2019-04-22

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Monday, April 22, 2019

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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Swept away

Michigan baseball sweeps Sunday’s doubleheader against Northwestern, showing signs of promise as the postseason nears

» Page 1B

SCOPE looks at ‘U’ tuition appeals steps, policy impact Undocumented students reveal issues with paths for meeting in-state residency JACK SILBERMAN/Daily

Students, faculty discuss nature of imposter syndrome at the University Daily surveys 400 undergrads, finds most compare their academic ability to peers SAMANTHA SMALL Daily Staff Reporter

This past semester, The Michigan Daily conducted a survey which received close to 400 responses about the nature of imposter syndrome at the University of Michigan. Imposter syndrome refers to a psychologi-

cal pattern in which an individual dismisses their accomplishments and fears being exposed as lacking or just simply a “fraud.” The survey included questions that asked students to self-report their demographics.

Demographics questions that had the most significant results included income and gender, while oth-

BUSINESS

WACWA to finalize deal with local coffee chain Following demonstration from baristas, union and employers discuss contracts LEAH GRAHAM Daily News Editor

Members of the Washtenaw Area Coffee Workers Association are finalizing an agreement with the owners of Mighty Good Coffee as the local chain prepares to shutter its retail operations by the end of the summer.

Workers celebrated the forthcoming agreement at a meeting with customers and supporters at The Grotto in downtown Ann Arbor on Friday. Alec Hershman worked as a barista at Mighty Good’s Main Street store, which closed Friday. He clarified that the agreement between the two parties is still in the works.

“Currently we’re negotiating for a cessation contract, so that’s still in process and we hope that we’re coming close to an agreement,” Hershman said.

“The employer and our union are negotiating in good faith to try and find a reasonable solution for the workers that have been laid off.”

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GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

ers such as race did not provide conclusive data. The survey was intended to gauge how students perceived themselves in relation to the rest of their peers at the University in their respective fields of study.

Originally, LSA senior Ciara Hancock wanted to attend Alma College to train as a cheerlead-

er. In her rural, predominantly white, hometown of Charlotte, Michigan, Hancock outlined two distinct post-high school paths: either belonging to the top 10 percent that transition to college, or falling within the other 90 percent that attend a trade school.

See IMPOSTER, Page 2A

ALEX HARRING Daily Staff Reporter

When Taubman junior Juan Muñoz graduated high school in 2013, he was unsure how to navigate higher education financially. Although he resides in Michigan, his status as an undocumented individual has made — and continues to make — his ascent into public higher education rocky.

The University of Michigan has a route for students who do not meet the traditional residency guidelines to receive in-state tuition, according to University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen. In an email to The Daily, she wrote that the policy, which is called the Attendance and Veterans pathways, was added in 2014. It allows students who attend middle school

in Michigan for two years, a Michigan accredited high school for three years and enroll in the University within 28 months of high school graduation to receive in-state tuition.

This pathway was the result of advocacy by the Coalition for Tuition Equality, which fought for the right of resident undocumented students to receive in-state tuition since October 2011. The Board of Regents approved the new guidelines in July 2013, and they were put into place in 2014.

Broekhuizen wrote the 28 month transition time may have been the standard amount of time students waited to apply to the University in 2014.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Active Minds hosts fourth annual Mental Democrats’ Health Monologues, raises awareness bill to help GOVERNMENT

Event draws attention to illness, educates community on its stigmatization ANNABEL KELLY Daily Staff Reporter

About 50 people gathered Friday night in the Forum Hall of Palmer Commons for the 2019 Mental Health Monologues, sponsored by the University of Michigan’s chapter of Active Minds. This is the fourth year Active Minds, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about mental health among college students, has put on the show. Students and alumni prepared monologues about their personal struggles with mental health.

Nursing junior Laura Halprin was an organizer of the event. She said the purpose of the event was to humanize to the broad issue of mental health by allowing people to share their stories.

“It’s supposed to put real faces behind real stories,” Halprin said. “As students I think it’s really empowering to put faces to what we maybe just hear in the media.”

Halprin hoped the event would educate people on what mental health looks like and help get rid of the stigma often associated with it.

“It makes things more personalized and normalized for the experiences that many people have,” Halprin said. “For people who don’t necessarily identify as having a mental illness, it really

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helps open their eyes to what others around them may be experiencing and how they could potentially play a role in helping that.”

LSA junior Jessica Kolbe also organized the event, and was one of the speakers.

She wrote an eight-minute monologue and performed it for the audience, and said she wanted her story to help normalize her illness.

“I’m just hoping to educate people, because with my disorder, I have bipolar disorder, it’s very stigmatized and people fear it a lot,” Kolbe said. “So if I can like help normalize it, it would just be really great. And it’s also just empowering to like be there, standing in front of other people and be like, ‘Yeah, I do

have this, and I’m a perfectly functioning human being.’”

In her monologue, Kolbe recounted the details of her journey with mental illness that led her to where she is today. She ref lected on how far she has come.

“There are no cures for my struggles so I will have to fight my disorders for the rest of my life,” Kolbe said. “But I know I will be okay. Life gets worse, but it also gets better.

I have the tools to persevere and I will use them.”

Kolbe finished her monologue by discussing her hope for the future.

“Although there is no happily ever after in this story, there are happy times in store for me, and I will continue to live so I can

experience them,” Kolbe said.

Engineering freshman Ben Firstenberg attended the event to support his friend, LSA freshman Jordy Garcia, who was one of the speakers.

Firstenberg hopes the event will showcase the seriousness of mental illness, as well as how it can affect a person’s overall health.

“I also think it’s important because mental health is an important issue today,” Firstenberg said. “And I think a lot of people should be aware of how their mental health can affect their physical health and their overall wellbeing.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

process in adoptions

Lawmakers aim to prevent discrimination against same-sex couples adopting MICHAL RUPRECHT Daily Staff Reporter

Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of the Michigan Legislature proposed a series of bills Wednesday that would enact protections for LGBT couples when adopting children.

The lawmakers behind House Bills 4469-4472 and Senate Bills 272-275 hope to allow same-sex parents to adopt their partner’s biological or adoptive child, further protect same-sex couples from discrimination when adopting and hold adoption agencies accountable for discrimination.

State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, told The Daily he and his colleagues proposed the package of bills because former Gov. Rick Snyder signed bills allowing faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBT individuals.

“In some cases, (adoption agencies) were using their religious beliefs as a rationale to deny adoption to certain parents, particularly LGBT parents … and parents who may be out of the mainstream in any number of other ways,” Irwin said.

CARTER FOX/Daily

LSA freshman Jordy Garcia performs “When I Was...” at the Mental Health Monolougues ar Palmer Commons Friday night.

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INDEX

Vol. CXXVIII, No. 105 ©2019 The Michigan Daily

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6

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SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............5 SPORTS....................1B

News

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Editorial Staff CARTER FOX/Daily The table is set for a Passover Seder hosted by students in coordination with Michigan Hillel Saturday night.

IMPOSTER From Page 1A After getting her ACT scores back, Hancock decided to relinquish her dreams of back-spotting a basket toss and set her sights on a more academic path: the University of Michigan. Yet her decision was met with hesitation from her peers, parents and even her teachers, causing her to fully realize the “name that Michigan carries.”

“A lot of the teachers that I came across when I told them about my plans were kind of like ‘Oh wow, really? That’s kind of a reach school,’” Hancock said. “Not a lot of people from my school move on to bigger name schools. An important professional at the school pulled me aside and told me, ‘I think it’s good that you’re going to Michigan, but I think you need to be ready and aware that you’re going to go from being top to the middle or bottom.’

It seemed like really good realistic advice then, but now that I think about it, it feels like it was really discounting. I went to a small school where they weren’t prepared to

prepare to students to strive for more. So, I think that kind of set me up for feeling a little anxious here.”

Hancock is not the only student harboring anxieties about being in “the middle or bottom.” According to the survey of 400 students conducted by The Michigan Daily, 87.9 percent of undergraduates said they often compare their academic ability to those around them.

By attending a university ranked fourth in “Best Public Universities,” 20th in the world for research-intensive universities and one which routinely generates captains of industry, Nobel laureates and Hollywood elites, Hancock wondered: How can you not have imposter syndrome?

“You look at that student and think, ‘Holy cow, how are you so smart? How are you doing so much? How are you on the executive board of six different organizations?’” Hancock said. “It kind of makes you feel like shit. I’m struggling to sometimes remember to take a shower.”

The students polled by The Daily reported symptoms of imposter syndrome, a term coined by

psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978. Imposter syndrome refers to the feeling of “phoniness in people who believe that they are not intelligent, capable or creative despite evidence of high achievement.” While these people are “highly motivated to achieve,” they regularly “live in fear of being ‘found out’ or exposed as frauds.”

Overall, Hancock said imposter syndrome affects her day to day life, hindering her ability to succeed at the University.

“I feel like there has not been enough acknowledgement of the impact it can have,” Hancock said.

“I feel like for me at least it might be a combination of other things, but it’s had a big impact on my mental health and just my hope for the future. When you believe that you don’t belong here, you don’t believe that it is going to give you the potential to be great.”

Counseling and Psychological Services psychologist Dr. Christine Asidao has recently noticed a growing trend among students with symptoms of the imposter syndrome.

“It’s not typically students directly say they have imposter syndrome — it’s typically the qualities that I see such as feeling inadequate, maybe having experiences of just low self-confidence, low self-worth, there’s a lot of social comparison,” Asidao said. “Thinking about the motto of the university: leaders and best. Does that mean everyone can be a leader and everyone can be the best?”

Socioeconomic status can also heighten the impact of imposter syndrome. Every semester since her freshman year Hancock has worked a part-time job. For three years, Hancock operated as an assistant manager at a bar, serving drinks from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.

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GRACE KAY and ELIZABETH LAWRENCE

multiple days a week. During football seasons, she said would work up to six days a week.

“I actually feel like I don’t think I made it work that well,” Hancock said. “My grades went down.

They’ve gotten way better this semester, as it’s the first semester I haven’t worked since my freshman year. For me, that’s cold hard evidence that having to work in order to survive is not really beneficial for students here.”

Hancock is also a residential adviser at Bursley Residence Hall, a position she said she took to compensate for the lack of affordable housing in Ann Arbor.

In The Daily’s survey, 68.1 percent of respondents from households with a yearly income of less than $100,000 said they found it challenging to accept compliments, compared to half of respondents with a yearly family income of $100,000-200,000 and only 35.9 percent of those whose families made more than $200,000 a year.

Paired with a lack of interest and insufficient funding for books, Hancock said she felt discouraged and switched her focus from premed to gender and health.

“I had a hard time thinking of being this put-together professional when I kind of come from a ‘white trash’ family — and anticipating that I don’t know how to work a job that’s not like my parents in a factory,” Hancock said.

“I had to be taught by my partner, like, whether you wear a belt with dress pants or not. A lot of it is just trying to separate where I come from and where I’m going. I don’t have to remain completely the same as where I’m from, I’m here, so I should be on the same bar as all these other people.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

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Michigan in Color

Monday, April 22, 2019 — 3A

Constructed: Living in a body of color

Diminished voices, speaking loud

ANURIMA KUMAR, DANYEL THARAKAN, SAMUEL SO / DAILY

When parents and teachers bully kids RAMISA ROB MiC Columnist

KAYLEAH SON MiC Columnist

wq“Kayleah...

Kayleah…

KAYLEAH.” My mother always repeated her statements in threes, louder each round, without any care if I had responded or not. It didn’t matter to her whether it was at the dinner table, the grocery store, in the quiet aisles of the library, or while driving on the freeway with me in the car… sitting next to her.

And with every repetition, I became equally impatient and irritated.

“Mom… MOM… WHAT DO YOU WANT?” I admit, I’ve lost my temper at times when my mom and I simply talk – merely because of her severely prolonged explanations (repeated several times, of course) that would drive me insane.

“Get to the point,” I would tell her. “Stop talking so loud,” I would yell back. I became frustrated: Was

it her difficulty in speaking English?

Was it her personality? Or was it because of her home culture?

I searched for all the possible rationales to explain her ceaseless echo of thoughts.

“Sorry ddal *…” she would apologize.

Afterwards rolled in an uneasy silence that left both of us awkwardly shuffling our hands at the dinner table, the grocery store, in the quiet aisles of the library, or while driving in the car.

“It’s fine, but mom –– explain clearer,” I would say. Then I would sheepishly smile. But I always felt bad.

Ensuing our altercation was always this look on her face that I couldn’t describe: Sorrow? Guilt?

Embarrassment? Frustration?

I could never figure out.

For my entire life, I’ve always assumed her gradually loud, repetitive demeanor was a fusion of her immigrant experience and lack of knowing English. Her longwinded commentary and responses

would prime my ignorance; I would berate her with a harsh tone, hoping to stifle her monotonous discourse.

However, it’s taken years for me to realize that it’s women who come from backgrounds where they’re not heard –– women of color –– that have learned to speak louder to get their points across. Consequently, her life as a maternal figure, housewife and stay-at-home parent nurtured and shaped her voice, while simultaneously muffling her inherent range of expression as a human. Within the East Asian culture that perpetuates the male dominance and subordinate, inferior women, I realized her loud and discursive conversations was not to overpower others, rather for someone to simply listen to her thoughts.

So mom –– I’m sorry for getting mad at you. I’ll always try my best to hear you out.

Whenever you need me, I’ll always be listening.

Love, Kayleah

What’s in a name?

SYLVIA GISLER MiC Columnist

Sylvia.

Silvia.

Sylvie.

Sophia. Sofia. Sophie. Saliva.

Okay, maybe the last one isn’t as common as the first couple examples, but you get the point. All of these names have graced my Starbucks cups, have been called out

by GSIs and professors in class roll call, and sometimes even have slipped out of the mouths of both friends and family members at one point or another. For the last 20 years of my life, I have lived with a name that gives off major old lady vibes and seems to confuse pretty much every person that has the unfortunate job of reading it out loud (don’t even get me started on my last name).

But regardless of these (mostly) minor inconveniences, I can’t imagine being called by any other name. The history

behind my name and its quirkiness fits my personality to a tee. My parents were expecting a boy and had the name Maximilian picked out and ready to go. It was a surprise when I showed up a week after my due date not only late, but also a different sex than they were expecting.

They played with the idea of keeping “Max,” but felt as though it didn’t quite fit their new bundle of chubby cheeks and mass of black hair. After much debate (it was a close call between Sylvia and Noelle), I was given a first name after my maternal grandmother and a middle name that was a variation of my paternal grandma. The full name on my birth certificate is Sylvia Marie Gisler.

I absolutely love being named after my grandmas. It feels as though a piece of them is with me always and I am constantly reminded of my role models and the type of woman that I aim to be. One of the best

parts of having the same first name as my maternal grandma is the differentiations my family uses to keep us apart.

My grandma is referred to as “Big Sylvia” while I am “Little Sylvia,” which is hilariously ironic due to our height difference of almost a foot. I am constantly in awe of how strong she is as a person and the lengths that she’s gone to keep our family together.

My mom and her family differ in many ways, from parenting styles to political beliefs, and there’s often tension at holidays and dinners.

But despite these differences, she’s always ready to keep the conversation moving and regroup after a particularly heated debate. She has learned how to adapt and live in America after immigrating from the Philippines and was able to give her children the opportunities and choices that weren’t always available to her. I am proud to be called by her name.

In December 2018, a teenage girl named Aritry Adhikary in Bangladesh ended her life after her parents were insulted by her teachers. Aritry went to a Bengali medium school, Viqarunnisa, and during her exams was found with her cell-phone,— in violation of the rules in school. Her parents were summoned to school the next day where they spoke to the class teacher who informed them Aritry was expelled. Her father narrated the incident and revealed that they all cried and asked for mercy, including his daughter helplessly begging for forgiveness at the principal’s feet. However, the headmaster remained unconvinced. Aritry left this scene earlier, and was found hanging from the ceiling later in the day.

Following this tragic incident, there has been uproar from students and Aritry’s parents have sued the school for instigating her suicide. When I heard this excruciating story, I had many thoughts on my mind and a deepening sadness for a life that shouldn’t have been lost.

But I found myself horrifically empathizing with the shame she felt. There were many points in my life where I couldn’t see anything but a bleak future,— a suffocating image imprinted on my mind by punitive pressures exerted from those older than me, whether they were my teachers or family members.

Even though I went to penal school, different a were methods disciplinary largely normalized in educational institutions and in every corner of the social structure. As suicides and tragic incidents continue to happen, it’s not the 66-year old institute and their policies that should be held accountable.

There is a larger sociocultural problem that undergirds such devastating events. We must recognize that humiliation and fear-mongering narratives have become intrinsically embedded in schooling and parenting, and we have to come to terms with it.

During my formative years, some teachers were the most caring individuals I’ve ever seen, but others were not. I have seen more teachers bully students than I have seen peers bully each other. I still remember a teacher slapping the most notorious kid when we were in first grade.

When insulting a student for poor grades, references were made to family backgrounds.

Teachers routinely yelled and

we were expected to silently swallow our shame even when the most insulting words words were fired upon us. They were our educators, and in respect to their service, we were expected to obey without question. We were taught to be stoic; in our uniforms; we were somehow expected to be the same human being — robotic, methodical and straight A students. The value of academic success was taught as a matter of life and death, not as a concept that serves our lives and our personal passion.

This sort of policing was not only limited to formal education.

Many of us had private tutors, and we attended “coaching centers” for private tuition. When I was fifteen, I joined three of these tutors’ private classes with my peers for chemistry, physics and math. The Physics teacher had a great track record: “All his students get As in the IGCSEs.” Prior to joining his class, I asked parents of other students what was the key to his success? Some forty-year old mothers boastingly informed me: “He is very strict.

He hits you with a scale if you score less than 80.”

In reality, it was never this “hitting” that made me study. I stopped going to my math tutor after he hit me with a scale. I stopped going to Chemistry class after the tutor grossly insulted my parents for my absences. I revolted to my Physics teacher for hitting his students, and when he listened to what I had to say, I stayed in his class. I learned nothing from those who belittled me. I learned that I never want to see their hateful faces again — which is a very “normal” reaction. I received good grades by disciplining myself to study at home. I learned when my father sat with me to discuss DemandSupply curves with current events, and when he handed out excel sheets with a timetable to help me study for my exams.

Violence and humiliation can never enforce discipline. It only cooks fear that is never effective in the long run.

But the question is why is this sort of behavior allowed from adults? Why is this considered do why And productive? parents so readily accept it? It is because many parents also believe degradation is key to train children. Most of us, South Asian kids, have been bullied by adults, and beaten up by our parents. In Kindergarten, my teachers complained about my handwriting and short attention span. They scolded me in class, and mother physically abused me

for it as though I was on trial for first degree murder. Most of my friends can empathize with such treatment from adults. Fifteen years later, my handwriting is now worse than Kindergarten, and it makes no difference to my academic performance or my life.

And I still have a short attention span, except I now know it’s called ADHD. I also learned I can get treated for it and I don’t have to kill myself because I couldn’t concentrate and got a seventypercent in my fourth grade math exam.

For the longest time, my family members said: “It’s for your own good, you’ll learn when you are a parent.” I can assure you I won’t need to choke my kid to make them eat and study. I can assure that there is zero logic in nurturing my worst impulses.

About five years ago, mother apologized and owned up to her mistakes. I don’t resent my mother for what she did because I always understood it was a societal problem and not her personal issue. I even consider myself lucky for my mother’s realizations, because most of my friends’ parents still continue to believe that abuse was the right method. In other words, irrational violence and humiliation is normalized under the fallacious umbrella: “Authority of the elderly.” And the most dangerous element to this pernicious normalization of violence is recycling it intergenerationally.

Many friends of mine believe that you need to hit and yell at kids to make them listen, which shows how ingrained this problem is.

The irony of all this is that parents and teachers who adopt destructive techniques actually do it out of love and care.

Intimidation and punishment has become standardized as the most effective form of training to the extent that it has become difficult to see the problem with it. It is difficult to look beyond the system and realize that you cannot teach kids to respect others by disrespecting them.

And as I write this, a part of me still fears that those older than me will read it and I will be labelled as the delinquent girl, who went to the United States and became too foreign. Yet, all I’m trying to say is don’t bully kids, just don’t, and that shouldn’t be an invalid, ungrateful or belligerent tagline when kids are out there feeling hopeless and ending their lives.

Adults need to be vigilant, they need to lighten up and stop nourishing their own anger at the cost of a child’s mental health.

Opinion

4A — Monday, April 22, 2019

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ABBIE BERRINGER | COLUMN

I

What if I become a stay-at-home mom?

have always been raised on a path toward a successful, fulltime career. My parents and I have talked about it since I was young. I am the oldest daughter with only one other sibling who was very ill for much of her childhood, so as a kid I spent a lot of time as my parents’ sole helper. Living on a farm, there was never a shortage of work to be done, and I was expected to pull my weight and do a good job. “We have to go fix the fence” is still a phrase that haunts an occasional nightmare.

My parents taught me that I could do any work I put my mind to and always wanted me to be successful.

As I began to excel in school they challenged me to pursue my dreams and always pushed me to go to college and to have a career someday.

Yet as I went into my sophomore year of college, the decision to pursue a full-time career began to weigh on me. I had spent the past year working with first-grade students at an elementary school in Ypsilanti through the America Reads program and felt an immense amount of satisfaction from the relationships I created with them. This experience helped me to realize how much I truly yearn for a family someday, and thus I began to face the gnawing question of what type of mother I wanted to be.

All of a sudden I began to ask myself: Would I feel more fulfilled staying at home with my kids, if financially possible? Would I feel more fulfilled being there with them through every milestone in their youth, being the one to teach them to walk, talk, read and write? While I know so many wonderful working mothers, and know many children raised by two working parents who admire them immensely and are proud of all the skills they gained from that lifestyle, I began to wonder if trying to work full-time and raise a family would be right for me or would create the kind of family dynamic that I want to have as an adult.

My mother stayed home with my sister and I most of our childhood, but as we entered high school she re-entered the workforce.

This dynamic completely changed how our family functioned. Even with all of us picking up more of the workload at home with chores, cooking and cleaning, things weren’t the same. Now both of our parents came home tired, more irritable and distracted after long days of work,

missed some of our extracurricular events and couldn’t always answer our phone calls or be around on weekends. The feelings associated with this change were no doubt accentuated by a lifetime of taking all that my mother did for us at home for granted. Yet as I looked back, I began to reflect on how fundamental she was throughout all of the seemingly mundane day-to-day parts of my childhood.

During my infancy, she read and talked to me constantly as she went about her day. As I grew older she was able to make me healthy homemade lunches, drop me off at school and pick me up if I got injured or sick. She sat with me through hours of homework, took my sister and I on fun adventures in the summertime and we read books all the time. Because of her influence, I began watching the news and became invested in politics long before I finished elementary school. I’ve always known that she fueled my passion for history and politics through her own, but I never stopped to consider how different my childhood could have been if she had been working 40-hour weeks just like my dad all that time. While many modern childcare providers provide excellent education and care for young children, if one can afford it (and that is a big if), I feel that these benefits couldn’t have replaced the strong relationship I developed with my mother or the family values she cultivated in me everyday.

Studies have found that children “who spend long hours in child care may experience more stress and are at increased risk of becoming overly aggressive and developing other behavior problems.” While competing studies have shown that there may be benefits for children of working parents, especially daughters of working mothers, due to increased independence and having a working mother as a positive role model, others have continued to question the importance of the role of a stay-at-home parent. The better economic situation of having two incomes can often benefit a child’s education, while the lack of parental attention can lead to feelings of neglect and troubled inter-family relationships later on in a child’s life.

All of this conflicting literature, however, hasn’t changed how I feel about potentially staying home with my kids. My only fear is that if I make

the choice to stay home, I will lose the respect of many of the career women around me. Even on campus I have heard many young women make negative comments about stay-athome mothers that concern me when I consider that these peers will be the women that surround me as an adult as well.

My mother faced the scrutiny and judgment of career women in our communities who treated her as if her life was easy and raising kids fulltime wasn’t a respectable choice. She was scolded by women around her as if she were a failure to feminism, a sentiment that many women who choose to stay at home claim to share.

These particular women seemed to hold the opinion that because women had access to work they had a responsibility to permanently shed homemaking and stay-at-home motherhood all together. So much of third and fourth-wave feminist theory claims to be embracing the liberal mantras of intersectionality, diversity and inclusion, and yet they exclude the increasing number of women who make the choice to stay home.

My hope is that by the time I am in a position to make that choice, if it becomes financially available to me, I will have the appreciation and respect of not only my spouse and parents, but of the women around me too. I don’t want to feel as if I have failed anybody’s expectations and it is sad to think that making the choice to stay home and raise kids is seen as a failure in our modern world. While I am immensely grateful to live in a time where I have the opportunity to choose to enter the workforce full time in nearly any career field I would like, it doesn’t mean that I have to make this choice simply to buck traditional values. In fact, I hope that modern America can learn to respect families and women who still choose traditional values and stay-at-home motherhood instead of shaming them the way my mother and other stay-at-home mothers I know have been shamed. While the choice may not be for everyone, I know one thing for certain: I have nothing but respect and admiration for the work my mother did in raising my sister and me, and she deserves that respect not just from me but from other women as well.

Abbie Berringer can be reached at abbierbe@umich.edu.

SOFIA ZERTUCHE | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT SOFZER@UMICH.EDU

L

What the Notre Dame fire couldn’t destroy

ike countless people from around the globe, I watched in horror as a terrible fire ravaged the irreplaceable Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15. As the damage unfolded, I found myself transfixed to whatever screen was in front of me, watching the same images of fire and destruction over and over again. At some point during the day, I started to question why I was mired in grief over the devastation of a cathedral I seemingly had little connection to as a non-Christian American.

It’s this universal sense of loss for humanity, however, that illuminates the essence of Notre Dame. The cathedral is a symbol for spirituality and togetherness that transcends time, space and ideology. While part of what was lost in the fire is gone forever, it’s important to remember that the cathedral is more than the sum of its stone and timber. The process of rebuilding Notre Dame gives us an opportunity to renew not only the structure of Notre Dame, but the values it stands for as well.

The Notre Dame Cathedral is one of the earliest and grandest examples of Medieval Gothic architecture, built over a century on the Seine River island of Île de la Cité. Notre Dame has stood out among other Gothic cathedrals, utilizing a revolutionary flying buttress support system to soar to 35 meters high, taller than any Catholic church before it. The cathedral’s Gothic architecture has awed those in its presence for the past 850 years, bringing worshippers closer to the heavens above and minimizing their size in the presence of God. Abbot Suger, one of the earliest proponents of Gothic architecture, described the effects of the jeweled altar as such: “When … the loveliness of the many-coloured gems has called me away from external cares … and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from this inferior to that higher world in an anagogical manner.”

Adding to Notre Dame’s distinction as a cultural monument, the cathedral has played host to a great deal of Europe’s storied history. Among many historic events at Notre Dame, Henry VI of England was crowned king there in 1431,

Napoleon crowned himself emperor there in 1804 and Pope Pius X beatified Joan of Arc there in 1909. It’s these historical events that have solidified Notre Dame’s role in our culture as a place where any person, even the most powerful, stands small before God, acknowledging the inferiority of our world compared with the heavens above.

As part of Notre Dame’s intriguing history, the cathedral has been subjected to vandalism and neglect. During the French Revolution, the cathedral was targeted by vandals and renamed the “Temple to the Goddess Reason” by a revolutionary state hostile to the Catholic Church and religion in general.

Additonally, worshippers at Notre Dame paid tribute to a woman posing as the goddess of reason, mocking the Catholic faith. The targeting of Notre Dame by antiCatholic zealots only solidified the cathedral’s lasting role as a universal symbol for God’s grace on earth.

Even though Napoleon returned Notre Dame back to the Catholic Church following the revolutionary period, the building was in a state of disrepair by the early to mid-19th century.

French poet and novelist Victor Hugo brought the cathedral’s dilapidated condition to the public’s attention with his popular historical novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in 1831. With that book, the enduring legend of Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, was born along with renewed public interest in maintaining the cathedral.

The renewed interest led to a major restoration project in the mid-19th century by the French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. It was during this restoration that Notre Dame’s now iconic spire was added on to the structure. This substantial alteration illustrates part of Notre Dame’s physical transformation through the centuries, never losing its core meaning along the way.

With Notre Dame restored to glory in the mid-19th century, the cathedral was again ready to set the scene for history during the liberation of Paris in 1944.

The area directly in front of Notre Dame saw heavy fighting

during a major uprising of French resistance fighters against occupying Nazi soldiers. When Allied forces finally liberated Paris, crowds rejoiced in front of Notre Dame as the cathedral bells rang, signifying a free France.

With the liberation of Paris, Notre Dame again claimed a central role in European history. It’s this history as a place where humanity meets the heavens that makes Notre Dame an icon, irrespective of physical changes to the structure over the years.

Notre Dame’s legendary status as a backdrop to history and monument to the heavens makes this week’s devastating fire difficult to process. While it appears that much of Notre Dame’s religious relics and art survived the fire, the losses are still immense. The cathedral lost most of its roof made of original 13th century timber, known as “the forest” for the sheer number of trees cut down for the wooden latticework. The soaring Notre Dame spire, an iconic element of Paris’ skyline, also succumbed to the flames.

Despite the devastating damage, French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to rebuild the Notre Dame cathedral to its former glory in 5 years.

While Notre Dame will never be quite the same, its next chapter has the potential to live up to its illustrious history. With societal changes such as globalization and migration roiling the fabric of Western culture, the ideals of Notre Dame are more important than ever. More than a simple structure, Notre Dame is a symbol for what human beings can accomplish when we put our differences aside and work together for a higher purpose.

The soaring proportions of Notre Dame remind us all that, no matter our worldly stature, we pale in comparison to a higher power.

These universal ideals cannot be destroyed by fire. Instead, we have an opportunity to live up to the meaning of Notre Dame by putting aside our differences and working together as one to rebuild it. In doing so, we will only add to the legacy of Notre Dame as the cathedral rises out of the ashes.

Dylan Berger can be reached at dylberge@umich.edu.

ANIK JOSHI | COLUMN

E

When innovation becomes disruption

veryone’s a disrupter motives behind the whole “cut these days. Whether the cord” movement was that it’s trying to disrupt instead of watching all shows offered on cable you capitalism or trying had to subscribe to to disrupt how the them all – something residents of San addressed by Francisco consume Netf lix. their overpriced Uber is juice, no one seems another example to be happy with of disruptive the way things are. technolog y, but in However, I believe a different way. we’ve run into a Uber worked well problem of sorts ANIK because it addressed that there is not JOSHI a monopoly. The much disrupting left reason Uber was able to to do.

Netf lix is a prime example grow as fast as it did (despite of disruptive technolog y. As leadership being caught with Netf lix has gotten older, it their pants down about once a has become a worse platform month) was because of the way because everyone has tried most taxi medallion markets to disrupt the industry by were set up. Let’s take New introducing more and more York City as an example. In streaming services – Hulu, a nutshell, the cycle went Amazon Prime Video, HBO something like this: someone Go and Disney’s recently would want to be a taxi driver announced Disney+.

And and hence needed a medallion. though Netf lix was the original Very few new medallions were steaming service, since other released by the government copycat services were created, each year due to lobbying certain broadcast companies by the taxi industry, so the have started pulling their only way to start was to buy content from Netf lix.

I a retiring cabbie’s medallion, remember when you could usually for enormous sums. watch “Family Guy,” “How I That cabbie would then Met Your Mother” and others retire on that money, so the on Netf lix, but today those person who wanted to be a have all gone elsewhere – and cabbie would then work until there is no sign this will stop. retirement and this process Perhaps we are headed toward would happen again. Uber a reality wherein CBS, NBC came along and removed the and every other studio will need for that medallion. They stray from signing contracts democratized the profession of and instead launch their own taxi driver almost overnight. streaming service and if you What has happened as a just want a few shows from result? Like most things, there each provider, you have to have been ups and downs — tended to buy all of those subscriptions. discrimination Of course, once this happens, both decrease and increase rates of pirating content will with these ride sharing probably rise. This entire mess services, and there have been about Uber’s is ironic because this problem complaints is exactly what was supposed business practices.

Uber worked well because it to be fixed with Netf lix.

Recall that one of the original addressed a niche market that

was in need of being disrupted — Netf lix did the same when it joined the market as a streaming service. However, as Uber has started doing things like Uber Pool Express, a bit of a problem has come up. The idea behind Express is pretty simple: A group of people set their destinations and then all meet at a predetermined spot. Then they are driven to another predetermined spot and walk the rest of the way to their destination. If this sounds familiar, then you may have heard of a revolutionary technolog y known as a bus, which dates to 1905. The issue with buses, however, is not that they need to be disrupted – it is that they need to be better funded, among other things.

Uber Pool Express’s problem is that it’s trying to reinvent the wheel and that really gets at the banality of so much of “disruption” and “innovation”: it is done for seemingly no reason (save ego stroking).

However, it makes sense that this problem has come up — and it is not just with Netf lix and Uber. I would argue we as a society have run out of things to change, and we ought to stop pretending otherwise and creating things for the sake of it. This is how we ended up in the near parody that we live in today featuring everything from Netf lix for coffee to Uber for private jets. Disruption just for the sake of disrupting (you don’t need a Netf lix for everything, same with Uber) is tiresome. Truth be told, a lot of things are fine the way they are, and it would do us well to ref lect on that before trying to reinvent the wheel – or bus.

Anik Joshi can be reached at anikj@ umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Monday, April 22, 2019 — 5A

CONCERT REVIEW

FILM REVIEW

A24

‘High Life’ brings us to Let the good times roll at the brink in a spectacle the Ark with Darlingside NELSONVILLE MUSIC FESTIVAL

ROSS ORGIEFSKY Daily Arts Writer

sometimes feel heavy, thick and buried, was instead crystal clear and feather-light. In an age where streaming reigns supreme, Darlingside is at their best when performing live. Of course, that’s not to say that their recorded albums are bad — rather, Darlingside capitalizes on the unique performer-audience dynamic that exists only in the electric enchantment of live performance.

The band’s energy and personality shined brilliantly as they offered one-sided banter to the audience. From Auyon Mukharji’s friendly and somewhat surreal introductions, which included priceless tidbits like the band’s f lirtation with red bananas (the fruit) or Paseltiner’s admirable (but futile) struggle to give up a caffeine addiction, Darlingside felt more like a group of old friends than a larger than life band gracing the humble streets of Ann Arbor.

Spectacle is a big and beloved aspect of performance — from show-stopping dance numbers to infamous red carpet outfits.

But it’s the air of simplicity Darlingside offers that can be

MADELEINE GANNON Daily Arts Writer

Perched onstage at The Ark this past Sunday, Darlingside member Harris Paseltiner mused on the band’s journey across borders (domestic and international) to arrive at the rain-soaked streets of Ann Arbor. The weather, however dreary, did nothing to dampen the warmth and vibrant energy shared by musicians and patrons alike. Paseltiner related their long-awaited arrival to a homecoming; their performance felt every bit as comforting, exuberant and intimate as a homecoming should. Darlingside is at their best when performing live — everyone else should take notes.

To start, The Ark’s intimate concert space was a perfect compliment to the multilayered harmonies and soulful lyrics of the band. The band’s signature folk-gospel hybrid — rootsy banjo combined with the chorus style singing of hymns — came to life Sunday night. Their music, which can

so endearing. There’s a touch of humility in their demeanors, and a sense of vulnerability in their singing. They’re just a group of friends making good music, having good times and enjoying as much of life as they can.

There’s so much that makes Darlingside good — charm, talent, a cool name — what more could a group need?

Ah, yes, they also play banjo and cello, even the mandolin (which, let’s be honest, is pretty awesome). They also somehow make the lyrics “I liked it and I’d do it again / To be a turtle and a mayonnaise magnet” oddly beautiful. But throw away the fancy music terms and unnecessarily lengthy descriptions, and at their core, Darlingside is just fun. And everyone could use a little more fun in their lives, whether they’re a stressed student or the happiest person on the planet. So, do yourself a big favor, and go listen to Darlingside. Pro-tip: Start with “In the Morning,” because everyone should aspire to be a “mayonnaise magnet,” then buy tickets to their next live show — you can thank me later.

DAILY WORLD MUSIC COLUMN

The music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan SAYAN GHOSH

Daily World Music Columnist

If you’re familiar with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at all, you’ve probably heard him sing alongside Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder in a rendition of Neil Young’s “The Long Road” in the 1995 Tim Robbins film of the same name. Or, like me, you grew up with parents who practically worshipped the man. Either way, you’re familiar with a voice that is stunningly beautiful and haunting, one of those voices that makes you believe in the existence of a special muse inhabiting a lucky few because surely such a gift cannot be human.

Born in Faisalbad, Pakistan, Khan came from a musicallyinclined family. Several of his family members were skilled in the art of Qawwali music, a form of devotional music linked to Sufi Islam, a mystical sect of Islam. The genre was invented in 12th-century Persia and can be compared with Gospel music in the sense that it combines devotional and religious themes with a complex musical tradition as well. Qawwali songs are typically sung in groups of eight to nine men accompanied by instruments such as the harmonium (comparable to a portable pipe organ) and tabla (a type of drum). Often long and sprawling in length and scope, a Qawwali song aims to induce a trance-like state in its listeners.

Following a strict structure dedicated to various topics of both religious and secular concepts, Qawwali compositions nonetheless feature several moments

of vocal and instrumental improvisation around a central theme. They are sung in South Asian languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi or Bengali. As noted before, they can be both secular and religious in nature, with the implicit assumption that even the secular can be interpreted in the context of religion and the common themes of love and devotion. Qawwali is deeply related to a similar

Ali Khan was a sight to behold in more ways than one.

but separate genre of poetry and music known as Ghazal, which usually juxtaposes the pain and beauty of love in a form somewhat reminiscent of a sonnet. Khan’s nephew, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, as well as the Indian singer Jagjit Singh, were also instrumental in introducing and briding these traditional forms of music to a modern audience, inf luencing the music heard in movies in India and Pakistan.

Ali Khan was a sight to behold in more ways than one. Zareena Grewal, a professor of religion at Yale, mentions in an NPR piece that he was “morbidly obese, (had) crazy hair, (and had) these intense facial expressions as he’s singing,” as one can see in any of his

performances. The man seemed to extract every possible ounce of power and emotion out of his body during his performances: He was blessed with an unreal vocal range. Despite his wild gesticulations, he had an impressive control over his voice down to the tightest vibrato. It carried an inherent throatiness and roughness which he somehow utilized perfectly even with the most delicate of lyrics.

Khan was not the most likely of international South Asian superstars, yet he cultivated an extremely successful international career. He performed in concert venues across the world and collaborated with artists from Peter Gabriel to the aforementioned Vedder.

He received a host of awards, from a UNESCO Music Prize to his own country’s Pride of Performance award. While he was never entirely comfortable with the fact that most of his modern audience could not understand his lyrics, he also felt that “whatever spiritual component that was in the lyrics, it was also in the way he sang it,” according to guitarist Michael Brooks.

Unfortunately, his career was cut short at the early age of 48 in 1997. Ever since, his inf luence on both Qawwali as well as South Asian music in general has spread all over the world, bringing the characteristics of a relatively niche, spiritual form of music to an international audience. While not “easy listening” by any means, it is not difficult to listen to that legendary voice and appreciate the talent behind it.

Going home to an empty house after seeing “High Life,” I saw the sharp dichotomy of absence and presence in a new light. I was acutely aware of the sensations of being alive and being alone. As the absences in “High Life” call attention to the meaningfulness of presence, the empty sofas and chairs in my living room are heavy with the weight of empty space.

“High Life” calls to mind “2001: A Space Odyssey” and perhaps a dystopian “Star Trek.” Rich with brilliant colors and mind-bending interstellar graphics, the film immerses the viewer in space.

Pun unintended, “High Life” revolves around a black hole — an absent center representing absence itself. The film follows Ship 7, its crew comprised of society’s rejects: Deathrow inmates sent to be the conductors and subjects of experiments beyond the solar system. Ship 7 has a dual mission, at once seeking a way to harvest energy from a black hole while simultaneously investigating human reproduction in deep space. It is the latter which has greater consequence and which drives the film’s temporally convoluted plot.

Jumping between past, long past and present, we see humanity from every angle.

Robert Pattinson (“Twilight”) gives a monumental and careerdefining performance as Monte, our main protagonist. Monte is unique among the crew for his thoughtful interiority and genetic strength. The gentleness at his core is most evident in his relationship with his daughter, Willow (Jessie Ross, “The Frankenstein Chronicles”). Monte remains grounded by tending to the ship’s fertile garden. A garden

to remind the crew of Earth and the viewer of the potency of life and death. Not unlike the womb, the garden is a place of cultivation; Monte is the lone cultivator among chaos and sick minds. For the early part of the mission, Monte and the rest of the crew are at the mercy of Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoché, “The English Patient”). It is the doctor who controls the investigation of reproduction, much to the dismay of her subjects. Seeking life in the most inhospitable of environments, Dr. Dibs is a twisted personification of female sexuality. Mia Goth

High Life A24 Michigan Theater

(“A Cure for Wellness”) compliments Binoché’s performance, offering a juxtaposed relationship between a woman and her body.

The cast plays well off of one another; tension and passion saturate each scene and bleed into the theater.

Director Claire Denis (“Beau travail”) probes the human experience of solitude through Monte’s powerful will to live.

Toward the end of the film, Monte asks Willow, “Cruelty?

What do you know about cruelty?” Having spent an eternity sailing through space, Monte poses the question to the viewer as well. What is left of our human nature when the human is so far removed from home? Travelling at lightspeed, time passes more slowly for the crew than for those on Earth. If I follow the film’s

math correctly, the roughly 17 years Monte spends on Ship 7 is equivalent to over 200 years on Earth. Monte and Willow share an unfathomable experience of love bounded by solitude, stretched to eternity’s end. The relationship between father and daughter stands in refreshing contrast to the lustful, mechanical presentation of sex and reproduction throughout the film. Filial love does more to sustain Monte than the ship’s life-support systems — a poignant statement about love as a fundamental requisite for survival.

Without spoiling anything, I would be remiss not to mention the film’s finale. The final scene emerges from a collaboration between Denis and artist Olafur Eliasson and incorporates Eliasson’s 2014 art installation “Contact.” A site-specific work exhibited at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, “Contact” evokes the horizon, and is used in “High Life” as a representation of the event horizon, a black hole’s theoretical point of no return.

The film comes together beautiful in its final moments.

The incorporation of Eliasson’s work echoes the thematic use of evocative color throughout the film, while the diverse soundtrack composed by Stuart A. Staples fits each scene perfectly. I really dig the intro track, “The Garden,” which reminded me of Schoenberg’s 12-tone work. As the credits roll, Pattison’s voice fills the theatre on the original track “Willow”; a mellowed-out Donovan meets The National with a Max Richter chill.

Stanley Kubrick would be proud of Denis’s artistry behind the camera. “High Life” rightfully joins the ranks of science fiction classics like “2001,” thrilling at every turn and questioning the very nature of humanity in the face of eternity.

COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK

Goddesses eat baklava NATALIE KASTNER For the Daily

Food is womanly power.

Women should not be sentenced to the kitchen, but in my family the men are barely allowed in our sacred enclave. We are always yelling at each other, criticizing the young and laughing loudly.

Every woman in my family instinctively knows how to cook. We all know how to roll grape leaves, work with filo and make lamb less gamey.

There’s a pride in creating joy within sustenance.

My mother’s maiden name is Maniatakis. Greek culture has been the most dominant in my life. My grandfather’s family emigrated from Crete, and with them they brought a massive appreciation of Greek food. All my aunts and female cousins sit together like witches, whipping up spells filled with feta cheese and loads of garlic.

When I was in second grade, I went over to a friend’s house for dinner and we ate Lean Cuisine. I asked them, “What happened?” I was genuinely worried. My friend responded,

“This is what we eat all the time.” Their parents didn’t cook. Growing up, my mother always made dinner. Even if it wasn’t a feast, we always had a full, homemade meal. The same is true for my extended family. Even if the women in my family had full-time jobs, they always concocted homecooked dinners.

I never thought of this as a sign of weakness of the women in my family. Regardless of gender, our lives revolved around the kitchen. It has to do with the power that comes with feeding each other.

Women keep the family strong, both physically and mentally.

When we have a big family dinner, you eat everything on your plate — you eat until you literally cannot eat anymore.

It’s rude not to gorge yourself.

My father — who wasn’t initially accepted into the family with open arms because he’s not Greek — once took all his coworkers to my great grandmother’s house for a meal. After this gesture of respect, he became a golden icon in the family. Food is love.

It takes time to make, and it gives us a reason to be together.

Now, my friends ask me if I would teach them what I know.

“Can you teach me to make baklava?” I don’t know how to respond.

The memories of sunny afternoons with the women I look up to are getting farther away. I don’t remember those recipes anymore. Food is the last aspect of a culture to assimilate. To think I am the end of the line is horrifying.

Although their baklava is delicious, I couldn’t just refer my friend to the nearest Ahmo’s Gyros and Deli.

I requested the recipe for baklava in our Facebook group.

Yes, my big fat Greek family is so large and sprawling, my cousin created a Facebook group for us. I received over a dozen detailed responses along with little suggestions that go along with making the best batch.

Perhaps the greatest privilege I’ve been given is to be raised by impossibly strong, supportive women. I want to share the joy they’ve bestowed upon me with those I love. I want to inject pride and passion into everything I create. Food is where it starts.

Arts

6A — Monday, April 22, 2019

FILM NOTEBOOK

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

TV REVIEW

‘Game of Thrones’ opens with a pleasant reunion SAYAN GHOSH

Daily New Media Editor COLUMBIA RECORDS

WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, ranked: part 4 JEREMIAH VANDERHELM Daily Arts Writer

In the run-up to “Avengers: Endgame,” I’m running down every movie and TV show the MCU has ever put out and ranking them based on how well they tell their stories with the means available to them. This is the final part of a four part series.

11. “Marvel’s Daredevil”: Season One (2015) The first season of “Daredevil” signaled another turning point for the MCU, proving that the idea of their Netf lix series wasn’t only viable, it was different from anything the studio had done before. Instead of its zippier counterparts, “Daredevil” showed that Marvel wasn’t afraid to get dark with an emphasis on heavier themes and more complex characterization, brought to life by Charlie Cox’s portrayal of the title character and Vincent D’Onofrio’s immediately-iconic take on the Kingpin.

10. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” (2017) Everything “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” does well is exemplified in a single perfect scene. As Jay and the Americans belt out “Come a Little Bit Closer,” we watch Yondu take his revenge on his mutinous crew and massacre his way back to control of his ship with Rocket and Groot in tow. This is the most delightful killing spree ever put to film. True to the spirit of the “Guardians” films, it’s fun, hilarious, inventively shot, marvelously scored and really twisted when you stop to think about it. Over the course of about three minutes, hundreds of people are killed. And our heroes laugh.

9. “Marvel’s The Avengers” (2012) The first time the MCU came together and showed what it was capable of still ranks as one of its finest hours.

The action soars more so than almost any other Marvel property with no shortage of all-time great moments of spectacle — the shot tracking the Avengers through the streets of New York is as astounding today as it was the first time we saw it — but as always, the most important work “The Avengers” does is on the Avengers themselves.

The character dynamics established here are what have carried us to the precipice of “Endgame.”

8. “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) “Infinity War” is a film so gargantuan in scale that it seems impossible anything could ever top it. From the first scene to the last, the pedal is pushed firmly to the f loor. There’s little time to breathe, yet the Russo brothers somehow managed to craft an emotional story that put our heroes through the ringer, gave us a showstopper of a villain in Josh Brolin’s Thanos

and ended on a note of pure terror that has kept us all waiting with bated breath for a year now.

7. “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) If you’re looking for the moment where Marvel started to rule the world, I give you “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Sure, “The Avengers” had to bring together characters from separate standalone films, but “Guardians” had to introduce us to its ensemble cast of D-List intergalactic a-holes, bring them together and make us care about them all in one movie while working with a cast whose most recognizable stars played a talking raccoon and tree. “Guardians of the Galaxy” is a miracle, and the fact that James Gunn and Marvel pulled it off in such fun, emotional and thrilling fashion is what earned the MCU the loyal fanbase it has today.

6. “Marvel’s Jessica Jones”: Season One (2015) The first season of “Jessica Jones” is a bruising story of trauma and recovery, a fiery

I’m running down every movie and TV show the MCU has ever put out and ranking them based on how well they tell their stories

rebuke of toxic masculinity and a stylish “feminist noir” all rolled into one. Led by Krystin Ritter’s commanding performance, there are few beats the series doesn’t absolutely nail, from the treatment of its title character’s PTSD to the characterization of its villain, David Tennant’s Kilgrave. The shared history that reveals itself between these two lends itself to the most unsettling material in the entire MCU, made all the more horrifying for its real world parallels.

5. “Iron Man” (2008) Hey, remember that time a multi-billion dollar superhero franchise got its start with a critique of the military-industrial complex starring an actor coming off a string of career setbacks and directed by the guy who made “Elf”? I’ve mentioned a lot of miracles the MCU pulled off, so it’s fitting that the movie where it all began was itself totally miraculous.

On top of everything else, the cast and crew were working from an unfinished script and reportedly improvised most of the dialogue. Somehow it all came together, though, and provided the foundation for

the biggest film franchise of all time.

4. “Marvel’s Daredevil”: Season Three (2018) “Daredevil” ended its run with one of the finest takes on faith and identity the small screen has seen in years. Based on the iconic “Born Again” arc, the season essentially plays out as an arresting 13-episode game of chess between Matt Murdock and a seemingly omniscient Kingpin.

D’Onofrio has never been better in the role than he is as he plots and enacts his revenge against Daredevil, while Cox plays Matt’s struggle with his own duality with brilliant precision, a man whose every belief has been shattered and who has no idea how to pick up the pieces.

3. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014) If you thought you wouldn’t leave a “Captain America” film uneasy about America’s surveillance state, you’d be wrong. On top of its surprising depth, “The Winter Soldier” packs some of the best action Marvel has brought to bear, ranging from Falcon’s highf lying stunts to the grounded hand-to-hand combat of the fights between Steve Rodgers and the titular villain. Package the whole thing as an espionage thriller, and you’ve got one of the most electric superhero films in recent memory.

2. “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) If the MCU is its characters, then it’s “Civil War,” not “Infinity War,” that functions as the true culmination of everything that came before it.

Just about everyone from every corner of the world Marvel created is here and they all bring their own motivations to the fight. While the airport sequence is undoubtedly breathtaking, it’s in the final battle between Tony and Steve that everything comes together (while the Avengers fall apart). It’s not just about the spectacle, it’s about the futility of revenge and the ways we lash out when the person we blame most is ourselves.

1. “Black Panther” (2018) Ryan Coogler’s exhilarating introduction to Wakanda was only released last year, but there’s nothing else that could have claimed the MCU’s throne.

The Afrofuturist fantasy world Coogler creates feels wholly original even as he draws from a diverse set of inf luences in both his sharp storytelling and immaculate visual design. That’s without even touching on the cast, filled with so many great performances and characters that picking a single favorite becomes simply impossible.

It isn’t perfect, but then, no Marvel movie has been.

Instead, like its franchise and the heroes it has brought to life, it rises to the top because it serves as a reminder that all of us — from kings down to highschool students — are capable of rising above ourselves and becoming something more.

And with that, we’re in the endgame.

The most valuable advice I can give to any ardent fan of a particular piece of media, especially one as deep and sprawling as “Game of Thrones,” is to avoid Internet forums. While it’s great to dissect every single tiny detail of an episode or hatch the most elaborate of theories, you’ll notice that you will soon drown in pools of cynicism and hatred among those most invested.

There’s probably much more to say about how that relates to the human psyche, but my point is: I entered the final season of the biggest TV phenomenon in history with as clear a mind as possible.

“Winterfell,” the premiere of the six-episode final season of “Game of Thrones” is a suitable episode to kick things off. Jon Snow (Kit Harington, “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan”) and his lover/aunt/ queen/breaker of chains/etc.

Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) arrive in Winterfell to more suspicion than pomp.

Sansa (Sophie Turner, “Josie”), now the Lady of Winterfell, is one of those suspicious of the Targaryen as well as the massive army of Dothraki, Lannisters and many others they have brought with them.

Meanwhile, in King’s Landing, Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbaek, “Borgen”) arrives to form an alliance with Cersei (Lena Headey, “Thumper”) as well as a disturbing relationship of sorts.

For better or for worse, “Game of Thrones” is a markedly different show than it was four or five seasons ago. Earlier on, showrunners David Benioff (“The Kite Runner”) and D.B. Weiss (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) could work entirely off of author George R.R. Martin’s complicated

Game of Thrones Season 8 Premiere HBO Sundays at 9 p.m.

narratives of political intrigue and family feuds to great effect. Now, with no source material to feed off of and the show’s worldwide success of unprecedented levels, “Game of Thrones” is forced to lean more into its fantastical, spectacular aspects. This does have the effect of somewhat neutering a few of the more fascinating characters of the series like Varys and Tyrion, as exemplified by the episode opening with an off-color, barely funny joke about Varys’s

Classifieds

lack of genitals. Moreover, the dialogue in general has shifted more into pithy exchanges of one-liners and fanservice.

Nonetheless, if one can accept these fundamental changes, what’s left is not at all underwhelming. The actual performances are, as usual, excellent, with Sophie Turner’s performance as de facto Stark family head Sansa being a standout. One of the best character arcs in the series is seeing the young, naïve Sansa turn into an exceedingly mature, pragmatic and intelligent leader. Another standout is John Bradley (“Patient Zero”), who plays Samwell Tarly. In particular, the scene in which he learns about his father and brother’s gruesome end and the subsequent scene where he reveals to Jon his true family heritage are some of the best peformances ever seen on “Game of Thrones.”

On the f lip side, Euron, after all this time, is still an impossibly dull and onedimensional character, especially compared to his siblings Theon (Alfie Allen, “The Predator”) and Yara (Gemma Whelan, “The End of the F***ing World”). While Clarke is tasked with playing one of the most popular characters on the show, she is given little material to work with in a compelling manner and her scenes with Harington are rarely full of chemistry.

“Game of Thrones” has five episodes left to bring an end to its glorious run. I expect the next few to be action-filled and epic, and we can all expect to enjoy them — even if some or many of us miss the political thriller of old.

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Release Date: Monday, April 22, 2019

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 River-end formation 6 Sprinted 9 “Dancing Queen” group 13 Disney mermaid 14 “A Doll’s House” heroine 15 Snow remover 16 *Last bit of decoration 18 “Dirty Jobs” host Mike 19 Casual tops 20 Pressure cooker sound 21 New Zealand fruits 22 Standing tall 24 Off the leash 25 Sentence part 27 Ones gathering for a will reading 28 Kimono-clad entertainer 29 Droop 30 Little devils 33 Pony up 34 *Coastal wetland often exposed at low tide 37 Corrida cry 38 Moving like sloths 40 Spanish river 41 Heart-shaped photo holder 43 Suddenly became attentive 45 Beat the goalie 46 Rural storage buildings 47 Serta alternative 48 Church ringers 49 Gives a hand 50 Religious subdivision 54 Like many ESPN broadcasts 55 Amount of TV watching limited by parents, and a hint to the last word of the answers to starred clues 57 “__-doke!”

58 Harbor structure 59 Slugger Judge 60 Party pooper 61 Pop-up annoyances 62 Mix

DOWN 1 Nutty 2 Only Great Lake that borders Pennsylvania 3 Ticket booth annoyance 4 Commercial lures 5 Every bit (of) 6 Awaken rudely 7 Fly ball trajectories 8 “Don’t think so” 9 Presupposed by experience 10 *Talks big 11 “Space Oddity” rocker David 12 Fills with wonder 14 “Hold the rocks” 17 Synonym-loaded reference 21 Zen garden fish 23 __ Emanuel, Obama’s first Chief of Staff 24 Attorney’s job 25 Gong sound 26 *Lone Ranger’s shout 27 “2001” computer 28 Rte.-finding aid

29 Bay Area airport letters 31 Implored 32 Good to go 35 Guacamole, e.g.

36 Jack or hammer 39 State fish of South Dakota 42 Seer’s __ ball 44 How-__: DIY guides 45 Meal at Passover

46 Fancy watch brand 47 Stable studs 48 Gooey mass 49 Etching fluid 51 County Kerry country 52 “Let’s do it!”

53 Take care of 55 Place for a massage 56 Arrest, as a perp

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SPORTSMONDAY The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | April 22, 2019

WILLLDCATS. With doubleheader wins, Wolverines complete weekend sweep of Northwestern Kent Schwartz Daily Sports Writer As the first of two games on Sunday wound down, it wasn’t entirely clear which team would come out on top. It was tied, 2-2, in the seventh inning, and neither Michigan nor Northwestern had mustered any offense.

Then, junior center fielder Christian Bullock sprung to action.

For the second time that game, he worked his way to third base after stealing second and advancing on the ensuing throwing error. Wildcat second baseman Alex Erro couldn’t handle sophomore Jack Blomgren’s ground ball, and Bullock scored the eventual winning run.

“It feels great to score winning runs for this team,” Bullock said. “And to score the winning run feels

amazing.”

The 3-2 win over Big Ten foe Northwestern (16-19 overall, 5-6 Big Ten) was the first of the day, as the Wolverines (27-11, 7-3) established their dominance by taking the second game of the double header, 10-1 to complete a threegame sweep.

In both games, Michigan got off to a hot start.

In the first game, the offense manufactured two runs in the first two innings to go up 2-0. The first came from sophomore designated hitter Jordan Nwogu after he had extended his hit streak to nine games with a leadoff single and was advanced to third. An error by Wildcat third baseman Charlie Maxwell allowed the run to score.

Bullock scored in a nearly identical way to the seventh, forcing his way to third base and then coming home on a single.

“The two bases that (Bullock) stole in the first game, the throw got away from the fielders and he was able to advance to third on an error and scored both times,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “So just by being aggressive we had huge opportunities, and we certainly needed it.”

In the later game, runs didn’t need to be manufactured, two home runs in the second inning — senior outfielder Blake Nelson’s first career home run and Bullock’s first of the season, a three-run shot to right field — gave the Wolverines a 4-0 lead and they never looked back.

It ended up being a career day for Bullock, who found himself behind strong offensive and defensive starters.

But with junior

outfielder Jordan Brewer and sophomore outfielder Jesse Franklin struggling with injuries, Bullock proved he can play, totaling three runs and four RBI. “Coach is always telling me to stay ready,” Bullock said, “and is always working on me in the morning and at night in the evening practice just staying ready for the next opportunity. “ … I know (my speed) is a game changer and coach always tells me to use it as much as possible so I can score runs.”

Added Bakich: “Everybody likes playing with a lead. It allows everybody to breathe a little bit and play a little bit looser. Every team in college baseball plays better with the lead than playing with a deficit. You can be aggressive, you can take chances, you don’t have to be quite as conservative.”

Northwestern didn’t give up when it got down, though, battling back in the first game.

It tied the game 2-2 with a pair of two-out runs in the third inning after sophomore shortstop Jack Blomgren missed a double play throw to first base.

It had less success in the second game.

The Wildcats only managed to score one run, unable to cut into the early lead as the Michigan defense routinely made plays like the one Blomgren missed.

Three double plays in three different ways quickly snuffed out any hope of offense that Northwestern could muster.

READ MORE AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

Katelyn Mulcahy & Alec Cohen / Daily Design by Jack Silberman

Katelyn Mulcahy & Alec Cohen / Daily

INSIDE SPORTSMONDAY SENIOR GOODBYE COLUMNS See Page 2B

Design by Jack Silberman

SportsMonday

2B — April 22, 2019

E

very email I’ve ever sent to the sports staff has ended with some variation of “I love you.”

To some, that probably seems like an unprofessional, aggressive overuse of LANEY the term “I BYLER love you.”

Under other circumstances, I might agree. But I don’t agree here, because: a) it’s absurd for anyone to limit their allotted number of “I love yous” in this lifetime, especially if you really, truly mean it, and b) I really, truly meant it.

My “I love yous” were never included on the basis of saying it just to say it. They were included because I meant it, from the bottom of my heart, every single time.

I have so much love for The Daily, for the sports staff and for everyone who has ever contributed in any capacity to this institution. It’s kind of hard to explain why, because to a lot of people, this is probably just a student newspaper. It’s just like any other organization on this campus: It’s a creative outlet, it’s an extracurricular, it adds a little spice to students’ resumes, something fun to talk about in interviews.

Not for me.

For me, The Daily is so, so much more. For being a student journalist, it’s a little ridiculous that I’m sitting here struggling to string together coherent sentences that accurately convey The Daily’s importance to me.

It should be easy to explain, but it’s not. The only way to explain it, I think, is to explain why The Daily is a large part of the reason I’m graduating from Michigan in two weeks.

In high school, my plan was

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

“I love you” commmunity college. I applied to Michigan on a whim, and only decided to come here after the love of my life (financial aid) came through. But when I first got here, I realized I knew no one, and I was as academically ill-prepared as humanly possible.

I quite literally hated it.

Everything about Michigan was different from my little village back home — my econ class was bigger than my high school graduating class, by a lot. I knew maybe three people?

The lowest-level math class you could take was pre-calculus, which was still two levels too high for me. I failed two of those exams in a row, and neither of my parents had gone to college, so I felt like I had no one to talk to about it.

And, to top it all off, I got sunburnt at every single goddamn football game.

I was ready to transfer. I was going to go anywhere else.

Michigan was not my home. I hadn’t even planned on going anywhere other than community college in the first place. I did not sign up for this.

Instead of transferring, though, I signed up for The Daily. It was kind of a lastditch effort to stay at Michigan, and I did technically only join because I was binge-watching Gilmore Girls at the time and Rory wrote for her school paper, but that’s not important.

Because when Ted and Kevin started offering to help me with my math homework, and when Avi offered to meet me at South Quad for lunch before volleyball, and when Kelly gave me every piece of advice she had, I realized that there was

a reason for me to stay on campus and give it another chance.

My rocky start wasn’t at all indicative of the life I’d have at Michigan, and that chance I took on staying has given me the best four years of my life. I f lew with the hockey team to Madison and State College, and I drove to Ohio State my senior year to cover a football game with four amazing friends. We went to the Peach Bowl last December where we met Mel, and if you haven’t met Mel (which you probably haven’t), just know he makes mean peach booze slushie.

Joining The Daily carried me through Michigan. It taught me that going out of my comfort zone and attending a fouryear university had been hard, but exactly what I needed to grow as a person. It gave me the chance to start collecting coffee mugs at every school I went to, whether that was to cover a sport or for some other random, unimportant reason, in hopes that my future kids will grow up and see these mugs and not think twice about going to college.

(I don’t have an Ohio State mug, but that’s not my fault. I tried to buy one at both a hockey and football game. Their stores only carried fake buckeyes and foam fingers.)

The Daily gave me a home in a place where I felt like I didn’t have one, and now I can’t imagine having gone anywhere else. That’s why I have an absurd amount of love for these people, and why I don’t care that ending every email with “I love you” was probably unnecessary and ridiculous.

What I do care about is that

Joining The Daily carried me through Michigan.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Senior Laney Byler bought a coffee mug at every school she’s ever visited, except Ohio State because she couldn’t find one.

everyone on this staff — every freshman, every senior, every junior and every sophomore — knows that they are a part of one of the best experiences on this campus.

At this point, it’s important to note that I tried to write this column a million times and couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say. A couple nights ago, I asked a former MSE how to best approach this column, and he said to write it for yourself — not for anyone else.

I kept thinking about what I wanted to say. What I needed, not what anyone else needed.

All I could think of, though, was how much I loved everyone, how grateful I am that I got to be a part of something so special for these four years.

So, really, this column is just a 1,000-word extension of my senior goodbye from back in December. Oops.

In reality, that’s probably because I wasn’t really ready to say goodbye back then. I couldn’t write that goodbye in its entirety because saying goodbye meant I was done here

at Michigan, and I wasn’t ready to be done.

But, I think I am now. So, let me finish by wrapping up a few things I left unsaid: Megan and Lauren, thanks for putting up with me (and The Daily). I can’t believe we made it through four years together even though we went in blind freshman year. I’m happy none of our fights over plastic bags and dishes ever had serious consequences.

Thanks, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Jarrad, for calling Michigan’s office of financial aid every day after I got accepted to find a way to get me here.

Thanks, Christopher Lobenherz, for picking up the phone one of those days and helping an unaccompanied homeless youth get to college.

Turns out, I don’t have any big-picture theme or advice to

give, mostly because I’m 22 and really don’t need that kind of liability on my hands. But I do want to say thank you, and not just to The Daily. Thank you if you read a story, if you were a professor who went out of your way to help me, if you were a GSI who didn’t fail me in precalculus even if you probably should have.

Thank you all for being here, for being a part of this community, for reading this incoherent goodbye column. Thank you, everyone, for doing whatever it is that you did to help me get to where I am today.

I love you.

But I do want to say thank you, and not just to The Daily.

Laney can be reached on Twitter @laneybyler or by email at dbyler@umich.edu. She wants to thank you (obviously) for reading this incomprehensible and ridiculously emotional last column.

You’re all rockstars. She loves you.

Time to turn the lights out

A

fter a basketball game is finished, and the fans have left, some media members prefer to work in the media room.

I always try to go back to the press box, partially because I work better by myself, but mostly MIKE because there PERSAK is nothing like an empty stadium.

Where there was deafening noise and heart-stopping action mere hours earlier, now there is silence.

It helps my creativity for working and fuels my nostalgia when I’m done.

Over the last four years, from hockey to football, I’ve been lucky enough to walk around Joe Louis Arena, the Dean Dome, Mackey Arena, Madison Square Garden, the Alamodome, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and yes, Michigan Stadium. All empty. All magnificent.

In the basketball arenas, I think of my dad, Mike. He taught me how to shoot a jumpshot and drove me all around hell and back for tournaments and games over the years, sharing stories and advice like only a dad can do.

In the football stadiums, I think of my mom, Martha, who I remember yelling at the television on fall Saturdays and tearing up at the Michigan marching band during post-game performances when we came to games in Ann Arbor years ago. She has always been there for me, in the stands for the easy times and in the trenches for the hard ones.

I look around these stadiums and think of my parents, the role they’ve played in getting me here and how much I wish I could show them these experiences in person.

I liked to sit for a while by myself after running productions at The Daily last year, too.

The posters around the room

from past Managing Editors are a little like jerseys hung in rafters. I think of myself here, and how I’ve somehow found a place in the history of this 128-yearold newspaper.

Both experiences settle me down and give me the slightest sense of imposter syndrome.

They are my two first thoughts when I think of my “happy place.”

The difference is that, if all goes well, more stadiums will be in my future. A silent, empty Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building at 2:00 a.m. will not. *** From a young age, I would wake up early in the morning to watch SportsCenter. When it ended, I would watch the next episode, which was just an exact repeat of the one I had just watched.

In those days, sports were synonymous with Michigan sports to me, and I never really had a choice.

My grandpa — Gumpa, as his grandkids called him — attended Michigan, and from there, I think my fate was preordained.

So I grew up with maize and blue everything. In Sunday School as a child, I colored a picture of Jesus Christ maize and blue.

I used to play catch with Gumpa in my grandparents’ living room with a little, blue, plastic football for hours. I’d say I was Marquise Walker (the real ones will remember) or Braylon Edwards or some other Wolverines receiver, as I dove into their couches making one-handed catches.

I always thought I would be a Michigan athlete one day. Of course, that dream was dashed, because I am not close to D-1-caliber at anything, though I do hold my own on the IM courts.

Time passed, and it eventually came time to apply for college. I thought for a second that I might want to go somewhere else. I knew sports journalism was my interest and that Michi-

gan didn’t have a journalism major.

But when I actually got accepted here, I don’t even think I had to tell my parents where I wanted to go. They probably knew I’d end up in Ann Arbor before I did.

The sports journalism aspect took care of itself, too.

At Festifall my freshman year, I was actually looking for the WCBN table — I thought I wanted to do radio or television. But I stumbled across The Daily’s table, where then-MSE Max Cohen was standing.

He asked me if he could be honest with me, and his pitch was something along the lines of, “We’re the best fucking student newspaper in the country, and we’ll get you a job.”

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I was sold, and the rest is history.

Gumpa passed when I was nine. I’d give anything to tell him about the last four years. *** I remember when my Dad was laid off. He is a press operator, and I was too young to have it explained to me fully, but he spent time at home for a while. Mom is an elementary school teacher, and we got by.

I also remember taking a drive one day.

My parents, my two sisters — Katie and Mary — and I packed into our car and drove about five minutes away from home, pulling down a long driveway into the woods. At the end of it was a small house. We were moving here, away from my childhood home, to this aircondition-less, fresh-water-less place.

I know I didn’t take that change well, and I imagine my reaction didn’t make things easy on my parents. I realize now that the move was partially for me.

Mom and Dad have always

told us kids not to worry about the costs of things, because we’ll make it work.

When I wanted to play AAU basketball, they figured out a way to pay for it. When Katie decided on Western Michigan, and I decided on Michigan, they figured out a way to pay for it.

When Mary gets into Harvard or Oxford or something, they’ll figure out a way to pay for it.

When I got my first internship in Colorado Springs, my Dad got in my shitty, old car with me and drove through the night to Colorado to make sure I got there safe.

I don’t write any of this because I think I’m special, or for pity’s sake. I recognize there are thousands of kids and parents who have to grind to make ends meet.

I tell these stories because I am so, incredibly lucky to have the parents I do. They deserve so much credit. Truthfully, they deserve so much more than that.

No matter how many times I’ve been down to my last dollar, scrambling to pay rent, they kept a promise.

We’ve always made it work.

So I’ll repeat what I said in my Senior Goodbye.

Mom and Dad, one day I swear it will all be worth it. *** I’ve said a fair number of goodbyes in my life, and I’ve sucked at all of them.

The last football game I attended as a fan was Michigan’s loss to Ohio State in 2017.

My friends went home before me, and when the final whistle blew, I made my way to the 50-yard line. In the shadow of the press box, I watched the marching band’s postgame show and cried.

At the end of my MSE tenure, I went home for a family wedding. I was tired. A year of this job takes something out of you. I

It was the biggest factor in the best four years of my life.

COURTESY OF MIKE PERSAK

Senior Mike Persak promises his parents that their sacrifices will be worth it.

had a long talk with Mom about school and The Daily and my own mental health, and I cried then too. I wasn’t ready to be done with The Daily, and I’m still not. I’m certainly not ready to be done with Michigan.

And that’s why this goodbye is especially painful.

Because, even if those other ones were “lasts” for specific situations, I still had time left.

For this one, I have two weeks, and then nothing will ever be the same as it was these last four years.

When I would sit at The Daily on those late nights, I would leave and walk through the silent campus. The walk was better before The Union was under construction, but it’s still pretty good.

Maybe after the stories I’ve already told, it’s a surprise I didn’t cry. Instead, I would well up with pride.

For all the hundreds of thousands of people who walked this campus, I am one of the relative few who was Managing Sports Editor of The Michigan Daily.

Years from now, I will be able to walk back into 420 Maynard St. and find my bylines from my time here.

I’ll remember The Daily for being the thing that got me through the hard times. When things were at their worst, I never once dreaded walking into that building. Turning the corner from the stairs, entering the newsroom and seeing the sports staff at the first desk on the right washed away whatever else was going on in my life. For a year, that staff — the best goddamn student sports section in the world — was mine, and that means the world to me.

It was the biggest factor in the best four years of my life.

But at some point, the stadium lights go out, and you have to leave.

It is the worst part.

Persak can be reached at mdpers@umich.edu or on Twitter @MikeDPersak. He would like to thank anyone who has read any of his articles, no matter how ridiculous they may have been.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SportsMonday

April 22, 2019 — 3B

McCallum wins national title as Offense leads Wolverines to sweep Michigan finishes in fourth place LANE KIZZIAH Daily Sports Writer

BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer

Anthony McCallum stood at the end of the runway, visualizing himself sticking his Tsukahara double pike vault.

Five seconds later, he landed it, for the final time in his Michigan men’s gymnastics career, with his feet glued to the floor.

All gymnasts strive for stuck landings, and this time, it won the senior his third national title on vault with a score of 15.266 — just 0.434 below his maximum score. In a sport where even the smallest errors incur deductions, that’s about as good as it gets.

“It doesn’t feel real yet,” McCallum said. “It just feels really good to end it the way I envisioned it to end. So many other things could’ve happened.

It just feels good to make my legacy even better than it was before and finish off the way that I wanted to.”

After winning the title on vault both his freshman and sophomore years, McCallum missed the majority of the 2018 season with an injury. That year, he scored just a 14.000 in the qualifying round at the NCAA Championships and failed to advance to the vault final.

In Friday’s qualifying session, McCallum again marked a 14.000 after putting his hands down when landing, but he advanced to Saturday’s final because the Wolverines qualified as a team. Michigan ultimately finished fourth of six teams with a score of 406.354.

“Yesterday, he had trouble with his vault,” said Michigan coach Kurt Golder on Saturday.

“It’s just such a difficult vault, but for him to stick it today — you know, it’s the last vault he’ll ever do for Michigan and he sticks it and wins the national title. Doesn’t get much better

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Senior Anthony McCallum won the national title on vault, scoring 15.266.

than that.”

For the first time in his NCAA Championships career, McCallum competed alongside his teammates in the final round of competition. Until Friday, the Wolverines had not made it to the second day of the championships as a team since 2015.

“It was really exciting being with the team,” McCallum said. “In the past, the other times that I’ve won, it was as an individual. I really was just thinking about the team and that ended up bringing out the best competition in myself.”

McCallum’s score propelled Michigan to a score of 73.264 on the vault and made the Wolverines just the second team this season to score above 73.

But despite the high scores on vault, Michigan couldn’t overcome low scores on pommel horse and high bar.

“Anytime you can (make it to the Super Six), you’ve gotta be happy,” Golder said. “Just didn’t do quite what we were capable of, and of course that’s what you want in a national championship.”

While the Wolverines didn’t find much success as a team, three of McCallum’s teammates joined him as All-Americans after placing in the top eight on

their respective events.

Fifth-year senior Marty Strech earned a seventh-place finish on the still rings for his routine that he capped with a stuck dismount. Michigan competed on rings in the second rotation on Saturday, and Strech’s score of 14.300 remained in podium position throughout the competition. “(Strech is) just so clean,” Golder said. “He doesn’t have a great start value. There’s a lot of guys with a higher start value, but he executes so well that it doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s nice to see in a big championship meet that he holds up pretty well.”

Sophomores Jacob Moore and Cameron Bock also earned All-American honors. Moore finished in third place on floor exercise and Bock placed fourth in the all-around.

Although Michigan earned high scores from gymnasts like McCallum and Moore, its overall struggles in the team competition left the Wolverines scoring more than two points below their season average.

But it was Michigan’s first trip to the Super Six since 2015, and for a program that’s won three national titles this decade, it was an important step toward being a national contender again.

Any good team needs players to step up when others aren’t at their best.

The No. 22 Michigan softball team (33-11 overall, 15-1 Big Ten) proved its mettle this weekend, coming out ahead in all three contests against Illinois (2717, 6-9) this weekend despite uncharacteristically poor pitching.

The bats started slow in the series. Friday’s game was lowALEC COHEN/Daily scoring on both sides, ending Senior second baseman Faith Canfield had a two-run double on Saturday. with a final score of 2-1. The first of these runs came in the first punch back. This weekend, we runs before pitching a scoreless seventh. inning when senior first baseman trusted our ability to do that.”

The pitching staff as a whole Alex Sobczak fired a ball deep into “Saturday, we saw that (Illinois center field, driving in freshman pitcher) again and we made some struggled in the second game. outfielder Lexie Blair from first. adjustments,” said Michigan Hutchins pulled freshman rightBoth Sobczak and Blair coach Carol Hutchins. “It made a hander Alex Storako after she continued to be assets offensively difference. You have to do what it gave up three runs and loaded the bases in the bottom of the third as the weekend continued. They takes to win.” combined for nine hits over

By Sunday, the Wolverines’ inning. This has become standard the course of the weekend and offense virtually functioned as a practice for Storako, who has had back-to-back homers in the carousel, sending runners around rarely gotten beyond the third fourth inning of Sunday’s game. the bases one after the next in a or fourth inning without being The energy picked up on game that ended in a 16-5 victory. substituted out.

Unlike past games, Storako Saturday, when the Wolverines Michigan took a commanding edged out the Illini, 9-8. Two lead in the first inning with was switched back in less than runs in the first inning got the five runs, which included two an inning later after sophomore ball rolling for Michigan, but it of the day’s six home runs — right-hander Schaefer gave up lost the momentum, failing to by senior designated player three more runs and loaded the score another run until the fifth. Mackenzie Nemitz and junior bases in the fourth. This wouldn’t By then, the Wolverines faced a outfielder Haley Hoogenraad. be Michigan’s last pitching four-run deficit. But they didn’t The Wolverines didn’t let up, change. Hutchins opted to swap amassing a total of 17 hits by the Storako out again — this time for let it faze them.

Beaubien. Despite her struggles In the fifth inning, a single end of the contest.

“Our offense throughout the in the sixth, Beaubien held off the

by Blair allowed sophomore shortstop Natalia Rodriguez to weekend improved just within Illini in the seventh, preserving score, and from there, the runs the three games,” Blair said. the Wolverines’ narrow lead.

The pitchers’ struggles kept coming. In the sixth inning, “That’s just from staying within junior third baseman Madison ourselves, knowing we can pick followed them into Sunday’s Uden blasted a ball over the each other up if someone can’t get game, in which Beaubien started in the circle. She gave up five runs center field wall, further chipping the job done.”

While the Wolverines’ hitting before Storako came in for relief away at Illinois’ lead. In the seventh inning, a double hit down improved as the weekend wore in the last inning.

Luckily for the Wolverines, the third base line by Canfield on, the same couldn’t be said of the offense’s production kept sent two runners home, putting their pitching.

Friday, sophomore left-hander Michigan afloat.

Michigan one run ahead by the “Our offense had our pitchers’ Meghan Beaubien gave up just game’s close.

“I think we’re just getting three hits in seven innings, one backs,” Hutchins said. “Some better and we’re just fighting,” of which translated into a run. days the hitters have to pick said senior second baseman Faith Saturday’s game was a different up the pitchers and some days Canfield. “They’re going to throw story. She entered in relief in the the pitchers have to pick up the a punch, we’ve got to throw a sixth inning and gave up two hitters.”

From sprinter to marathon runner, Jeff Criswell grows into starting role ABBY SNYDER

Daily Sports Writer

It’s a completely different ballgame.

That’s what Michigan coach Erik Bakich will say, what pitching coach Chris Fetter will say, what sophomore righthander Jeff Criswell will say about transitioning from the bullpen to a starting role.

“It’s going from the mindset of being a sprinter to a marathon runner,” Bakich said. “It’s a totally different way of training, a totally different mindset. You go from an adrenaline junkie who’s gonna go blow it out for one inning to a guy who still needs to have his best stuff and pitch with his best intent, but who has to do it over six or seven innings every time he goes out there.”

That’s the challenge that Criswell has faced this season.

With sophomore left-hander Ben Dragani injured, Criswell was next up to fill the No. 3 spot in the Wolverines’ rotation behind junior left-hander Tommy Henry and junior righthander Karl Kauffman. His solid performance out of the bullpen last year — a 2.23 earned run average and 32 strikeouts over 32.1 innings pitched — made him the natural choice.

He hadn’t been a starter since high school, though. Criswell pitched in relief all of his freshman year, and all of last summer. He only threw more than two innings once in his 24 outings and 32.1 total innings last year.

But over his nine starts this season, Criswell has virtually erased all of those concerns. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in almost a month, since his March 23 start against No. 16 Texas Tech. He struck out 12 batters in Dodger Stadium against a formidable Oklahoma State squad on the tail end of a long and difficult California swing.

So far, he’s given up just five extra-base hits on the season over 45.2 innings of work.

His pitches — what Fetter called a “major-league” fastball, and a changeup and slider that are already strong — are looking better than ever. And with the work Criswell and Fetter have been putting in, they’re just continuing to get stronger.

“On any one day, you’ll see three pitches from Jeff that could be at the highest level,” Fetter said.

Criswell has gone at least five innings in all but two of his starts. The two exceptions: 4.2 innings against the Red Raiders — easily among the toughest competition Michigan has faced this season — and two innings in a midweek game against Toledo.

As the season has gone on, Criswell has grown increasingly comfortable going later into games. Over his first four starts, he only went six innings once. In the five starts since, he’s made it almost seven full innings twice.

Now, Criswell and Fetter are looking to bring that to eight and eventually maybe even nine.

The Sunday after that Wednesday start against the Rockets, Criswell went 6.2 innings against a Minnesota team that is among the Wolverines’ biggest competition in the Big Ten. With the series tied at the game apiece, the Wolverines needed a win to take the home series and keep up their momentum in one of the toughest stretches of their schedule. Criswell held the Golden Gophers to three hits and no runs while striking out eight — on three days’ rest.

A week later, he took the mound at Ohio State as the Wolverines tried to stave off a sweep by their archrivals.

Again, Criswell went 6.2 innings, striking out four and not allowing a single extra-base

You’re just trying to close out each inning now.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Sophomore right-hander Jeff Criswell transitioned from the bullpen to the starting rotation this season, spurred by help from pitching coach Chris Fetter.

hit as Michigan went on to win, 6-2, in what Fetter called his best outing of the season.

“With Minnesota and Ohio State, you can see his growth; you can see his improvement,” Bakich said. “It’s been very impressive, and we’ve certainly needed it.

Having a guy like Jeff on Sunday gives us a great chance to win or sweep every series that we play.”

But transitioning from a one-ortwo-inning reliever to a six-orseven-inning starter doesn’t happen overnight, even for a player with starting experience.

Criswell and Fetter have been working on extending the pitcher’s outings — and keeping his pitches up over longer stretches — since August.

They’ve smoothed out

Criswell’s delivery, streamlined his motion, and put an emphasis on delivering power from the legs — changes targeted at delivering the same pitches but using less energy.

“Because he’s using his legs more, and because he’s more efficient in what he’s doing delivery-wise, he’s able to go much deeper in the game,” Fetter said. “He’s still showing the same stuff he had last year in one-inning stints, but he’s able to maintain that now for six, seven innings.”

The bigger challenge for Criswell has been adopting the mindset of a starter. After a year in a closing role, the adjustment back to longer outings was tough, not just physically, but mentally.

“The biggest thing with Jeff was trying to convince him,

... you can see his growth and you can see his improvement.

‘Hey, you’re still a closer in your mentality. We’re just gonna close out the first inning, and then the second inning, close out the third inning, and keep that up and not look at the long picture about trying to go deep into a game and conserve energy,’” Fetter said. “You’re still using the same amount of energy, the same amount of force. You’re just trying to close out each inning now instead of just one.”

Henry and Kauffmann, both of whom started last year as well, have also helped Criswell make the transition. A converted closer, Criswell’s adjustment centered around mentality more than anything else.

“It was definitely very different for me, but Coach Fetter, Tommy Henry and Karl Kauffmann have all been huge in helping me along,” Criswell said. “Karl and Tommy both have a couple more years of experience than I do in the starting role, and those guys

have been absolutely great to me. With their help, and the work I’ve done with Coach Fetter, it’s just been really good for me.”

As the Wolverines head into the final stretch of their season, having Criswell dominate like this in that Sunday-starter role is more important than ever.

The Big Ten race is tightening up, with Nebraska, Indiana and Iowa all looking like strong contenders.

But if Criswell can keep up this improvement — and Bakich and Fetter have both expressed every confidence that he can — the Wolverines have the potential to be serious competitors for the conference title too, and maybe even a postseason run.

“I’m ready to go,” Criswell said. “We’re excited to continue into Big Ten play, and we know that we’ve got some work to do, but we’re going to be ready for the next couple weeks to come.

I’m excited.”

SportsMonday

4B — April 22, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Spring forward

With spring practice ending, Josh Gattis keeps the reins on Michigan’s offense as the team stays confident on defense ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

It was easy to be skeptical a month ago. Jim Harbaugh has adapted, but he has never given up control, at least not in this way.

Michigan’s offense has always been his, and before that, so was the 49ers’, Stanford’s and the University of San Diego’s. Hiring Josh Gattis to be his offensive coordinator was one thing. Letting him coordinate the offense was, entirely, another.

Still, that’s exactly what Harbaugh committed to doing.

“He’s going to coordinate the offense and call the plays,” Harbaugh said on March 18, when asked exactly what it meant to give Gattis the keys to the offense. “And that’s what that means.”

And, at least through spring ball, that’s what it has been.

After 15 practices, about 90 percent of Gattis’ offense has been installed, he said Friday afternoon.

That offense, entirely, belongs to Gattis. “(Harbaugh) hasn’t been involved at all,” Gattis said. “He hasn’t stepped in.”

With the offense run to Gattis’ liking, it took three or four practices into the spring before Michigan had things down. The new elements — run-pass options, no-huddle and the like — weren’t all too hard to pick up, according to most players after the spring game.

The hard part, Gattis said, was going against Michigan’s defense every day in practice.

“You look at the average defense, you gotta go in throughout the year and they’re gonna be a four-down, they’re gonna be a static front in static coverage,” Gattis said. “Our defense presents a number of different challenges. So once we were able to able to apply our roles and they were able to learn the installs and then learn the rules going against our defense, you were able to see a lot of successful plays happen from that standpoint.”

As defensive coordinator Don

Brown pointed out just after Gattis finished talking, the Wolverines are a package defense. There’s little trickery going on — they’re going to play man coverage and dare you to beat them. And with 90 percent of the offense installed, the other 10 will be determined, in part, by what doesn’t work against Michigan’s defense.

Otherwise, it’s formations Gattis wants to add and things he wants to build on that have yet to be taught.

“One of the things to our advantage in this offense is the flexibility,” Gattis said. “This offense is what I call like a mutt of a dog. It’s got — it’s the pretty dog walking down the road and you’re trying to figure out, what kind of dog is it? And for us, we do a little bit of everything.”

At one point, as Gattis extolled his belief in the offense, Brown was standing about 20 feet to the side, behind a secretary’s desk. He was leaning down, arms crossed and eyes trained forward, out the door — a picture of intensity.

As his defense has sharpened Gattis this spring, so too has Gattis’ offense sharpened him.

“I think coach Gattis has done a great job of, got those guys going fast,” Brown said. “Which, that certainly helps us. … You better get up to speed, be running with a sense of urgency to get lined up and all those things. So, I think that part of it’s been really tremendous for us.”

And where is Harbaugh in all of this?

“He’s the CEO,” Brown said.

“He’s running the program.”

That, according to Brown, means maximizing repetitions, keeping everyone on their toes and managing the bigger picture.

It doesn’t include the thing Harbaugh has built his career on — running the offense.

During the spring game, Gattis called all the plays, and not off a script. Gattis doesn’t need one, he said, because this is his offense, and he knows what to do and when. This is his show.

“A lot of people have put a lot of questions and comments out there in the spring,” Gattis said. “This is a sign of what great head coaches do. They’re willing to change.”

For now, Harbaugh has done just that.

THEO MACKIE

Daily Sports Writer

While Don Brown spoke to the media in Schembechler Hall on Friday afternoon, senior linebacker Khaleke Hudson walked down a hallway about 20 yards over Brown’s shoulder.

As Hudson began to walk out the door and onto State Street, he paused, flashed a smile and pointed at Brown, bestowing a gesture of “You the man” on his defensive coordinator.

This is, after all, how just about everybody inside these halls feels about Brown. And it’s why — after losing eight defensive starters from a year ago — Michigan has no shortage of confidence in its defense.

“When you look at coach Brown’s track record, I would argue he’s the best defensive coordinator in the country,” said offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. “He’s constantly produced top defenses year in and year out, no matter where he’s been.”

Regardless of the man in charge, losing eight starters,

ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily

Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis has had full control over Michigan’s offense, as Jim Harbaugh said he would.

including all four along the defensive line, poses a daunting challenge. Brown, though, has been through this before. “(After) last season was really like a picnic (compared to) after the ‘16 season, in terms of changing guys,” he said.

And like it did then, Brown’s adjustment has come down to finding schemes that work with his new personnel.

Solidifying schemes is even more important in Brown’s defense than in most. Gattis, in his first month practicing against Brown’s defense, said the toughest challenge his offense faces every day in practice is that the Wolverines don’t just run their base defense, instead alternating between three and fourdown fronts and displaying an array of blitz packages, even in spring practices.

That ability to mix and match packages to his personnel, though, has helped Brown mitigate the impact felt by Michigan’s losses from a year ago.

“I think this is gonna be an interesting group defensively,” Brown said. “We may be a little different, because we may have more guys like, ‘This guy’s good at this, that guy’s good at that.’

So you might have to piece it in a little bit like that, but that’s the fun part.”

In the linebacker corps — a group Brown called “unbelievable” on Friday despite losing Devin Bush to the NFL Draft — mixing and matching is less of an option, as Brown said he wants to find his top three and stick to them in most situations. But in the front

four, the Wolverines will have to be more flexible than they were last year, when Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich could slot in at defensive end on nearly every down.

Gary’s midseason injury, though, provided a peak of what could lie ahead this fall, at least at one defensive end spot.

“We found out last year, through injury,” Brown said, “that we were able to, between ( junior defensive end Josh Uche) and (sophomore defensive end Kwity Paye), we’ve got first, second-down production out of Kwity and third-down production out of Josh, which was an exciting thing for us.”

This year, those types of splits will become more common, with Bryan Mone and Lawrence Marshall, Michigan’s two interior starters for much of last year, also gone. Beyond Uche and Paye, Brown remained mum on exactly what those splits will be, but Carlo Kemp, Michael Dwumfour, Mazi Smith, David Ojabo, Donovan Jeter, Aidan Hutchinson and Ben Mason were all listed by Brown on Friday as part of the competition for snaps — potentially a deeper group than last year’s, even if it lacks the first-round edge-rushing talent of Gary and Winovich.

But whatever the personnel combinations, Michigan’s confidence in its defense remains as persistent as ever.

And for that, it has one man to thank.

“I remember all the headaches coach Brown would present when you gameplanned against him,” Gattis said. “Imagine doing that for 15 (spring) practices.”

(Brown has) constantly produced top defenses.

‘M’ finishes seventh Wolverines place third in NCAA semifinals WOMEN’S GOLF

ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Writer

Elodie Van Dievoet teed off Sunday morning knowing that it could be her last time as a Wolverine.

The Michigan women’s golf team was a long shot to make the NCAA Tournament, needing to win the Big Ten Championships to do so. But Van Dievoet still had a chance to finish her career on a high note.

Two years ago at the very same location — TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio — Van Dievoet secured her place in the record books by earning the program’s first-ever individual conference title. On Friday and Sunday, she shot a 142 for two under par and finished tied for fifth.

“She’s got a lot of good, positive memories from this place and loves playing here,” said Michigan coach Jan Dowling. “ … She went into this tournament with the possibility that this is her last tournament ever for Michigan women’s golf. So that’s kind of a tough place to be and really proud of her to kinda get really tough — and she had a low score — and finish with a bang. So we’re proud of her round today. It showed character.”

Led by Van Dievoet and freshman Ashley Lau — who shot a 145 to finish tied for 11th — the Wolverines finished seventh of 14 teams with a total of 583, seven over par, in the weathershortened tournament, ultimately falling short of the finish required to qualify for NCAA Regionals.

On Friday, cold and rainy conditions slowed everything down, with all teams at least three over par. Michigan sat tied for sixth at the end of the day, just seven shots behind first-place Illinois.

But Saturday, it was colder and rainier, rendering the course unplayable. The Wolverines waited and waited as tee times were pushed back further and further, playing cards and doing homework to pass the time.

Ultimately, the second round was canceled altogether, and Michigan instead got in some

practice time before dinner with the players’ families.

While the canceled second round provided some advantage in that it meant fewer holes for a team like the Fighting Illini to gain separation, it was also one fewer round in the Wolverines’ season.

“It’s not ideal,” Dowling said.

“We want to be playing 54 holes, but that was the scenario that was given to us. So we tried to make the most of it.”

The cancellation did afford Michigan one thing. It spurred the Wolverines to adopt an aggressive, chase-down-theleaders mindset Sunday, knowing that there was only one day to play catch up, instead of two.

Ultimately, it made little difference for the team as a whole, which finished three under par on Sunday to cement its spot in the middle of the pack. But for Van Dievoet, it paid off.

Sitting in just 14th on Friday, Van Dievoet came out Sunday and birdied five of 18 holes. She crept up the leaderboard with each passing turn, at one point sitting in third before a bogey on the 16th hole landed her just off the podium. She shot a 68 in the second round, the third-lowest score of the day.

Junior Alisa Snyder and freshman Sophia Trombetta also improved their standings Sunday.

Snyder shot a 73 to finish four over par for the weekend, good enough for 24th place. Trombetta, meanwhile, shot a 72 to shoot up from 41st after one day to 33rd after two.

Though Trombetta and Snyder punched above their weights, what ultimately held the Wolverines back was the struggles of sophomore Ashley Kim. Kim, who recorded the second-lowest score in program history as a freshman, never got into a groove, hitting a few loose iron shots and putting well below her standards. She shot 76 on Friday and 77 on Sunday and tied for 56th, the lowest-placing Michigan golfer.

Read more online at MichiganDaily.com

MOLLY SHEA

Daily Sports Writer

Throughout the meet, Bev Plocki heard people talking about the first session of the NCAA Championship semifinals.

The Gauntlet was what they called it. There were other names the Michigan coach heard, but The Gauntlet resonated with her.

It couldn’t have been more fitting to describe what the No. 7 Michigan women’s gymnastics team faced in attempts to make the NCAA Championship final.

The Wolverines would have to finish top two — the finals advancement cutoff — in a field with No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 LSU and No. 6 Utah. Instead, they settled for a third place finish, scoring 197.2000.

And The Gauntlet was only part of the struggle they faced.

All season, Michigan battled adversity, and its last week of the season served the team a heaping pile of it — on the final day of practice, senior Emma McLean broke her hand. McLean played a pivotal role in both the vault and floor lineups, and without her, if the Wolverines wanted a shot at the championship, someone would have to step up.

“That was a little emotional on our last day of practice,” said senior Olivia Karas. “To watch my best friend go down and know that was the end of her career.

That was pretty hard for me.”

Opening the meet on bars, that call was answered. Michigan’s lineup featured all four members of the freshman class — Abby Brenner, Abby Heiskell, Maddie Mariani and Natalie Wojcik — and all four members contributed scores at or above a 9.8000. When Karas stepped up to the bars, she was calm and confident. She swung through the routine with ease and stuck her double pike landing receiving the highest score of the rotation. Altogether the Wolverines earned a 49.300 — and a spot in second place.

“They’re amazing and incredible,” Plocki said. “I said to the freshmen, ‘You guys this is the beginning of something really special.’ They have contributed at such an incredible level. I’m so

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Freshman Natalie Wojcik scored a 9.9500 on the balance beam as Michigan finished in third place at NCAA semifinals.

excited about how they’ve done.”

Headed to the balance beam, the Wolverines hoped to continue their streak of clean routines.

Sophomore Lauren Farley led off and performed a routine that had a few wobbles and balance checks. Farley spent the week leading up to nationals in a boot with a foot injury. She earned a 9.7250. After four polished routines that all scored in the 9.8000 range, the only gymnast left was breakout star Wojcik.

From start to finish, Wojcik’s routine was nearly flawless. She flipped. She jumped. She stuck her landing. Her score flashed — a 9.9500 — and Wojcik’s name topped the beam leaderboard.

When both semifinal sessions concluded, she was crowned the NCAA national champion on beam.

The solid beam rotation kept Michigan in second place, but competition was closing in on the Wolverines. They were less than a tenth of a point behind first-place UCLA, and third-place LSU was only .0125 points behind them.

Headed to floor without McLean, Heiskell opened the rotation. The freshman tumbled her way through the routine and started Michigan off strong with a 9.8375. Next up was junior

Maddy Osman. During her second tumbling pass, Osman bounced out of bounds and received an automatic one-tenth deduction.

Her score was a 9.6500.

The Wolverines turned to Brenner, who danced, tumbled and entertained the crowd on her way to a 9.8500. Wojcik and Karas anchored the lineup, and both performed routines filled with personality and clean tumbling.

Despite ending the rotation with a 9.9000 from Wojcik, a 9.9250 from Karas and the dropping of Osman’s score, Michigan had slipped into third place.

“Our whole theme, everything we talked about in our team meeting last night, and even leading into competition was all about the fact that I wanted them to have fun,” Plocki said. “I wanted them to not pay attention to what anyone else was doing. I wanted them to compete for each other and stay in the moment and enjoy every moment.”

Just half a tenth behind secondplace LSU, the Wolverines’ last chance to earn a qualifying spot came down to the apparatus that has been their Achilles heel all season — the vault.

Michigan called upon its freshman class to fill McLean’s shoes. Heiskell started the rotation off with her Yurchenko

full and after a small hop on the landing, earned a 9.8000. The only stuck landing of the rotation came from sophomore Anne Maxim. Her Tsukahara received the highest score of the rotation for the Wolverines — a 9.8625.

Wojcik, Brenner and Karas couldn’t hold onto the stuck landings, and, like Heiskell, took small hops. When the scores settled, Michigan finished in third place with a score of 197.200 — only .163 behind the Tigers.

Four Wolverine gymnasts earned All-American honors — Karas, Wojcik, Osman and Funk.

Karas led the group with four, earning first team honors on the uneven bars and floor and second team honors on beam and in the all-around.

“The people that we were competing against, I mean nobody anticipated us to advance,” Plocki said. “We were in second place after two events, and only down by a half a tenth after three and it just so happened that we ended on vault which is probably our event that we’re most challenged on.

“What this team was able to do and the pieces we picked up and the fight and determination and grit that they had, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished.”