Page 8- The Michigan Daily -January 21, 1993
WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS
Blue commences title defense
by Thorn Holden
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's gymnas-
tics team begins the defense of its
Big Ten championship Friday as
Ohio State invades Keen Arena.
Both teams come off impressive
opening meets; Michigan scored a
188.5 to defend its Blue/Gold Cup
Invitational title, while Ohio State
posted a 186.5 in its meet.
Coach Bev Plocki was pleased
with her team's performance in last
week's opening meet.
"Last year we started with a
185.9, which was a good score at the
time. We've improved by about
three points over last year" she said.
Plocki has introduced many new
skills which should help Michigan in
its quest for a national title. "We did
well (this year), but not as well as
we could have" Plocki said.
Michigan's opening night score,
while impressive, did not completely
'We've cleaned up a lot
of things and I think
Friday is going to be a
big improvement over
last week.'
-Bev Ploski
Gymnastics coach
reflect its ability. The gymnasts' in-
consistency could be attributed to
several factors; opening night jitters
and the introduction of routines
which had a higher degree of diffi-
culty stand out.
"We've cleaned up a lot of things
and I think Friday is going to be a
big improvement over last week"
Plocki said.
Michigan expects a better per-
formance against the Buckeyes. It
will need higher, more consistent
scores if it wants to remain in the na-
tional spotlight. Michigan has tar-
geted a score of 190 for the Big Ten
opener. If the Wolverines are going
to realize that improvement, they
will need more consistency from
their all Big-Ten performers, senior
Ali Winski and junior Kelly Carfora.
"I definitely could improve on
some tlhings" Winski said referring
to last week's performance against
Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
Carfora also predicted her scores to
improve in this weekend's meet.
Michigan will also depend on
solid output from sophomore Beth
Wymer, who took the all-around title
in the Blue/Gold Invitational, and
redshirt sophomore Wendy
Wilkinson, who fared well on the
uneven bars and balance beam last
week. Wymer won the Wolverines'
Most Valuable Performer honor last
season.
The Wolverines are currently
ranked No. 11 in the nation by the
National Association of Collegiate
Gymnastics Coaches. They will next
host Illinois on Jan. 30.
MEN'S GYMNASTICS
Wolverines 'mission?
Just pass the Buckeyes
Redshirt frosh Kelly Carfora and the Michigan women's gymnastics team will take on the Ohio State Buckeyes this
weekend at Cliff Keen Arena.
Yost faithful add
HOCKEY NOTEBOOK spark to weekend
by Brian Hillburn
This weekend, the Ohio State
faithful might have another reason to
hate Michigan.
That's because Saturday at 7
p.m., the Buckeyes open the Big Ten
men's gymnastics season against the
Wolverines in Ann Arbor.
Last weep, the Buckeyes won the
Windy City Invitational, putting
themselves on the map as one of the
best squads in the country.
"I'd say that Ohio State,
Minnesota, Nebraska and Stanford
are the top four teams in the nation,"
Michigan assistant coach Mike
Milidonis said.
"It always comes down to the last
event," Wolverine coach Bob
Darden said. "Ohio State will come
out of the blocks real fast, which will
be good, because that will allow us
to compete at their level of
competition."
Last year three Buckeyes com-
peted on the U.S. national team,
which is comprised of the best
twelve gymnasts in the country. Kip
Simons, who won last weekend's
all-around competition for Ohio
State, leads this year's team.
"He'll do a solid job all year
round, in all events," Darden said.
The Wolverines will turn to
freshman Bob Young, sophomore
Raul Molina, and junior Mike Mott
to lead the team this weekend. All
three were finalists at last weekend's
tournament, and Young won the par-
allel bars event.
Young feels confident that he
will perform as well as he did last
weekend.
"I just have to hit my sets,"
Young said.
"When he hits his sets, he's ca-
pable of mid nine's in every event,"
Milidonis says of Young.
The coaches think that the rest of
the team will perform well too.
"We'll break into the 260's eas-
ily," Darden said. "The freshmen are
eating the exposure up."
by Chad A. Safran
Daily Hockey Writer
Besides the excitement the
Michigan hockey team created with
its sweep of Ohio State and Bowling
Green last weekend, the fans at Yost
Arena came up with some
excitement of their own.
A new chant arose from the
student section Saturday in honor of
the presence of PASS television.
Because of the need to have time for
commercials, three one-minute
television timeouts were called. The
fans were displeased by the fact that
play would be halted temporarily,
and vented their frustration at the
television network by yelling "PASS
sucks!" repeatedly.
The fans also came up with
another creative antic not seen
before at Yost.
After Dave Roberts put
Michigan ahead 3-0 at the :38 mark
of Friday's second period, several
of the Wolverine faithful decided to
display their appreciation for OSU
goaltender Tom Askey's efforts.
Three miniature silver sieves were
thrown right in front of the Buckeye
netminder, much to his dismay.
Then, Saturday, a bigger sieve,
this time a plastic one, hit the ice
following Mark Ouimet's second-
period tally.
IT'S ABOUT TIME: Center Mike
Stone scored Michigan's second
shorthanded goal of the season
Saturday in the third period. It has
been a long time in between
shorthanded tallies for the
Wolverines. David Oliver split the
pipes for the other in the season's
first game against Notre Dame.
CHECK OUT THE DUDS: For
the second time this season,
Michigan donned maize-colored
jerseys, although it was the first time
the Wolverines had done so at home.
The debut of the uniforms occurred
during the championship game of
the Great Lakes Invitational against
Northern Michigan.
Young
Even if Michigan does not win
the meet, it will still benefit from the
competition as the Wolverines are a
young team building for the future.
"We're getting more payback
than we're realizing," Darden said.
"We'll see the benefits down the
road."
But the Wolverines want to win
now, and go to nationals as a team
- a feat Michigan has not accom-
plished since 1975. To become an
elite squad like Ohio State, the team
will have to perform well against not
only the Buckeyes, but the entire
conference.
"We have to come in here and
score well to make regionals,"
Darden said confidently.
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