The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - December 3, 1990 - Page 5 1990-91 MICHIGAN ..ten Charn 1987 - 1988 - 1989 1990 S SWIMMING AN DIVING PREVIEW 'M' swimmers aim for national success Swimmers look to ride rookie wave by Jason Gomberg Daily Sports Writer by Andrew Brown Daily Sports Writer As the 1990-91 campaign un- folds for the Michigan women's swimming team, many questions loom in the balance that need to be answered. The biggest issue on the mind of coach Jim Richardson is how to re- place what he termed, "the best se- nior class ever assembled," during his tenure as Michigan's head coach. For starters, last year's squad, led by eight seniors, continued its dom- ination of the Big Ten Conference with a fourth consecutive team *championship and fourth straight top ten finish at the NCAA Championships. Included among the graduates were Ann Colloton, winner of three straight Big Ten titles in the 200- yard breaststroke, Gwen DeMaat, All-American on the 800-yard freestyle relay team, Jennifer Eck, a 100 and 200-yard breaststroker, and *Stefanie Liebner, a Big Ten cham- pion in the 100-yard backstroke and All-American in the 200 and 400- yard medley relays. The Wolverines' total of nine All-Big Ten performers and nine NCAA All-Americans were Michigan records. The team also ex- tended the school record dual meet winning streak to 36 before losing to NCAA runner-up Stanford. The Wolverines have now estab- lished themselves on the national map as one of the finest women's swimming programs in the country. The challenge will be to continue this tradition - certainly not an easy task. "Many of these girls have never swam at this level and they are very #eger to improve," Richardson said. "We just need to maintain our aggressiveness and our desire to excel throughout the duration of this long season." Upon entering the 1990-91 sea- son, Richardson has made it clear that the goals of this team are long- term. "We are certainly looking down the road and I feel this team will swim much better in February and March," Richardson said. "1 do not feel as if we will show much speed until then, but the purpose is to build systematic endurance over the course of the season." The team has trained rigorously during the fall, not concentrating so much on fall competition, but rather on the major winter events. On December 30, Michigan faces Hawaii and Arizona State in Honolulu. In January, its toughest competition will come from No. 2 ranked Stanford, No. 3 Cal-Berkeley, No. 10 SMU, as well as top ranked Texas. The latest coaches' poll ranks Michigan No. 8. "We want to go head-to-head with the best," Richardson said. "Stanford is like the old UCLA of basketball, who every year is right at the top." "We are looking to switch our goals from the Big Ten to the na- tional picture," junior butterflyer Molly Hegarty added. "We are not expecting tremendous results from these matchups with the national powers, but I feel as if we are tal- ented enough to hold our own." This is the first time in the last five years that the Big Ten race is wide open. "We are an unknown, unproven quantity," Richardson said. "This year's race will be very interesting." Northwestern, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Purdue are all capable of capturing the title. Purdue is reported to have the strongest recruiting class in the Big Ten. Upperclassmen expected to shine for Michigan are junior backstroker Lisa Anderson, sophomore freestyler Kathy Diebler, and sophomore Mindy Gehrs. Rookie standouts on the squad include Kate Girard, a 1500-meter freestyler, Karen Barnes, a distance freestyler, and Canadian breaststro- kers Val Hyduk and Tara Higgins. Women swimmers hope to hold the Big Ten plaque for a fifth consecutive year as pictured here in 1990. 1990-91 Michigan Women's Swimming and Diving Schedule Date Opponent vuac -'rr- November 2 4 9 15 December December December January 30- December 2 30 - Decemberr 2 7-9 27 -January 10 30 2-3 11 OAKLAND UNIVERSITY Northwestern Relays* WISCONSIN (Coed) at Eastern Michigan U.S. Open (National Team)** EMU Invitational MICHIGAN INVITATIONAL (Coed) Training Cam p** at Hawaii, Arizona St., Air Force Rainbow Invitational** at Univ.wof California at Stanford MICHIGAN STATE at Texas, SMU at Indiana Big Ten Championship**** MICHIGAN OPEN (Coed) EMU Invitational NCAA Zone C Diving Meet***** NCAA Champonships** Michigan swimmer Kate Girard used to travel 40 miles after school to practice. True competition at high school meets for Tara Higgins came only from girls in her own swim club representing other schools. The 1990-91 rookie class to which Girard and Higgins belong at Michigan hasn't always had it so good. Not always has practice meant a mere five-minute walk to a gleam- ing new swimming pool, and not always have there been adequate weight rooms and athletic trainers. But now these newcomers have become an integral part of what coach Jim Richardson calls "a young and fun team to coach," which aspires to capture its fifth consecu- tive Big Ten title. "They're aggressive swimmers who aren't afraid to work," Richardson said. "They've just walked right in and it's like they've been there all along."- Six frosh have done much more than just buoy the bench. They have qualified for this past weekend's U.S. Open and hold some of the fastest times on the squad. Vallery Hyduk has recorded the team's top breaststroke times, fin- ishing the 100-yard race in 1:13.00, and the 200 in 2:34.55. Higgins is close behind with times of 1:13.30 and 2:38.85. Stephanie Munson has also posted impressive times of 1:14.87 and 2:40.85. Within the freestyle ranks, Karen Barnes ranks No. 2 in three separate distances, the 200 (1:50.61), the 500 (4:50.02), and the 1650 (16:42.53), and fifth in the 500 (4:54.5). Versatile Nicole Williamson pos- sesses the fourth best time on the squad in the 500 free (4:53.5), the second best in the 100 back (59.5), and the fourth best in the 200 indi- vidual medley (2:05.5). Girard ranks among the twenty fastest women in the world for the 1500-meter free. But rather than la- bel her a 1500 racer, Richardson chooses to discuss her range in freestyle. "She's got adequate speed at the 200," he said. "So she can handle all the intermediate distances." Girard owes as much to Henry Ford for her success as she does her talent and desire. "We didn't have a swim team at my high school," she said. "I had to drive to Lockport, 45 minutes away, to practice with my coach." The Orchard Park, New York, na- tive maintains that she had little trouble adjusting to training with two dozen other women. "It was a little bit different," she said. "But I was in the same competitions so I knew some of them before I came in." Competition was sorely lacking for Tara Higgins at her hometown of Kitchener, Ontario. "My high school team was really, really poor," said Higgins. Instead of concentrating on high school athletics, she focused her en- ergies toward her swim club, where different problems emerged. "I had trouble training there," she said. "I was faster than all the other girls, but I couldn't always keep up with the guys. "Also, I was older than the other girls. One time we all went out to the movies, and I was the only girl who had her driver's license." Vallery Hyduk experienced a sim- ilar problem with her training in Scarborough, Ontario. "I was one of only three national level swimmers in my swim club," said Hyduk, "and we got to travel a lot, but it was re- ally hard finding someone to work with all the time." Hyduk seems most worried by the lengths of the races. "I never swam (races) in yards before; our pool was 31 meters long - kind of an irrelevant distance," she said. "The races are shorter, and I have to focus more on my turns. That makes me a little panicky in my races, 'cause my turns aren't too good." 12 18 25 Fevruary 2 21 - 23 March 1-2 8-9 14-16 21-23 * at Evanston Illinois ** at Indianapolis, Indiana *** at Honolulu, Hawaii **** at Minneapolis at Columbus, Ohio HOME MEETS IN CAPS Higgins Higgins, like the other swim- mers, praises Richardson's new long-term, long-distance philosophy. She says the training "is a lot harder (than in her club) but I know it's what I need." As the season progresses, Richardson expects and hopes to see all of his prized rookies mature and develop into a class which he thinks "may become as good as the senior class we graduated last year." That class included four All- Americans. For now though, Richardson will be content with their consistent im- provement. "You're talking about people who don't know what it's about yet," he said, "They haven't been to the Big Ten's, and they haven't swum a tough dual meet yet." "But," he added, "I don't think we've recruited any chokers." Diving squad buoyed by depth, experience by aid Kraft Diy Sports Writer ______________ M reaps Canham s benefits Natatorium offers first-rate swimming facility by David Kraft Daily Sports Writer Women's swimming coach Jim Richardson believes "the facility will... give the swimmers and divers the opportunity to train in an atmo- sphere which is very similar to any national or international competition." Senior captain Minoo Gupta speaks of "the the well-established realization that a first rate Michigan swimming and -diving program de- served a first-rate facility. The program has earned the rewards of the natatorium, especially considering the adversities it faced in the previous facility. Before the construction of Canham, Michigan of-the-art locker rooms and training and weight facilities that were virtually nonexistent at the old facility. "In'the Matt Mann pool, we had to share lockers so small that we had to leave our shoes and coats outside by the pool," senior Molly Heiarty said. The Wolverines will dive into the depths of their backup squad this season. After losing only one senior to graduation last season, expectations are high for the women's diving team. "Not only do we have a lot of experience with returning divers, most of our opponents each lost a lot of seniors," senior Julie Greyer said. Coach Dick Kimball will try to lead his eight divers to a repeat performance of last year's Big Ten Champioships in Indianapolis, where the Wolverine divers outscored all of their opponents, and the swimming and diving team captured its fouth straight conference title. With seven divers retuning, an even stronger performance than 1990's is highly likely. "Only Ohio State could be a real challenge," Greyer said. Individually, however, Michigan State's Julie Farrell-Ovenhause takes top preseason honors in the conference on both springboards, if not the