College notes: Led by three All-Americans, UM wrestling pins down fifth place at NCAAs

For a second consecutive year, the Michigan wrestling program pinned down a top-five finish as the NCAA Championships.

Michigan finished fifth over the weekend in Pittsburgh, with three All-American performances leading the way.

Fifth-year senior Alec Pantaleo (Canton) took third place at 157 pounds, redshirt junior Myles Amine (Brighton) was third at 174 points, and redshiirt junior Steven Micic took third at 133 pounds.

Each of them was an All-American for the third time.

As a team, Michigan finished with 62.5 points, just ahead of sixth-place Missouri (62). Penn State coasted to its fourth consecutive NCAA championship. Ohio State was second, Oklahoma State third and Iowa fourth.

The Big Ten had six teams in the top 10, with Minnesota eighth, Rutgers ninth and Nebraska 10th.

Michigan finished fourth at the NCAAs last year.

Michigan now claims 195 All-Americans in program history. These were the first under first-year head coach Sean Bormet, a two-time All-American himself at Michigan.

Central Michigan finished in 28th place, with redshirt sophomore Matt Stencel finishing in seventh place at 285 pounds, good for All-America honors.

Michigan State finished in 33rd place, also with an All-American — sophomore Rayvon Foley (Ann Arbor), who took seventh at 125 pounds. He is Michigan State's 134th All-American, the first since heavyweight Mike McClure placed fifth in 2014.

Hoop shots

A few basketball items of note:

►Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis is one of three finalists for the Wayman Tisdale Award, handed out to the nation's top freshman, after he set the record for 3-pointers made by a freshman. His competition for the award is tough, to be sure: Duke's Zion Willamson and RJ Barrett, and North Carolina's Coby White.'

Davis, the Horizon League freshman of the year who averaged 26.1 points, has said he will be back for his sophomore season.

►The Horizon League and Summit League will have a "Showdown" basketball series, starting in 2020 and lasting three seasons. The matchups will be established based on teams' projected rankings, a three-year RPI/NET average, and KenPom. The games will take place in November of each year. Since the Horizon League has 10 teams and the Summit nine, one Horizon League team will play a non-Summit League team each year.

►Michigan State women still have business to tend to in the NCAA Tournament, with Monday night's game against top-seeded Notre Dame. But when the Spartans' run ends, coach Suzy Merchant will turn her attention to coaching the United States team in the Pan American Games in Peru, from July 31 through Aug. 4. It's her first international competition head-coaching assignment, after previously working on the USA Basketball staff for the U.S.'s gold-medal showing at the World University Games in 2009.

Everyone in the pool

Michigan women's swimming and diving finished third at the NCAA Championships last week in Austin, Texas. It's the program's best finish since taking second in 1995. Michigan's individual All-Americans included Catie DeLoof (sixth, 200 free; eighth, 100 free), Siobhan Haughey (third, 100 free; third, 200 free), Maggie MacNeil (second, 100 butterfly; fourth, 50 free; sixth, 100 backstroke); Sierra Schmidt (sixth, 1650 free) and Miranda Tucker (seventh, 100 breaststroke). Michigan also had five relay teams earn All-America honors, with several of the individual honorees making up those relay rosters, as well as Yirong Bi, Taylor Garcia and Daria Pyshnenko.

Eastern Michigan's Delaney Duncan also was an All-American, after finishing runner-up in the 100 breakstroke.

EMU digs Dorton

Dary Dorton is the new head women's volleyball coach at Eastern Michigan, after working as an assistant the previous four years. She takes over for Kimi Olson, who led the Eagles to their first NCAA Tournament appearance last season, and then left to become associate head coach at Michigan State. (Olson is the second EMU head coach to leave for an assistant job at MSU in recent years, joining baseball coach Mark Van Ameyde, now pitching coach at MSU.)

Dorton played collegiately at Penn State and College of Charleston.

Albion notables

►Frank Joranko, who won nine letters at Albion before going on to a long career as a coach and administrator, died March 7. He was 88. Joranko earned four letters in football, four in baseball and one in basketball. In 1973, he returned to Albion, and was head football coach from 1973-82, with a 9-0 season in 1976. He was head baseball coach from 1973-95, and was athletic director from 1975-91.

►Joe and Julie Serra have pledged $5 million for a fundraising drive that will be used to renovate Kresge Gymnasium, which houses the men's and women's basketball teams and the volleyball team, as well as an expanded fitness and student-activity facility.

Nice ring to it

The 1978 Michigan baseball MVP ring given to left-hander Steve Howe recently sold at auction for $1,320, to an unknown bidder through Robert Edward Auctions. The ring was sold by a private collector who was not identified. Howe, a Pontiac native, starred at UM before going on to a 12-year big-league career during which he won National League rookie of the year with the Dodgers in 1980. He also pitched for the Twins, Rangers and Yankees from 1980-96, with multiple year or several-year absences for drug-abuse suspensions. He died in a car accident in California in 2006. He was 48.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tonypaul1984