The Big Ten Conference office announced the 2011 Big Ten Medal of Honor winners, and Michigan Hockey Captain Carl Hagelin and Women's Gymnastics Captain Sarah Curtis were among the awardees.

The award was established in 1914 when the Big Ten endowed a Medal of Honor to be given annually to a student in the graduating class of each university that demonstrated proficiency in scholarship and athletics. In 1982, the Medal of Honor was expanded to include a senior female athlete from each institution.

It's hard to think of two more worthy recipients. A fifth year senior, Curtis was named an Academic All-American today, being chosen as a Capital One Academic All-America® At-Large second team member by the College Sports Information Directors of America. She is a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and a five-time U-M Athletic Academic Achievement Award recipient. While Curtis excelled in the class room she excelled in the arena during her distinguished Michigan career. To borrow profusely from her MGoBlue profile:

Curtis is three-time second-team All-American, earning the honor twice in 2011 on the uneven bars and all-around; she also won second team honors in the all-around in 2010. The 2008 Big Ten Conference bars champion, she was named to All-Big Ten teams four times in her career: the 2008, '09 and '10 first team, and the 2011 second team. She served as U-M's team captain in 2009 and '11 and was the team co-MVP in 2008, '09 and '10.

Add on Big Ten Medal of Honor Winner. Congrats Sarah Curtis!

On the Men's side, Carl Hagelin was chosen in part because he was the heart and soul of Michigan's Men's Hockey Team and in part because he's one of the better scholars to lace of skates for the Team. The Senior was the recipient of the Jacob and Anne Haas Scholarship for Men's Ice Hockey, named to the CCHA Scholar-Athlete Team three times (2008-2010), received the U-M Athletic Academic Achievement award four straight years, and twice to the Academic All-Big Ten team. On the ice, Hagelin was as fast a player as I've ever seen in Maize and Blue. He topped 30 assists twice, scored more than 10 goals in every season, and was one of the most disciplined defensive forwards Michigan's ever had. Hagelin tacked on the CCHA's best defensive forward award, was named All-CCHA, and led the Wolverines to the NCAA finals. And... of course, BORK BORK BORK BORK BORK! Hagelin has signed with the New York Rangers and we look forward to seeing him fly around the Garden for a long, long time. Congrats Carl Hagelin!

This year's Master's Tournament at venerable Augusta National (no women allowed!) in Augusta Georgia will feature a little more Maize and Blue than in previous years with Amateur Public Links champion Lion Kim among the field.  Lion qualified by winning the US Amateur Links Championship at Bryan Park:

via www.usga.org

It was dark when he won.  It was also wet.  Wet and dark.  Lion, for those who don't know, is a 22 year old native of Lake Mary, Florida (born in S. Korea, but lived in US since he was 1), and is current Senior at Michigan.  His odds of making the cut are set at 35-1.  He will be playing with Davis Love III and Jose Maria Olazabal, which is probably good for him.  Both of those golfers are pretty easy going, and he won't have to deal with huge gallery followings. Their tee time is set for 12:31 PM. 

Lion will use a local caddy at Augusta.  Knowing very little of caddying in general, it's probably good from a golf standpoint to use a local guy who knows the ins and outs of the course.  I sure know that if I were playing the Masters, I'd want somebody on my bag who knows me and can calm me down, etc.  Maybe I'm more emotional than Lion.  Also: in my wildest fever dreams I never think about playing the Masters, so what do I know?

Lion finished the par-3 contest T-19 at even par today.  For those who don't know, you do NOT want to win the par-3 event.  If Lion does threaten to make the cut, you can expect a ton of really bad Lion/Tiger puns from everyone involved.  Rick Reilly might just break something.

For a VERY detailed interview with Lion, head over to Mgo here.

We'll be watching Lion throughout the day - he's promised to gear some Maize and Blue tomorrow - and wish him the best of luck in his first (of many) Masters Tournament.  Go Lion!  Go Blue!

Your alarm clock is the most difficult household items to figure out.  One minute, it's sitting usefully on your nightstand happily displaying the time for all to see.  Then the next minute slips onto the display and it starts to squawk and beep and boop or play that annoying radio station that tells you that your nice warm place of sanctuary is about to be torn away and you're going to have to face the day in that wretched state of being called "awake."  If you have a job, you face this nightmare daily, probably nostalgically wishing for your college days when you could just sleep as long as you wanted and the earliest thing you had to do was the occasional 8 AM class.  You woke up at 7:55 for that class - don't kid yourself. 

Now imagine the amount of dedication it takes to voluntarily give up those mornings - and the many, many nights that cause those mornings - for your college career, and go directly from the warm place of sanctuary into a cold pool to swim a 4000 yard practice.  This is the life for college swimmers.  If you've ever swam competitively, you know what it takes to do 2-a-days 6 days a week and have that be normal.  You know what it's like to be in the weight room at 5am.  You know what it's like to give up your Christmas vacation to do 12,000 yard days, looking at a dry-erase board and seeing that the next 3 hours of your life are going to suuuuuuuuck.

The dedication and sacrifice that one spends in pursuit of a goal are repaid ten-fold when that goal is reached.  The dedication and sacrifice it takes to achieve a goal in the sport of swimming are steep, but the achievement of that goal is something that define lives.  In a sport largely defined by individual performances, casual observers often mistake the team aspect.  The guys you swim with are the guys who push you every day in the pool, pick you up during a tough set, and make you come to practice in the morning when you'd rather be sleeping.  These experiences - a little closer to hazing than anybody would probably admit - build a team closer than anybody who hasn't been a part of it knows, and a personal record, or a winning individual swim is as much a reflection of that team as an individual achievement because without your teammates willing you on, you probably would have given up a long time ago.

The Michigan Men's Swimming and Diving team just won their 35th Big Ten Title a week ago, scoring 678 points to Indiana's 604.  They place 10 members on the First Team All Conference list: Hassan Abdel Khalik, Sean Fletcher, Connor Jaeger, Neal Kennedy, Jan Konarzewski,Daniel Madwed, Miguel Ortiz, James Ridgeway, Sean Ryan, and Kyle Whitaker.  How dominant was Michigan?  In the 500 free, Michigan 1-2-3'd the FINALS with Sean Ryan placing first, Dane Vanderkaay second, and Ryan Feeley third.  That is remarkable.  In a marquee distance event, Michigan has three (3!) dudes better than anyone else in the Big Ten.  Hell, Hassaan Abdel Khal from Michigan placed 8th.  The winning time, by the way?  4:17.91.  That's disgustingly fast.

Congratulations to the Michigan Men's Swimming and Diving team for a successful meet, and good luck to those members continuing their seasons.  35 Banners.  That's remarkable. 

Cinderella Story. Former groundskeeper. About to become the NCAA Champion....

Not quite. Michigan's meteoric rise to the NCAA's golf tournament's final four may be a bit of a surprise, but only to the extent that it happened so quickly. A lot of it has to do with a young man choosing Michigan as a place to make his mark. Not too long ago Lion Kim, one of Michigan's best and highest ranked player was the No. 2 golf prospect coming out of high school. He had scads of offers from the traditional NCAA golf powers, but chose Michigan.  According to the Ann Arbor News:

"My way of thinking for college was that I wanted to go somewhere I could make a difference," Kim said.

And how.

Michigan defeated USC 3-2 in match play this morning/afternoon. As a result they move on to the Final Four, and face No. 7 ranked Texas A&M who just downed No. 2 Arizona State 3-1-1.

Go Blue!