Page 6G - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 5, 1985
17TH BIG TEN CROWN IN 18 YEARS
Neters take another title
By PHIL NUSSEL
"The best just keep getting better" will hopefully be the
theme of the 1986 men's tennis team as the defending Big
ren Champions pursue their 18th title in 19 years.
And what better way to do this than with the entire
squad from 1985 returning. Along with-4hem, three talen-
ted freshmen will join the club.
BUT JUST because the whole team will be back along
ath new talent, veteran head coach Brian Eisner is not
taking a winning season for granted. "Just because a
player is a junior or senior doesn't mean that he will con-
tinue to improve," he said.
"There are a lot of guys in this conference who are
playing worse as juniors and seniors than they were when
they were freshmen and sophomores," he added.
Eisner can only hope his young freshmen and
sophomores, who made up seven of the top eight players
n the team in '85, will continue to improve. If they do, a
sational championship could be in store for the
Wolverines in coming years.
"I FEEL, AND I think they all feel, that we still have
iot played our best tennis," Eisner commented. "Our
aotential, I think, is ,much greater. We got a tremendous
amount to improve.
"We're not going to look back, because Minnesota (1984
Big Ten Champs and 1985 runner-up) has already had a
good recruiting year."
While having no single outstanding player, Michigan
Aill rely again on its tremendous depth all down the line.
SENIOR JIM Sharton will almost certainly anchor the
op singles spot again in '86. The Newton, Mass. native
was the Wolverines' only All-Big Ten selection last season
notching a 16-14 overall record.
The second through fourth spots are positions Eisner
likes to juggle depending on the matchups. So most likely
he will continue to switch Ed Filer (14-12), John Royer (11-
13) and Jon Morris (15-8) to varying spots.
At fifth singles, Brad Koontz had an up and down season
last spring and was even benched for a few matches. But
the freshman came on late in the season to regain his
position.
AT SIXTH, Franz Geiger had the best overall record of
any of the team's singles players. He registered a 12-4
mark.
The doubles lineups should remain quite strong with
Sharton and Filer (7f5) teaming up at first, Royer and
Morris (9-3) at second, and Koontz and Tomas Andersson
at third. The only question is with Andersson-his parents
are Swedish students and may be due to return to the
country before the '86 season.
The top high school recruit is Dave Goldberg, a toD-
rated junior out of Rick Sharton's program in Newton,
Mass. Sharton taught his brother Jim along with Koontz
and reserve player Kurt Lichtman. If Goldberg lives up to
his billing, he could break into the starting lineup.
"We've got to keep on improving," Eisner said. "We've
got to get our players playing as much as possible this
summer so that we can be at least to levels higher when
we come back in the fall."
If Eisner's squad does indeed improve that much over
the coming months, the sky will be the limit. The Big Ten
title of 1985 will just be the beginning.
.any rhoto by A lN I
Junior Ed Filer, with two victories in post-season competition, played a key role in the Wolverines 15th Big Ten
championship in 16 years. The South Bend, Indiana native knocked off Ohio State's Mike Massie and Illinois'
Mike Bouton in straight sets.
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By DEBBIE deFRANCES
With her first season as Michigan's
head women's tennis coach tucked
away, Bitsy Ritt will look to a more
experienced yet young returning
team in 1986. The Wolverines, who
finished the spring season with an 8-10
overall record, 3-7 in the Big Ten, will
return all of their starting players to
this year's roster.
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Although the Wolverines will bring
in no freshmen on scholarship, Ritt
admits that the veteran players as
well as a couple of walk-ons will make
her job a little easier.
"THEY (the returnees) know what
they have to do now to compete in the
Big Ten," said Ritt. "I'm comfortable
keeping the same starting team as
last year's. I know what to expect."
Expect to see a competitive force in
the Big Ten from this year's seasoned
team.
One thing that will help this year's
squad, with three of its top six only
sophomores, is more match play in
the fall, according to Ritt.
"ONE THING that hurt us last
spring was that we didn't get to play
many matches in the fall to get us
going," said Ritt. "It hurt us because
things we were learning at the end of
the spring season, we should have
learned and practiced in the fall."
According to Ritt, Michigan will see
more action in home dual matches
this fall. The Wolverines probably
won't have many Big Ten meetings
during fall, except for the Michigan
State tourney, but they will bring in
area colleges that want an oppor-
tunity to play big schools such as
Michigan.
The Wolverines begin the fall
season after a four-month break.
Number-one singles player Paula
Reichert toured the summer as a
practice partner in Europe for friend
and tennis professional Susan
Mascarin. Sophomore Leslie Mackey,
who plays the second position for the
squad, also had an opportunity to
travel and play in Europe during the
summer.
The rest of Michigan's top players,
Tina Basle, Monica Borcherts, Tricia
Horne and Erin Ashare, played in
Ritt
... knows what her squad must do
some tournaments and honed their
fundamentals, Ritt said.
Ritt is plainly optimistic. "We've
got a good team. We've got some ex-
perience and we know what we have
to do," she said. "If we pull it
together, we'll be a contender for one
of the top spots in the Big Ten."
M mw4kkh.,
j
'Iq
URBANCHEK LOOKS FOR CONFERENCE TITLE:
Swimmers add solid recruits
By LESLIE HAMEL
Young talent was the key to the suc-
cess of the men's swim team's 1984-85
season, and young talent appears to
be the promise for '85 and '86. With the
return of all team members but one
and the aid of new recruits, head
coach Jon Urbanchek hopes for a Big
Ten Championship.
The '84-'85 Wolverines came up
short in their quest for a conference
title, finishing second to Indiana. The
season did show improvement in team
scores, however. Michigan surpassed
Iowa in total points last year, and said
Urbanchek, "With our consistent gain
of approximately 100 points each
year, if all goes well, we should pass
Indiana in '86."
CONSISTENT freshman perfor-
mances made for a strong team. Alan
Gelderloos maintained steady
showings in distance freestyle races,
while backstroker freshman Mike
Creaser and freshman captain Alec
Campbell also contributed in cap-
turing points.
The performance of the freshmen
team was highlighted by the addition
of Norwegian Olympic team member,
Jan-Erick Olsen. Olsen dominated the
200-yard breast stroke, gained All-
American status, survived three
NCAA cuts and set a new school
record of 2:01.16 in the 200.
Other Wolverine All-Americans in-
cluded the 400-yard freestyle relay
team of Joe Parker (sophomore),
Dave Kerska (sophomore), Gary An-
tonick (junior), and Creaser.
Michigan's divers, Bruce Kimball and
Kent Ferguson, also gained All-
American status, placing tenth and
fourth, respectively, in NCAA thre-
meter diving. In all, Michigan arrived
at 15th in the NCAA rankings. Ohio
State took 13th and was the only other
Big Ten school to finish ahead of
Michigan.
':0
Gelderloos
... a steady performer
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For the Wolverine swimmers, next
year can only get better. All team
members will be returning, except
Ferguson, and great things are expec-
ted from next year's recruits.
YET ANOTHER Norwegian sen-
sation is expected in middle distance
and distance freestyle swimmer,
Bjorn Warland. Ann Arbor's own John#
Teppo will be joining, adding to
Wolverine power. The team's inter-
national"membership could increase
with possible recruits from Sweden
and Peru.
In attempt to replace the great loss
of diver Kent Ferguson, Michigan his
found Lee Michaud of Portland,
Oregon. According to coach Urban-
chek, "The absence of Ferguson will
1. ,i, _