in 2021 to a future Olympic gold medalist in the Tokyo games (Gable Steveson), making Team USA for Paris seems attainable. 

Beyond the greatness of Parris, Michigan had two more All-Americans at the NCAAs. Cameron Amine took fourth in the 165 lb. weight class, earning All-America honors, which is the third time he's earned that distinction in his collegiate wrestling career. Will Lewan was seventh in the 157 lb. class, also his third All-America honor. Lewan, like Parris, is a fifth-year senior who will depart the program, but Amine has two more years eligibility remaining with his COVID-shirt and a red-shirt applying. Sean Bormet leads a strong program, competing in the toughest conference in college wrestling, and though some key wrestlers will be graduating, there is every reason to believe that Michigan will remain competitive in the years to come. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Aquatics and gymnastics]

ROAR [Allison Farrand/Daily]

SHERMAN'D. Congrats to Michigan wrestling, which took down #2 Minnesota over the weekend thanks to a dramatic OT win by heavyweight Adam Coon over Minnesota's two-time defending national champion Tony Nelson. Well done, sirs.

Meanwhile, Dave Brandon captured the most important part of the meet:

What a match! Adam Coon beats a 2x defending NCAA champion in OT & @umichwrestling upsets No. 2 Minnesota,19-14 http://t.co/OxmPcLFp84

— Dave Brandon (@DaveBrandonAD) January 20, 2014

Kudos to you sir on your triumphant victory.

Well… that sounds not ideal. Michigan's been extraordinarily fortunate to have their supposedly-middling recruits blow up into NBA first-rounders (yes even if we assume that John Beilein is a crazy talent evaluation ninja), but also kind of sort of unfortunate that their super good players have been of the variety the NBA covets instead of terrific college players the pros are indifferent to, like McDermott/Payne/Craft/Berggren etc.

You thought Nik Stauskas might be one of those four year awesome guys, but… uh… you've probably seen him play of late. And unless Joe Dumars clones himself and gets himself appointed to every other NBA GM job, chances are the NBA will think he's pretty good. If they do, don't expect Stauskas to pull the McGary. From a recent SI profile on the most swag Canadian:

“He sees the brass ring, like three inches away from his nose,” [father] Paul Stauskas said. “He knows all he has to do is keep his nose to the grindstone for another couple of months, and there’s a really good possibility he might be able to go pro. He’s working really hard to achieve that.”

Can't begrudge the kid, obviously, but a Stauskas departure would leave Michigan a bit thin next year on the wings. Also they would not have Hypothetical Junior Nik Stauskas, which…

The ideal is that the Uber-Loaded 2014 NBA Draft™ convinces Stauskas to return for one more year. I would brace for departure impact if Stauskas keeps doing what he's doing, though.

GRANDPA ASSASSIN. John Beilein's version of the Richard Sherman promo in the aftermath of the Wisconsin win:

"I don't care," the Michigan coach said Monday night, later adding, "It will be a good win if we have a great season." …

"Things that happen during the year, yeah, they’re cool and our guys like them. But where people are rated right now is such a projection. You can beat a team (that is) No. 1 in the country and by the end of the year, they might not even be in the top 25. So did you really beat the No. 1 team in the country?

"Here’s what it is: Any road win, I don’t care if we go to Concordia to play, is a quality, quality win. And (Wisconsin) was a quality win."

A requirement given Michigan's next two games. Me, I'm refreshing Kenpom every five minutes.

Tim Miles is okay by me. Nebraska picked up its first Big Ten win of the season last night, beating Ohio State at home. In the aftermath, Husker coach Tim Miles told BTN  that he should probably go jump around during his post-game interview, and then took a selfie with a fan on the court.

Miles also has an entertaining-for-a-coach, actually-him twitter account and a Beilien-esque track record of success at smaller schools that led him to Nebraska. Viva Tim Miles. Viva Nebrasketball.

Lohan come back. Injured Michigan defenseman Kevin Lohan is badly needed with the Wolverines leaking goals and slipping in the pairwise. He should be back soon:

Right now, Lohan says he’s at about 90 percent — while the recovery process has been long and arduous, he’s progressing well ahead of schedule. On Nov. 5, Berenson said the injury was a “worst-case scenario” and that it would take at least three months until the defenseman had a chance to play again.

“He’s doing really well,” Berenson said. “He’s pretty close to going all-out.”

He won't play this weekend's series against MSU; the next week or the week after are targets for a return. Mike Spath reports that when he does come back, only Bennett, Downing, and Sinelli(!) are safe. This says much about the development, or lack thereof, from Clare and Serville.

Wisconsin takes. They come from the Daily, UMHoops, Maize and Brew, and MLive. Meanwhile, Fran McCaffery lays it on a teeny bit thick in the lead up to Wednesday's showdown with Iowa:

“If you look at John over the years, he’s one of the best coaches of our generation,” said McCaffery, who will bring Iowa to the Crisler Center on Wednesday. “And the numbers bear that out. He’s going to stick with his style of play. They play a certain way. They can beat you in halfcourt, they can beat you in transition, they’re going to guard you.

"His offense is really sound, it’s not easy to guard and he’s going to plug the people into those positions and he’s going to go to those guys."

Meanwhile, Beilein provided an informative update on what's going on with redshirting Mark Donnal:

"He’s increased his strength a great deal. He’s probably like Horford or Morgan as far as a rebounder. Great hands. But he’s so much stronger than he was. He’s country strong anyhow, I mean he’s strong. He’s gaining weight. The one thing he has, which I’m looking forward to coaching, is he can really shoot the ball. He can really pass the ball. When you have big men who can do that, it can really open up your offense. But this was absolutely the right decision, because in all the other things freshmen go through — learning the offense but most importantly, defense — he needed this year to develop.”

Donnal will be Beilein's first post-type substance at Michigan who might resemble Kevin Pittsnogle in any way whatsoever. Will be interesting to see how that works with Michigan's current style of offense, which I assume isn't going away even if Stauskas exits since LeVert and Walton can pick up the pick and roll burden without issue.

Etc: Stauskas on the Journey. Wyatt Shallman shaved his head to look more like a kid at Mott. Michigan much better at offense, worse at defense without McGary, correlation is not causation. Michigan continues to dominate the USA's ice dancing program. Looking at Iowa's success.

(Quick site note: Museday is moving back to Wednesdays. I know that makes a ridiculous name more ridiculous but "Musenesday" sounds like nasal congestion)

In the calm before the storm of spring football, the diarists and board took the week to honor the other pieces of M athletics.

The Wrestler. Now I know two things about wrestling: that horrible call a few months ago, and that winning TWO (!) national championships is like, well, winning two national championships. Michigan's 141-pound wrestler Kellen Russell has done this. He's the sixth wrestler to do so for Michigan. The rest: Norvard Nalen (1953-'54), Jarrett Hubbard (1973-'74), Mark Churella (three times! 1977-'79), and Ryan Bertin (2003 and '05).

The Hockey Players. This incomparable diary by stephenrjking is hands down one of the best and most well written articles I've ever read about Michigan sports. He takes us back to the 2002 NCAA Playoffs and I can't write a better introduction than this:

It was the weekend Jed Ortmeyer achieved greatness. It was the weekend a mascot was ejected. It was the weekend Ron Mason coached his last game, and Ryan Miller played his last game. It was the weekend the CCHA Humanitarian of the Year almost murdered a dog. It was the weekend Denver stole Michigan’s locker room. It was the weekend the NCAA reconsidered its regional hosting policy.

It was one of the greatest sports experiences of my life. And incredibly, it was ten years ago this Friday.

It was also the year of the Cold War, and when the university decided swearing at opposing players on their way to the penalty box wasn't very genteel. If the tourney weekend was the loudest Yost ever got, a few weeks earlier against Michigan State has got to be up there. SRJK won Diarist of the Week and got his points about 5 minutes after this was front-paged.

For the rest of you ice junkies, there's a Picture Pages from the BG game by CenterIce, including one where Brown shows us how a screen's set in Texas. Also if you give Michigan 5 minutes of powerplay the Wolverines actually may gain the zone and score.

The Basketball Players. Right before three and a half guys bolted from next year's team, AC1997 wrote a fantastic diary going over the 2012-'13 basketball roster and what he expects from the returners. It's still mostly useful if you can mentally replace Smot's minutes with what I'm guessing will be a rotation of Morgan and NBA heirs at the 4.

East Lansing is Burning. Of course. Of course.

Multiple reports of couch burnings, rowdy activity in E.L.

10:20 p.m. Police scanner traffic and eyewitness reports indicate that there are multiple reports of fires, fireworks and arrests in East Lansing. Staff reports indicate that there are fires in the the Cedar Village neighborhood, Harrison Road and Elm and Milford streets. Fireworks were reported near Abbot Road. Police officials reported that “there’s not a lot going on right now.”

10:30 p.m. Residents are gathering on Elm Street. Mechanical engineering senior John Lusczakoski said the East Lansing Fire Department is watering down couches on the street to prevent residents from burning them. “I saw a lot of broken alcohol bottles,” he said. “They were watering down couches so we could not burn them.”"

You were expecting general shrugging of shoulders, sanguinity, and hope for next season, son? Let me introduce you to your uncle. Image HT: Blue in South Bend.

The Tennis Players. Beat Michigan State 7-0. Evan King got to 6-0, 4-0 and a break point before dropping that point and the 6060.

MGoBlue.com

The Softball Players. My mission to make everyone softball fans continues for realz starting this week. You know about the northern team problem by now: they play the first six weeks of the season in various southern tournaments. This time it meant having two games canceled for rain while Ann Arbor soaked in sun and 70. To stay warm, the team scheduled an impromptu match against Eastern Michigan (you can do that? You can do that!). As EMU warm-ups go, Michigan looked a little sloppy at first, then hit a grand slam and forced the Eagles to cry uncle in the fifth.

For those of you trying to wrack up Priority Points for better football seats this year (don't deny it – you're the same people with airline status in the lanthanides) the $70 for softball season tickets is by my calculations the cheapest way to jack up your number. They're cumulative too. Just sayin'. By the way, the most expensive way to earn Priority Points is to earn a 4-year degree from the University of Michigan.

The Big Ten season begins tomorrow as Michigan hosts Penn State. Forecast says rain for the doubleheader.

The Man Who Stares at Borges. You've met Heiko but have you really met Heiko? Six Zero's MGoProfile Series came back this week with one of the most interesting interviews, and interesting subjects, yet. Heiko answers questions about what it's like being a member of the Michigan media, from the press room experience and other members of the media, to asking Borges questions about the bubble screen and the underappreciated medical art of properly framing a question. See for yourself why we send a doctor instead of a journalist to press conferences.

The Men Who Embed Videos. Other than ruining the UFR backlog and other heinous crimes against fair use, T.E.M. has now killed off the great Brady Quinn for Heisman Video, but for now you can still have the other without the one. You can also have Denard's magical first snap at Michigan, Denard to Roundtree, Wangler to Carter, Grbac to Howard, Desmond Howard's return, Charles Woodson's return, and much more in a thread of all-time favorite Michigan videos. Watch them all before people I despise with the hatred of a thousand supernovae manage to register enough baseless complaints to trip YouTube's level of "it's not worth it."

Etc. ZooWolverine started a thread to discuss the outlook for Michigan maintaining the Winningest Program title (note: except for Yale and Notre Dame pre-2002 or whatever year that was when we took it for good nobody else really talks about this). MMB drum major tryouts has to be coming up real soon right?

Your Moment of Zen: