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]

 

[Jake Babe]

Men's Swimming and Diving 

Like wrestling, the men's swimming and diving team had a solid season, no B1G championship like 2020 or 2021 but a respectable campaign that saw individual athletes gain some praise as well. Michigan's team went 7-4 in head-to-head competition against a sole opponent, while competing in plenty of meets, as is standard in NCAA aquatics. Only four were B1G regular season meetings (though they did face Northwestern in a matchup that does not affect the conference record), 2-2 with wins over Wisconsin and Purdue and losses to Indiana and Ohio State, both of whom were top ten teams at the time. As a matter of fact, all four of Michigan's head-to-head losses to individual opponents were top ten ranked teams, with Virginia and Tennessee also being ranked that highly. 

In the postseason, Michigan hosted the B1G championships at Canham Natatorium, ultimately taking third at the event behind Indiana and Ohio State. Sophomore Gal Groumi was the headliner of the weekend, winning the gold in the 100 yard butterfly thanks to a B1G, school, and pool record time of 44.50 seconds. He also took gold in the 200-yard IM and silver in the 200-yard butterfly, the only Wolverine to earn All-B1G 1st team honors. Eitan Ben-Shitrit won B1G Freshman of the Year taking one silver (800 free relay) and two bronze (200 IM, 400 IM). He was one of eight Michigan swimmers to earn All-B1G 2nd team honors, wrapping up the team's third place finish for the weekend. 

NCAAs were next up, the Zone Diving Championships in Bloomington and the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis. The former was for Cameron Gammage and Kameron Liberman, which saw Gammage advance and qualify for the NCAA Championships two weeks later. There the team took 20th overall, with Groumi the only competitor to earn All-America honors after taking eighth in the 200 butterfly (he was an honorable mention in the 100 butterfly). The Wolverines did get honorable mention All-America in the 800 freestyle relay, the 200 freestyle relay, the 400 medley relay, and via Jared Daigle in the 400 IM. A good reason for optimism moving forward is this was a young team, with all but two of the swimmers on the team to earn 1st or 2nd All-B1G honors having at least one year of eligibility remaining, so Michigan should be able to build on this core and improve moving forward. 

 

[Jake Babe]

Women's Swimming and Diving

The women's swimming and diving team had an eerily similar season to the men's squad, also going 2-2 in the conference meetings, going 7-5 overall, also taking third at the B1G championships and finishing with a spot in the 20s at the NCAAs [Spiderman pointing meme]. To compound the similarities, the women's team's losses were also to top notch teams, #15 Tennessee, #5 Ohio State, #12 Indiana, #2 UVA, and #17 North Carolina. So you could paint with broad strokes and say it's the same thing as the men and there's nothing else to know, but that's not what we're here to do: let's give some recognition to the top athletes. 

Katie Crom was Michigan's standout at the B1G Championships, with one gold (200 butterfly), two silver, and two bronze at the event, also winning B1G Freshman of the Year honors. On the diving side, Kiarra Milligan is a name who deserves mentioning, taking second on the one-meter springboard, Michigan's best finish in that event since 2007, and then took second in the three-meter the next day. Lindsay Flynn also got Michigan a silver in the 100 freestyle and her and Milligan were two of the eight Wolverines to earn All-B1G Second Team honors, while Crom was the lone first teamer. 

The NCAAs came and went without much to note, Michigan finishing well outside the picture in the events they made the cut for, so there are no All-America honors to talk about. The good news, though, is just one of Michigan's All-B1G honorees was a senior (Crom and Milligan both being underclassmen), so like the men's team, plenty should roll over to next season to build on as Mike Bottom's staff hopes to return this group to when they were winning conference championships in the mid-2010s.

 

[David Wilcomes]

Women's Gymnastics

The women's gymnastics team suffered a disappointing season, but mostly because of the ridiculous standard they have set for themselves. Two years removed from the first National Championship in program history, this season seemed perfectly set up for another run at the crown. The squad featured a thoroughly veteran lineup, with fourth- and fifth-year gymnasts providing more than 75% of their routines on a regular basis. They got fifth years out of defending AAI Award (i.e. the 'Heisman of Women's Gymnastics') winner Natalie Wojcik and defending Big Ten All-Around Champion (and author of one of the coolest moments in Michigan Athletics history) Abby Heiskell. They won another Big Ten regular season title as well as their 26th Big Ten Championship Meet title in the last 30 years. And in between those two titles, they knocked off #1 Oklahoma at Crisler on Senior Night. Everything was going according to plan.

They entered the NCAA tournament as the #3 in the country and a significant favorite to be one of the eight teams to advance to Nationals. However, after a solid Regional Semifinal performance in which they finished first by a comfortable margin, they suffered an uncharacteristically unsteady performance in the Regional Final. They weren't BAD, but they racked up the kind of small deductions they usually avoided. And in a sport where the scoreboard includes fractions of hundredths of a point, they somehow finished exactly tied with LSU for second place, with LSU advancing on a tiebreaker. There are gut punches, and then there is... whatever that is.

Still, despite the season ending the way it did, the program did get some good news. Sierra Brooks won the AAI Award as the nation's top senior gymnast. Brooks and Gabby Wilson have also announced that they would return for their respective fifth years, which combined with rising Senior Naomi Morrison should give Michigan another solid core to make a run at another large pile of hardware and banners and whatnot.

 

[JD Scott]

Men's Gymnastics

Different year, same Victors. The Michigan men's gymnastics won their third straight Big Ten regular season title, which pairs nicely with their third straight Big Ten Championship Meet title. Those championships are particularly impressive in light of the fact that the Big Ten is the best men's gymnastics conference by a wide margin, with its five members all residing in the top seven of the current national rankings (men's college gymnastics is much less deep than the women's side), and with Michigan missing last year's NCAA All-Around Champion Paul Juda. Freshman Fred Richard won the conference all-around title with a massive score of 85.900. Richard also won the event final on the high bar.

As with the women's team, however, the squad's season will be made or broken with their performance in the NCAA tournament. And as with the women's team, the men will enter the tournament as the #3 team in the country. The National semifinals start tomorrow. It's not going to be televised, of course, because there are only 17 ESPN channels and you have to put the National Cornhole Championships somewhere. Richard, senior Adam Wooten, and Freshman Landen Blixt will attempt to lead Michigan to their first title since 2014 when Michigan concluded a run of three titles in five seasons (2010, 2013, and 2014). Michigan is in the second semifinal session, with the top three teams in each session advancing to Saturday's final.