Women's Swimming & Diving
at NCAA Championships
Today through Saturday
Austin, Texas
SPORTS
Wrestling
at NCAA Championships
Today through Saturday
Oklahoma City
The Michigan Daily Thursday, March 19,1992 Page 5
6 M'
athletes
head
to
NCAAs
Slipping wrestlers
look to rebound
Women swimmers
send 15 to Austin
by Tim Rardin
Daily Sports Writer
After more than four months of
intense practices, morning runs and
workouts, the 14th-ranked Mich-
igan wrestling team, down from the
sixth position it held before the Big
Ten Championships, has finally
reached the climax of its long
season.
The Wolverines, who finished
the season with a 13-4-1 dual meet
record, failed to peak at their penul-
timate meet, the Big Tens, finishing
a disappointing sixth after capturing
second last year. Michigan must
now regroup with the five wrestlers
who qualified for the NCAAs, in
Oklahoma City, March 19-21.
Last year, Wolverine coach Dale
Bahr saw his team qualify seven
wrestlers for the NCAAs and man-
age a solid 12th-place finish. With
two fewer wrestlers, such a finish
doesn't loom nearly as likely this
time around.
"How you do is predicated on
numbers," Bahr said "If you take
eight wrestlers,, you figure half of
them get a decent draw and do well.
You're talking about four or five
going on to score points for you.
When you take five, then you have
to hope that all five to do some-
thing. It's gonna be difficult."
That batch of five does include
two All-Americans. 134-pounder
Joey Gilbert placed third in 1991
and is also currently No. 3 in the
country. Bahr's other All-American
is Lanny Green (177), who finished
sixth in last year's NCAAs and who
now holds the eighth spot nation-
ally at his weight class. First-time
qualifiers Jason Cluff (126), Brian
Harper (150), and Jehad Hamdan
(190) could also put points on the
board for the Wolverines.
The presence of James Rawls
(142) and Phil Tomek (HWT), who
both failed to qualify this year after
doing so last season, and Sean Bor-
met (158), who was ranked seventh
in the nation before suffering a sea-
son-ending knee injury, will be
sorely missed.
"We expected James and Phil to
qualify, so we were definitely dis-
appointed with their performances,"
Bahr said "We really thought Sean
had a good chance at being an All-
American, but I guess there's noth-
ing we can do about that."
Once again, defending national
champion and No. 1-ranked Iowa,
which won the Big Tens in com-
manding fashion while qualifying
10 wrestlers for the NCAAs, is the
favorite to repeat. Three other Big
Ten schools, in addition to
Michigan, are not far behind in the
latest Amateur Wrestling News Top
25 poll. Ohio State is fifth,
Wisconsin eighth and Purdue 12th.
by Kim DeSempelaere
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's swim-
ming and diving team packed their
bags and headed to Austin, Texas
yesterday to compete in the NCAA
National Championships which will
be held today through Saturday.
Twelve Michigan swimmers and
three divers qualified to compete in
the championship meet. The 15
Wolverines qualified at the
Olympic trials held earlier this
month, and at the Big Ten
Conference Championship meet in
February, both in Indianapolis.
Among those swimmers to qualify
at the Olympic trials were junior
Mindy Gehrs, frosh Alecia
Humphrey and senior co-captain
Jen Love.
Gehrs is expected to perform
well this weekend after finishing
18th in the 200-meter IM and 21st
in the 200-meter butterfly at the
Olympic trials. She has also set
three Michigan swimming records
this year in the 200 and 400 IMs
and the 200 butterfly.
Other Wolverine national quali-
fiers include seniors Lisa Anderson,
Katherine Creighton and diver Lisa
Cribari. Anderson is not looking for
a great showing this weekend as she
has been on the injured list most of
the season with a shoulder injury.
Cribari leads the Michigan team
on the boards in both the 1- and 3-
meter events. The senior diver qual-
ified to compete at the Olympic tri-
als but was unable to attend. Diving
teammates, senior Margie Stoll and
sophomore Cinnamon Woods,
should also offer some competition
on the boards.
Humphrey and fellow rookie
Lara Hooiveld are expected to
finish fairly well at the meet. Senior
Michelle Swix, junior Missy
McCracken and sophomores Karen
Barnes and Nicole Williamson are
looking to contribute individually
as well as to Michigan's relay
teams. Finishing off the Wolverine
roster are sophomore Stephanie
Munson and junior Kirsten
Silvester.
Michigan coach Jim
Richardson's team's primary goal is
to finish above their 15th-place fin-
ish at the NCAA Championships
last year. Unfortunately, there are
many hurdles the team will have to
overcome to reach their goal. Some
of these obstacles include strong
squads from Stanford, USC, Texas,
UCLA and Arizona.
Preliminary competition begins
this morning with the top 16 finish-
ers from each event and the eight
additional consolation swimmers
racing in the finals competition this
evening. Additional competition
will be held tomorrow and
Saturday.
Wolverine rookie standout Alecia Humphrey hopes to extend her winning
ways and help Michigan to a top-10 finish at the national championships.
Blue to clash with Green
Men gynnasts take on MSU for state bragging rights
by Todd Schoenhaus Michigan coach Bob Darden said.
Daily Sports Writer "We can build on last weekend (a
Saturday evening at Cliff Keen
Arena, the Michigan men's gymnas-
tics team will attempt to achieve a
specific goal - a point total in the
280s. This achievement would have
seemed insurmountable two months
ago, when the Wolverines began
their season scoring in the low 260s.
However, the young squad has
improved greatly since then, scoring
in the upper 270s in its last three
meets.
The No. 13 Wolverines will have
no problem getting psyched up for
this last dual meet of the year -
No. 8 Michigan State is coming to
town. Michigan will seek to avenge
an earlier loss in East Lansing,
where it fell apart late in the meet to
lose by seven points.
The Spartans will certainly pro-
vide stiff competition. They began
their season scoring in the 270s and
have been bouncing around 280 ever
since. While State has maintained
the same level, the Wolverines have
been improving with each and every
meet.
"Michigan State is strong and
consistent, but not unbeatable,"
278.40 at the Michigan Invitational)
and hopefully come out victorious."
Sophomore Ben Verall, No. 4 in
the nation on the floor exercise, will
likely miss his second consecutive
meet with a sprained ankle.
'Michigan State is
strong and consistent,
but not unbeatable.'
- Bob Darden
'M' gymnastics coach
Although Verall is a big loss, the
deep Michigan squad should be able
to sufficiently compensate for his
absence.
"We might have to compromise
two or three-tenths of a point with
Ben out of the lineup," Darden said.
"But he missed last week, and we
still obtained the second-highest
point total in school history. Ruben
(Ceballos) will have the opportunity
to play a more integral role."
This meet will pit two of the na
tion's premier floor specialists head.
to-head. Third-ranked Spartan Paul
Dackermann will challenge
Wolverine frosh Brian Winkler, the
top tumbler in the country.
The traditional block format, in
which each team performs a differ-
ent routine simultaneously, will be
abandoned this weekend. Instead,
both teams will compete on the same
event at the same time, alternating
performances.
The new format takes a bit
longer, but does have certain advan-
tages. This will make it easier for
spectators to follow the meet. Also,
the more intense and direct competi-
tion provides participants and
coaches with a better idea of how the
team is scoring in relation to the
opponent.
The Wolverines are looking to
gain momentum and confidence be-
fore heading to Illinois for next
weekend's Big Ten Championships.
By that point, Michigan hopes to
have qualified for the Eastern re-
gionals, which takes place in three
weeks.
FOR MORE
SPORTS, SEE PAGE H
Michigan's Raul Molina and the rest of the No. 13 men's gymnastics team will take on No. 8 Michigan State
Saturday night at Cliff Keen Arena.
Women netters fly south for matches
by Sharon Lundy
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's tennis
team (2-2 Big Ten, 4-5 overall) will
head south this weekend in an at-
tempt to extend its current winning
streak, the last match of which was
won by forfeit. The Wolverines were
scheduled to meet Big Ten leader
Indiana last Sunday after a strong 8-
1 victory over Ohio State Saturday
- their first Big Ten triumph.
But after complaining about the
Indoor Track and Tennis Building,
Michigan's home facility, Indiana
did not show up for the match. The
Wolverines were shocked by the
Hoosiers' forfeit.
"You'd think a team like that
would have a little class and have
some commitment to their confer-
ence,' co-captain Amy Malik said.
Indiana expressed concern about
the lighting, court surface and in-
jury-prone setting, and had not re-
turned contracts at the beginning of
' .
the season to confirm the match..
"I don't blame anyone for not
being thrilled to play here when they
walk in and see the building," junior
Kalei Beamon said. "But we practice
here every day, and they were obli-
gated to show. It was really upset-
ting. It doesn't say a lot for them."
This weekend, the Wolverines
will be away for three consecutive
matches. Friday, Michigan takes on
Alabama, which should be the
toughest match of the series. Ala-
bama has scored victories earlier this
season over Big Ten powers Wis-
consin and Northwestern, both of
which defeated the Wolverines
previously this year.
Saturday and Sunday, Michigan
meets Southeast Louisiana State and
South Alabama, respectively. The
two teams are very close in ability,
and both matches should be
challenging.
During this week of practice, the
Wolverines have been trying a dif- 74
ferent routine. Half of the players
had their day off, while the other
players had practice, and then ro-
tated the next day. This enabled the 5TH AVE. AT UBERTY 791-
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