The Wolverine

December 2016

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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66 THE WOLVERINE DECEMBER 2016   OLYMPIC SPORTS UPDATE the NCAA Championships. Senior 157-pounder Brian Murphy will bring veteran leadership to the team as a captain, along with fellow senior captains Adam Coon (heavy- weight) and Dominic Abounader (184 pounds). However, Coon will sit out this season and use a medical redshirt as he recovers from offseason surgery, while Abounader will also use a medi- cal redshirt following surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. Michi- gan will also place junior 149-pound wrestler Alec Pantaleo on redshirt to give him time off after he spent the offseason training for Junior World Championships. Murphy will have to become even more involved as a leader this season, and is someone who prefers to lead by example rather than be vocal. He is the team's highest ranked wrestler accord- ing to Intermat at No. 5 in the country for his weight class. The Carol Stream, Ill., native was out for much of the sea- son last year with injury, but went 11-9 overall and placed third in the Big Ten Tournament. It is not all bad news for the Wol- verines, however. Redshirt sophomore Davonte Mahomes returns to action at 174 after suffering season-ending injuries the last two seasons. Mahomes is 24-11 in his career and was ranked as the No. 41 overall recruit by Intermat coming out of high school. In addition to Mahomes, the young wrestlers on the team are prepared to step up and looking good so far, though the Wolverines have only had one dual match this season, a 24-9 vic- tory over Virginia Nov. 11. "We had seven redshirt freshmen in our dual against Virginia, and I thought they all competed really well," head coach Joe McFarland said. "They bring a lot of energy, and one of the things that we've been talking to them a lot about is how we compete, the pace that we set when we're on the mat, making sure we're executing and getting to our offense first, and I think they've done a great job of that." Redshirt freshmen Logan Massa at 165 pounds and Stevan Micic at 133 will both be looking to make big im- pacts right away. Massa is a three-time Michigan high school wrestling cham- pion and was ranked as the No. 2 over- all recruit by Intermat before joining the Wolverines. He went 13-1 in open tournaments last year. Micic came into college as the No. 1 126-pound wrestling recruit and won a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships last year at 121 pounds. McFarland also highlighted Austin Assad (125) and Myles Amine (174) as redshirt freshmen that have impressed him early on this season. It will not be easy for the Wolver- ines — the Big Ten is the top wrestling conference in the country, with seven teams in the top 15 of the coaches' poll. Michigan will also wrestle No. 12 Le- high, No. 15 Oregon State and No. 18 Oklahoma in its non-conference sched- ule. However, despite the tough road ahead, there is still plenty of potential for a successful season. "We've got a lot of good, quality guys that aren't afraid to work hard," McFarland said. "The development so far that we've seen in these guys, they're hungry to win and they're hun- gry to compete, so I don't know if there is a ceiling on these guys." — Leland Mitchinson WOMEN'S SOCCER DANCES FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2013 The Michigan women's soccer team did something they haven't done since 2013 this season — make the NCAA Tournament. Led offensively by soph- omore forward Reilly Martin and se- nior forward Nicky Waldeck, the Wol- verines finished the 2016 season with a 10-5-5 record after a gut-wrenching penalty kick loss to Illinois State in the first round of NCAA Tournament. "This year, I thought they just had a fantastic season," head coach Greg Ryan said. "I think when you work that hard, when you do that well, when you come up with the big wins that they came up with, you just hope to get rewarded with an NCAA Tour- nament selection, and I'm just very proud of [the team] for everything they did for us this year." Martin and Waldeck led the charge in a season in which Michigan tallied 34 goals while limiting opponents to 23. Martin finished with a team-high 10 assists, adding seven goals along the way, while Waldeck put nine shots in the back of the net this season to lead the team in that category. Redshirt sophomore goalie Sarah Jackson held the defense together in the back and had 78 saves on the season. Waldeck and the six other seniors on the team were all freshmen the last time the Wolverines were in the tour- nament, and they provided valuable leadership along the way. "This was really an outstanding group of seniors, both as leaders and as quality people," Ryan said. "This senior class brought the team closer together than any team we've had in my nine years at Michigan. They were always positive, always supportive. "If there was a loss, they bounced right back, always ready for the next challenge, and I just credit this whole season to an outstanding group of seniors." Martin will be back to lead the squad next year, along with a few key pieces of the team that missed this season due to injury. Redshirt freshman 165-pounder Logan Massa opened the season ranked No. 7 at his weight class by FloWrestling.org. PHOTO BY SAM JANICKI

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