M Gym's Anthony McCallum wins National Championship on vault

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

It's been a tough season for the young Michigan Men's team. 

The 6-20 final record can be attributed to growing pains. On a roster of 24 men, 17 are either freshmen or sophomores with 13(!) being freshmen. So that's 71% underclassmen. 

However, the future is certainly bright as we saw towards the end of the season.

Freshman Anthony McCallum won the B1G Championship on vault. 

Despite the team's season ending last night in the qualifier round, McCallum qualified for the vault final and won the National Championship in the event--only the third time a Wolverine has brought the title home in that event. 

Sophomore Dmitri Belanovski earned All-American honors on floor, and senior Colin Mahar closed out his career with an All-American on rings.

A down year due to growing pains is something I'm fine with after winning 3 of the last 7 team national championships, including back to back ones in 2013 and 2014. 

 

 

 

MGoBoard

bacon

April 17th, 2016 at 8:55 AM ^

You might reconsider men not wearing the Leotard. Jules Leotard was a male acrobat, and a very famous one at that. They even wrote a popular song about him. "The costume he invented was a one-piece knitted garment streamlined to suit the safety and agility concerns of trapeze performance. It also showed off his physique, impressed the ladies and inspired the song sung by George Leybourne." Impressed the ladies.

Joined: 01/04/2009

MGoPoints: 18646

Michigasling

April 17th, 2016 at 2:45 PM ^

That was a major accomplishment, considering he's only a sophomore and most (maybe all?) of the guys ahead of him have been around for 3-5 years waiting for 3-time champ Sam Mikulak to graduate!  They're all close to Olympic caliber now, and Dmitri is the only all-around competitor for UM who's competed most of this year, taking it patiently, working up his difficulty while trying to avoid crash-and-burn. 

The other star recruit of Dmitri's year (Marty Strech) was injured early and out most (or all) of last season and slowly working his way back this year.  What's exciting is that he and BOTH star freshmen this year (McCallum & Emyre Cole) competed in the all-around in the NCAA qualifying.  Obviously their all doing the all-around shows how little depth there was this year, but the coaches probably figured the experience at the NCAAs was worth it to them for the future.  And all four made it to the finals in one or more events. 

The only departing seniors have all been "specialists" -- i.e., only doing one or two events per meet.  Doing the all-around is obviously exhausting, and I noticed this year's top teams didn't have any guys doing the all-around in the qualifying round.  They have enough depth that they felt certain to make the finals, so they spread the events around to guys who could compete in only one or two events and rested their AA stars.  (Like swimmers for top teams doing the qualifying rounds for relays and letting the fastest guys save some strength for the finals.)

And don't forget the injury bug.  Doesn't show up in the individual meet results but contributes to the loss of depth and experience.  One of the few juniors, Tristian Perez-Rivera, a member of the Puerto Rican national team, was out all season with an injury, so hopefully he'll be back and able to contribute.  The other top junior, Anthony Stefanelli, terrific in vault and floor (making the podium in both at the B1Gs), apparently broke his toe warming up for the NCAAs.  He still competed with wrapping, amazingly making the finals in floor and was doing terrifically, but he collapsed after a landing near the end and had to be helped off the floor.   Hope his grit didn't cause further damage for the future.

A rebuilding year for sure, but it looks like the rebuilding is happening. 

Joined: 11/21/2009

MGoPoints: 7751