Page 6 -The Michigan Daily- Sports Monday - September 30, 1991
CROSS COUNTRY EYES TOP 10
Men runners take Dartmouth invite j" 7.S
by Bruce Inosencio
As most students were enjoying
pre-game parties before Saturday's
big football game, there was an-
other matchup between top-20
teams at Dartmouth. Yes,
Dartmouth.
The men's cross country team ran
its way to a victory at the
Darfmouth Invitational Saturday
morning. The Wolverines' first-
place finish should boost their na-
tional ranking, as Michigan defeated
many top teams. Ranked 12th going
into the meet, Michigan's biggest
competition appeared to be Wake
Forest, which was ranked sixth.
Keeping a tight-knit pack over a
difficult course allowed the team to
defeat the Demon Deacons by one
point. The team results from the in-
vitational show just how close the
race really was: Michigan (66),
Wake Forest (67), Dartmouth (75),
Going into Dartmouth, the
Wolverines' objective was to place
one or two runners in the top five,
with only a gap of 30 seconds be-
tween the first and fifth finishers
for the team. Although unable to
place a runner in the top five,
Michigan managed to stay close to-
gether throughout the 8,000-meter
course. At the finish, only 19 sec-
onds separated the first and fifth
place runners.
Michigan's Matt Smith finished
seventh overall, finishing in 24
minutes, 47 seconds. Close on
Smith's heels were Dan Oden, plac-
ing eighth and finishing in 24:50,
and Tony Carna, who crossed the
line in 12th place at the 24:53 mark.
Michigan's fourth runner was
Shawn MacKay, who placed 19th
with a time of 25:05. MacKay
barely finished before teammate Jim
Finlayson, who rounded out the top
five for Michigan in 25:06.
The key to Smith's success, he
said, stemmed from coach Ron
Warhurst's confidence.
"I was a little more focused this
weekend," Smith said, "and I ran
like I like to run. It was definitely
helpful that Coach Warhurst told
me to go out and run my own race."
"Matt ran really, really well
for us this weekend and he did it
when we needed it most," Warhurst
said.
This weekend, the Wolverines
look to capture their own invita-
tional. The Michigan Invitational
will be held Saturday morning,
with the women's race starting at
11 a.m., followed by the men's race
at 11:30. The race should be excit-
ing, as Michigan will host rivals
Michigan State, Ohio State, and
others.
Since the meet is the only home
event for the Wolverines, the men's
and women's squads are optimistic
that spectators will make their way
to the varsity golf course to lend
strong support.
"We think we can win every race
we go to," Smith said, "and that's
what we strive to do."
"
WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Women fall to tough Hoya squad
by Kimberly DeSempelaere
The Michigan women's cross
country team stumbled for the first
time this season, falling to the
Georgetown Hoyas at the Dart-
mouth Invitational Saturday.
The Hoyas topped the second-
place Wolverines by a wide margin,
finishing with 22 points to
Michigan's 55. Michigan had won
its first two meets this year.
William & Mary, Dartmouth,
Wake Forest, Massachusetts, and
Vermont finished third through
seventh, respectively.
Georgetown dominated the top
10 spots with eight runners. Amy
Buchholz, who finished fifth, was
the only Michigan runner to place in
the top 10. She completed the course
in 19 minutes, 23 seconds, about 30
seconds behind the first-place run-
ner.
Wolverine coach Sue Foster ex-
pected Buchholz to strengthen the
lineup.
"Amy ran really well and con-
tinues to improve every week,"
Foster said. "She didn't feel well
before the meet but ran a solid race
and competed well anyway."
Rookie Kelly Chard ran the
course in 19:49, finishing in 11th
place. Chard was expected to finish
in the top 10 after running a tough
race atnthe Michigan State
Invitational.
"Kelly has been running some
great races and is quite a competi-
tor," Foster said. "She had a fantas-
tic performance this weekend but
she is hoping to do even better in the
future."
Sophomore Chris Szabo crossed
the line four seconds after Chard to
place 12th. The Michigan coaches
anticipated that Szabo would run a
better race at Dartmouth than her
sixth-place performance at the
MSU Invitational. Other Wolver-
ines crossing the line in the top 20
were Jessica Kluge in the 14th spot
and Carrie Yates in 18th.
Rookie Karen Harvey was unable
to compete because of a chest cold.
Foster said Harvey was having a
hard time breathing before the race.
Harvey led the cross country
team to its second victory last week
in East Lansing by finishing third
overall.
Foster's thoughts on the out-
come of the meet seemed mixed be-
tween regret and a general feeling of
admiration for the Hoya squad.
"Georgetown packed their best
runners into most of the top 10 po-
sitions," she said. "We have a lot of
respect for them. We have a lot of
hard work ahead of us."
Next week, the Wolverines will
host Michigan State in their only
home meet. At the teams' last
matchup in Lansing, the Wolverines
overcame the Spartans by 30 points.
SPORTS INFORMATION
Michigan's Katie Thomas (r) scored three goals in yesterday's victory
over long-time nemesis Northern Illinois.
Wsildcat powerhouse
shuts out stickers,60
Smith
William & Mary (77), and Iona
(102).
Michigan anticipates a top-ten
placement when the rankings come
out tomorrow.
____Golfers happy with sixth-place finish
by Dan Linna
Setting goals is an important
part of any team's season, but meet-
ing these goals is even more
important.
The Michigan women's golf
team met its goal yesterday by card-
ing a 941 to finish in a sixth-place
tie with Illinois State at the Lady
Northern Intercollegiate Tourna-
ment in Savoy, Ill.
The Wolverines shot 318, 309,
and 314 for their 941.
Heading into the tournament,
Wolverine coach Sue LeClair said,
"It is important for us to come in at
least the top six so we don't have to
tee off from the back-nine in the
spring."
The tournament scores will be
used to determine the seedings for
the Big Ten tournament in the
spring. That meet will also be held
in Savoy, on the University of
Illinois' Orange Course.
Defending champion Minnesota
(919) again finished on top, fol-
lowed by Illinois (924), Northern
Illinois (924), Ohio State (925),
Indiana (926), Michigan, Illinois
State (941), Wisconsin (956), and
Penn State (960).
Purdue (970) finished 11th,
Michigan State (980) 13th, and a
highly touted Iowa (993) team came
in 14th as the low Big Ten team.
All of the Big Ten squads teed
off together on Friday morning
while the rest of the schools played
in the afternoon.
Illinois coach Paula Smith said
this was a "disadvantage for the Big
Ten teams as the temperatures were
low when they golfed, and it
warmed up in the afternoon for the
other schools."
Michigan finished Friday in a
sixth-place tie with Purdue, and
then held sixth alone at the end of
the day on Saturday.
Wolverine Kristin Beilstein (77-
76-78: 231) led the way for Michi-
gan, finishing 12th in the individual
competition. Wendy Bigler (83-74-
77: 234) finished 16th, closely fol-
lowed by Tricia Goode (78-77-80:
235). Erica Zonder (82-82-79: 243),
Jenny Zimmerman (81-89-81: 251),
and Jenny Boring rounded out the
scoring for the Wolverines.
"They have a very good team,"
Illinois' Smith said of Michigan.
"A sub-320 round is good and they
finished below that each round."
by Chris Carr
Daily Sports Writer
Jinx, hex, or curse. Call it what
you will, the Michigan field hockey
team hoped to get rid of a thorn in
its side when it traveled to DeKalb,
Ill., to play 10th-ranked North-
western Saturday and Northern
Illinois Sunday. At the same time,
the Wolverines. were eagerly
approaching the start of the
conference season with hopes of a
championship.
While the 16th-ranked
Wolverines could not erase the
spell Northwestern has cast over
them, a victory yesterday against
Northern Illinois salvaged what
could have been a disastrous start to
the conference season and kept them
alive in the championship race.
Michigan was 0-18. against de-
fending conference champion North-
western going into Saturday's
Midwest Collegiate Field Hockey
Conference opener. The Wolverines'
luck did not change - the Wildcats
won, 6-0.
Northwestern (1-0-1 in the
MCFHC, 5-2-1 overall) dominated
the first half, recording 16 shots on
goal to the Wolverines' four, en
route to a 5-0 halftime lead. Junior
midfielder Kathy Halley recorded
three first-half goals for the
Wildcats. Senior all-America mid-
fielder Colleen Senich converted
two penalty corner shots for the
Wildcats' other two goals.
"For having never beaten
Northwestern, we were optimistic
going into the game, but we had to
control the pace of the game," ju-
nior forward Katie Thomas said.
"Instead, we were dictated by
Northwestern's game.
"We did not make enough oppor-
tunities for ourselves in getting
shots and drawing corners."
After allowing two goals early,
in the contest, Michigan coach Patti.
Smith replaced sophomore goalie
Nicole Hoover with rookie Stacy
Daly. However, Daly did not fare
much better against Northwestern's
offense, which was constantly in
Michigan's zone.
Michigan played better defensd
in the second half, holding
Northwestern to eight shots orn
goal. But the Wolverines could not
convert any of their nine shots oii:
goal. Halley added her fourth goa
on the day, as the Wildcats recorded
their fourth shutout in the last six
games.
Michigan (1-1, 4-4) rebounde4
yesterday with a 3-1 victory over
Northern Illinois (0-1-1, 1-5-1),.
who was coming off a surprising 2-2
tie with Northwestern Friday:
Thomas, one of the team's tri-caps
tains, recorded a hat trick for they
Wolverines in leading them to th'
victory.
"Northern Illinois has always
been a tough game, and it was a bigR
psychological boost to beat them,'Z
Thomas said.
Although the Huskies outsho(
the Wolverines 16 to nine, the score
was tied, 1-1, heading into the
game's final 10 minutes. Thomas
then gave Michigan a 1-0 lead 11:30
into the game. But Northerri
Illinois midfielder Danielle Derr
tied the game with just over seven
minutes to play in the first half.
Thomas broke the tie, scoring ad
unassisted goal with nine minutcd
left in the game. Two minutes later
Thomas gave the Wolverines an iP
surance goal.
"I haven't had a good game irf 4
long time," Thomas said. "I wao
able to capitalize on loose balls gir
the circle. The key was that our
whole team was working together,
and the midfielders were getting the
ball into the circle, which gave me
my opportunities to score."
Hoover came back froi
Saturday's benching to give
Michigan a solid performance-in
goal, recording 11 saves, including
five during crucial points in the sec-
ond half.
"Nicole had a great game,"
Thomas said. "She made some super
saves, and she also had some super
clears, which made the ball un-
playable for Northern Illinois."
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