" Page 8-The Michigan Daily/New Student Edition-Sports - Thursday, September 10, 1992 Women swimmers Men shine at Big Tens, :. ~. win sixth by Wendy Law Daily Sports Writer Under the leadership of co Jim Richardson, the Michigan w en's swimming and diving team Big Ten, 9-2 overall) won its precedented sixth straight BigI title last year. The WolverinesI ished seventh out of 42 teams in NCAA Championships. Going into its winter breakI to California, Michigan was un feated. However, Michigan fel both UCLA and South California. The Wolverines finished out season with a sweep, capping it m a home victory over India Michigan then easily defeated competition at Big Tens to capt the title. Rookies Lara Hooivelda Alecia Humphrey had five sea bests between them. Hooiveld, u competed in the 1988 Olympics, two of her three season bests in straight title 100- and 200-meter breaststroke. Humphrey, a four-event qualifier in ach the 1990 Olympic Festival, set sea-. om- son bests in the 200-meter back- (7-0 stroke and the 200-meter individual un- medley. Ten With the Big Ten title put away, fin- Michigan geared up for the NCAA the Championships in Austin, Texas. Twelve Michigan swimmers and trip three divers qualified to compete in nde- the championship meet. Mindy 1 to Gehrs, Humphrey, and co-captain Jeny ern Love all qualified at the Olympic trials. Other national qualifiers in-" the cluded Lisa Anderson, Katherine with Creighton and diver Lisa Cribari. na. Along with a Big Ten the Championship, the Wolverines also ture set a goal of finishing among the top 15 nationally. Led by Mindy Gehrs, DOUG KANTER/Dai and Katherine Creighton, Alecia son Humphrey, Lisa Cribari and several Kirsten Silvester helped the Michigan women's swimming and diving team who others, Michigan edged out Auburn win its sixth consecutive Big Ten Championship last season. The set for a seventh-place finish at Wolverines went on to place seventh at the NCAA Championship. the NCAAs. Water polo wins Midwest, places seventh at Nationals by Greg Richardson Daily Sports Writer During its 1991 season, the play- ers and coaches of the Michigan wa- ter polo team expected to win the Midwest regional. Michigan coach Scott Russell said he felt his team was easily the best in the Big Ten and the Midwest. The Wolverines did not let their coach down, as they captured the Midwest crown at Michigan's Can- ham Natatorium. Michigan over- whelmed Illinois in the champi- onship game, 10-4. The champi- onship enabled Michigan to travel to Vienna, Va., in mid-May for a chance to contend for the national title. At nationals, the Wolverines won one of their five games. In each game Michigan squared off against quality competition as it lost its first four contests to top seed UC-Davis, Maryland, Cal-Poly and Cal- Berkeley. However, Michigan pulled Arcade Barbers 1 out its last game with a 6-5 victory over Bucknell. It was Michigan's first ever win at a national tourna- ment. Lori Barnard and Candice Quinn led the way with nine and six goals respectively. Despite the team's strong re- gional showing, the Wolverines got off to a dismal start in Slippery Rock, Pa. The Wolverines were dusted off by the Slippery Rock Rockets - the No. 1 team in the na- tion. Michigan also lost to Maryland, the fourth-ranked team in the country. Despite the disappointing show- ing, Russell maintained faith in his ninth-ranked Wolverines. "I'm hoping that this'll be the motivation we need to improve," he said. The team only lost twice more the rest of the season. Those losses came in Michigan's first home tour- nament ever. The Wolverines kept their standing as the best team in the Big Ten, as Michigan defeated Wisconsin and Illinois. However, once again, Michigan had major problems with Slippery Rock, as the Rockets whipped the Wolverines. Michigan also lost to McMaster, a top Canadian team. After its home tourney, Michigan steadily improved and dominated its opposition in almost every game. In their tournament at Madison, the Wolverines conquered each of the four teams they faced. In the Madison tourney Barnard stepped up her game, and scored 18 goals for the tournament. Quinn, a two-time All-American, had 11 goals, and Becky Luebke registered 10. Heather Staeven tallied five goals. There were no surprises at the Midwest regional tournament as the Wolverines waltzed past Bowling Green, Ohio State, Northwestern and Illinois. Both Karen Gorny and Justine Sarver played well in goal for the Wolverines. The victories set the stage for Michigan's rematch with Illinois in the title game. The Wolverines ful- filled their expectations with the win, and went to Virginia confident that they would give teams like Slippery Rock and Maryland, the host team, all they could handle. However, Michigan could not com- pete with those top teams at Nationals. Olympic sw by Chad Safran Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's swimming and diving team has had a long his- tory of outstanding team and indi- vidual performances. Last season was no exception. Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek's squad captured its seventh consecu- tive Big Ten Conference title, which was made more difficult because of the absence of several standouts. Eric Namesnik and Eric Wunderlich both redshirted to prepare for the Olympic Trials and Mike Barrowman, the world record holder in the 200-meter breaststroke, was no longer eligible to compete. The ti- tle was the ultimate in team effort. "You win it with new people each year," Urbanchek said. "And this year's team was not the same. All 20 counted more this year than the past. The team picked it up, dug in and gave more." Rookie standout Gustavo Borges, a member of Brazil's 1992 Olympic team, captured his first conference title with a time of 1:35.17 in the 200-yard freestyle. He outdistanced defending champion Artur Wojdat by .67 seconds. Borges continued to show why he was named the confer- ence's rookie of the year when he set a Big Ten record in the 100 freestyle with a winning time of :43.14. The Wolverines won two relay ti- tles at the tournament as well. Rodney Van Tassell, Kevin Glass, Noel Strauss and Borges finished 2.44 seconds ahead of Indiana in the 800 freestyle relay with a victorious time of 6:28.59. The 400 freestyleI relay team of Van Tassell, Strauss,j Borges and Tom Hay came out on top with a time of 2:56.44. The next big meet for several of the Wolverines was the 1992 Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. Namesnik qualified for the team in the 400-meter individual medley with a first-place time of 4:15.60. He is the American record holder in this event and missed breaking his record by .39 seconds. "I try not to think about (the record)," he said. "My main priority was to make the team." Brice Kopas made a strong showing in the event, coming up with a seventh-place time of 4:26.21. im trials "He had a good swim," Namesnik said. "It's good for-, Michigan swimming to have another" swimmer in there." , Qualification eluded Wunderlich as he finished third twice. In the' 100-meter breaststroke, he touched1 the wall .33 seconds behind second- > place finisher Hans Dersch of Swim Atlanta. His other third-place finish was in the 200 breaststroke, finish- ing in 2:15.87. Brian Gunn touched the wall sev- enth in the 200-meter butterfly with ,,- a time of 2:00.75, more than five<' seconds behind winner Melvin, Stewart. Royce Sharp, who will be swim- ming for Michigan this year, quali- fied for the team and broke the'-': American record in the finals of the 200 breaststroke. He shaved the mark down to a time of 1:58.6. The NCAA Championships'.° forced the Wolverines into their' third big meet in a seven-week span."., The weary team finished in 10th-=r". place with 184 points. Stanford cap.' tured 632 points on the way to lock-" ing up the title. "They could not perform up to'a their best," Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek. "But the NCAAs were-0 not the most important part of the- year for us. Olympic trials only come around once in a while. The Q NCAA meet happens every year." Once again Borges was the standout as he continued Michigan's tradition of NCAA champions with titles in the 100-and 200-yard freestyle. In addition, he finished fourth in the 50 freestyle. "This morning I was swimming pretty good in the water," Borges said of his winning effort in the 200<, free. "I tried to put a good effort in my first 50 to stay with the front group. After the third 50, I saw I was ahead, so I just closed my eyes and went for it." Michigan's relay teams per- formed well with the 800 freestyle relay quintet of Van Tassell, Glass,, Borges and Gunn touching the wall in second place, finishing the best of all the relay teams. With Wunderlich and Namesnik returning to the team and the first- year presence of Sharp, Urbanchek is optimistic. Obviously he hasn't been to... NEXUS I A VEDA CREATIFo K.M.S. c NEXUS PAUL MITCHELL REDKEN SEBASTIAN JOICO Mon.- Fri. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday 9 am. to 5 p.m. 665-7894. #6 Nickels Arcade (Near South & West Quads) . t WELCOME BACK WE HAVE THE MICHIGAN STYLES FOR 101,000 PLUS Champion i 8 ,.; oil ' as ld - " Russell " Gear - -I ' Woolrich FEY i i 18 F8} ni' #8Y d I 8 i 3 6. 3 48 1' r a' , r a t I a . 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