The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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national finish. Ranked No. 6 nationally follow- ing their first-place performance at the prestigious AT&T Winter Na- tionals Dec. 3-5, the Wolverines were 4-0 heading into a month-long break before resuming with a tri- meet Jan. 16 against Duke, Georgia Tech and Indiana. Senior Dylan Bosch and classmate Anders Nielsen are two of the team's best swimmers, Bosch specializing in the butterfly and individual med- ley and Nielsen in the short freestyle events. The two have combined for 18 NCAA All-American honors and 13 Big Ten titles. Sophomore PJ Ransford, who fin- ished second in the 1,650-yard free- style at both the Big Ten and NCAA Championships last year, leads a strong contingent of distance swim- mers that includes sophomore Ian Rainey and junior Cameron Stitt. WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS WILL BE LED BY THREE ALL-AMERICANS Last year, Michigan missed the Su- per Six — the final six teams that compete for an NCAA title — by the narrowest of margins (0.150 points). Head coach Bev Plocki is in her 27th season at Michigan and is looking for her 21st Big Ten title. "There are kids on this team that need to step up now," she said. "They've been sitting back and fol- lowing the lead of our upperclass- men. They see the level of expecta- tion that we have for this program year in and year out." Luckily for Plocki, she'll have re- turning All-Americans in sophomore Brianna Brown (all-around), and ju- niors Nicole Artz (all-around, balance beam, uneven bars and floor exercise) and Talia Chiarelli (balance beam and floor exercise) leading the way. The preseason rankings have not been released yet, but Michigan — which finished sixth nationally a year ago in the final top 25 — will begin its season Jan. 2 when it travels to Cancun, Mexico, to meet Arkansas and Iowa. U-M is looking for a strong contri- bution from freshmen Emma McLean and Olivia Karas to help lead Michi- gan back to the Super Six for the first time since 2011. MEN'S GYMNASTICS LOOKS TO REBOUND WITH YOUNG TEAM After winning national champi- onships in 2013 and 2014, Michigan settled for a fourth-place NCAA fin- ish last year. In 2016, head coach Kurt Golder will trot out the youngest team he's ever had during his 20-year tenure at Michigan. The roster is comprised of 15 freshmen, including 13 true freshmen, to just 11 combined sopho- mores, juniors and seniors. Despite having an extremely young team, Golder is very optimistic about what they'll be able to accomplish. "This team reminds me of the 1999 NCAA championship team in some respects in how the season unfolded," Golder explained. "We didn't win a meet that year until the end of March when we won the Golden Sands Invitational in Santa Barbara. We went on to win the