THEMICIGAN DAILY TUESDA

Michigan Gymnasts Set To Defend NCAA Win

fending champ Southern Califor-
nia slipped all the way to sixth.
Plus in P-Bars
Michigan's strongest event in the
nationals was the parallel bars,
where they pulled off a first, sec-
ond, and fifth. They were also very
strong on the high bar, with a
first, a second-place - tie, and a
ninth, and in the all-around with
a one-three-nine final standing.
Wolverines also .came up with
the two top spots on the Tramp,
a first in the longhorse vault, and
a tie for first in floor ex. Thus
Michigan men had at least a share
of the top spot In six of the nine
events.
While Michigan is an odds-on
favorite to capture e its fourth
straight conference title this sea-
son, it will have to scramble to
retain the NCAA crown. The ma-
jor factor in this "decline" is the
departure by graduation of Gil
Larose, last year's captain and
high scorer.
Top Banana
Larose was the Big Ten all-
around champ, and also picked up
another first, a tie for first, three
seconds and a third at East Lans-
ing. He duplicated his all-around
championship at Pittsburgh, and
had firsts in the longhorse and
high bar, as well as a third and
two fifth places.
Needless to say, Larose was
voted most valuable gymnast by
his teammates, and will go down
as one of the outstanding athletes
in Michigan history.
Gone also will be the depend-
able Jim Hynds, who was third in
the Big Ten all-around, and scor-
ed in four other events in that
meet. Hynds finished ninth in the
NCAA all-around, and also tallied
in the high bar and p-bars.
Michigan's. remaining loss is
Barry Spicer, who:specialized in
floor ex in his three years on the
team, and came in seventh in
that event in the conference tour-
ney.
Solid Nucleus.
But the Wolverines have seven,
and possibly eight, returning let-
termen this year, plus a crop of
very promising sophomores. The
group will be led by senior Cap-
tain Arno Lascari, who was sec-
ond only to Larose in point pro-

duction last year, and should
emerge as tops in the nation this
year as his predecessor did.
Lascari finished second in the
Big Ten all-around in his junior
year, and also picked up three
firsts, another second, and a
ninth. At the nationals, he was
third in the versatility event, while
coming in first on the p-bars and
tying for second on the high bar.
Best Bouncers
This gym season, Michigan will
have undoubtedly the finest Tram-
poline squad in the nation. The
Trampmen will be led by juniors
Gary Erwin and Fred Sanders, who
were one-two in both the confer-
ence and the nation last year.
Sanders edged Erwin for the Big
Ten crown, 92-89.5, but Erwin
came back in the NCAA's to over-
come his teammate, 95.5-87.
Bolstering these two will be
junior Johnny Hamilton, who was
fourth in the Big Tens. Hamilton
also emerged as a tumbling threat
last year when he finished a sur-
prisingly high seventh in the na-
tionals.
Michigan's two tumbling main-
stays, senior Phil Bolton and jun-
for Mike Henderson, will be back
again to exhibit their double back-
flips - the Michigan pair repre-
sents two of the few tumblers in'
the country who' can, pull off this,
trick.
Hyman May Return
Bolton was second and Hender-'
son seventh at East Lansing, while
the two finished in an eighth-
place tie at Pittsburgh. Michigan's
tumbling future may be bolstered
this year by the return of Lew
Hyman. Two years ago at the
NCAA's in Albuquerque, N.M.,
Hyman was on his way to one of
the top tumbling places, when he
fell off the Trampoline (in which
he was also competing) an .was
critically injured when he landed
on his head and neck. However, he
made an unusually rapid and com-
plete recovery, and may be able to
compete this season.
In addition to his tumbling cap-
abilities, Henderson came on
strong in the latter part of last'
season to become one of the coun-
try's outstanding floor exercise
performers, tying for both the Big
Ten and national championships.

But Henderson will be the only
proven floor ex man in the Michi-
gan lineup..
Sidehorse Expert
The remaining returnees are
Paul Levy, a senior sidehorse spe-
cialist, who was fourth in the Big
Ten in his event last year, and
junior Alex Frecska, who perform-
ed well as an all-arounder, but
injured a wrist before the con-
ference tourney and was out for
the season.
Joining Lascari and Frecksa as
all-arounders will be sophomores
Rich. Blanton and Ned Duke, who,.
although they may not be able to

fill Larose's shoes, can provide for
a well-balanced team. Loken is al-
so high on sophomore John Sal-
mela, who will try to help out
Henderson in floor ex.
The chief threat to Wolverine
chances this year will be Iowa,
which was Big Ten runner-up and
third in the NCAA's. The Hawk-
eyes retain most of their 1962-63
team and have one of the finest
sophomore aggregations in the
country. But it seems that SIU
would still have the best chance at
Michigan in the nationals, which
will be held in Los Angeles $his
March.


CHIPS...
by Mike Block
(Continued from Page 1)
would be worth a precise number of points, could be worked out, but
this would .regiment routines severely. One of the prime features of
gymnastics is that originality, and especially difficult original ac-
complishments, are well rewarded.
My own suggestion is to do away with the scoring system as
it exists now altogether, and simply have the judges rank each
competitor after they have all performed. Then the "rank
points," (i.e., 6-4-3-2-1 for first, second, third, etc., in a dual meet,
or 11-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 forthe first ten places in a conference or
national meet) could be averaged for each participant and added
directly to his team's score. Thus while a judge's opinion of a
single gymnast's performance might diverge far from the average,
his determination of the relative positions of the entrants for the
most part will not. In this way all four Judges could decide on
every entrant in his own way, without being bound by standards
arbitrarily set up for him, and if a given quartet of Judges is a
competent one, their decisions will show a high degree of agree-
ment.
It might be argued that under this ranking system, with a field
of excellent performers on a given event, each will seem better than
the next to the judges. But this situation, if it were borne out, would
be no worse than exists under the present scoringIt is generally con-
ceded among gymnasts that the later .you perform, the better your
chances are of receiving a high scoie; under such a subjective .judging
system bias of this kind is inevitable.
I don't deli de myself into thinking that this proposed system will
ever come into effect-it just seems to me that half of the judging
in gymnastics at present is going for nought. At least ifjone judge is
consistently higher Or lower than the rest, the relative positions, of
his evaluations should be put to some use, and this ranking type of
system in a way to take full advantage of all the scores submitted.


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