0 Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 28, 1993
by Scott Burton
Daily Sports Writer
If you look at the roster of the
Michigan men's gymnastics team,
you'll notice that it features only one
senior. Further examination shows
that the majority of the team is com-
prised of underclassmen.
However, don't be too quick to
conclude that this is a team in the re-
building stages - the truth is far
from that.
"I don't think anyone would ar-
gue that this is a better team (than
last year)," said Wolverine coach
Bob Darden, who has led his team to
four straight NCAA regional compe-
titions. "We are an emerging and
improving team."
"Right now, our team is really
young so it's a lot more
inexperienced," junior Ben Verall
said. "But I do believe that if we
were to compete our team against
last year's team, that this year's team
would win, just because we have a
lot more talent."
The improvement in talent is
owed to this year's exceptional re-
cruiting class. Freshmen Chris
Onuska, Bob Young, Jason Taft and
Chris Klinger have already made a
profound impact on the team.
"We have a lot of great freshmen
more than pulling their share of the
load," Darden said. "I was hoping
these guys would be prepared to
compete at the collegiate level, but it
was really a nice surprise that they
were ready to go."
Darden has already been using
the freshmen in the competitive
rotation due to a series of injuries to
several of the Wolverines top
athletes.
MEN's GYMiNASTCS PREVIEW
Tumblers hope youth will prevail
*
Included among those injured is
Brian Winkler, last year's freshman
phenom and national champion in
the floor exercise. Joining Winkler
on the sidelines has been junior
Royce Toni, a top performer for
Michigan as a freshman, but plagued
by injuries ever since.
The freshmen have been more
than eager to accept the spots voided
by some of the injured Wolverines.
But don't expect them to be as eager
to give them back up.
"I think because us freshmen are
doing really well, it's going to be
tougher than the upperclassmen
think coming back in," Onuska said.
"They're really going to have to
fight for their spots back again be-
cause we've shown ourselves as re-
spectable to the coaches."
Such intrasquad competition will
not cause discord but will help to
improve the team, according to
Onuska
"We're all a team and we_ all
want to do the best we can, no matter
if you're an upperclassman or a
freshman," he said. "If we push the
upperclassmen, they're going to
push us in return, so it keeps every-
one going."
"The new freshmen on the team
always keep the older gymnasts a lit-
tle more honest, because the fresh-
men are hungry and they want to
break in the lineup," Darden said.
"This makes the upperclassmen
work a little harder."
After just three weeks, the posi-
tive effects of the freshmen can al-
ready be felt on the team. Michigan
tics: floor exercise, pommel horse,
still rings, vault, parallel bars and
horizontal bar.
The Wolverines' floor exercise, a
traditionally strong event for, the
team, is headed by Young, Verall,
and junior Jorge Camacho. It will be
made even stronger once Winkler
returns. Another strength for
Michigan is the pommel horse as ev-
idenced by Mike Mott's first-place
finish in last week's meet with Ohio
State.
Leading the parallel bars is
Young, who won the event two
weeks ago in the Windy City Invita-
tional. Young also heads a strong
group on the still rings that includes
Verall and Onuska. Junior Rich
Dopp joins Onuska, Klinger and
sophomore Raul Molina to make
horizontal bars a solid event for
Michigan, and the vault boasts the
talents of Young, Mott and
sophomore Corry luttenga.
With the strong lineup that
Michigan possesses in each of the
events, the team goal is to qualify for
the NCAA Eastern Regionals, as it
has done in each of the last four
years.
However, that goal will be much
harder this year for the Wolverines
as the NCAA has cut the number of
teams that qualify from eight to six.
Nevertheless, Darden and the rest of
the team don't doubt they are capa-
ble of making the cut.
"It's going to be a real dogfight
to get into the regionals," Darden
said. "While we're tickling the un-
derside of some of these top teams,
it's not unfathomable that we could
be one of those top teams. We have
the guns to do it."
Mw
Sophomore Raul Molina is expected to perform well on the parallel bars this season for the men's gymnastics
team. He is among a host of young Wolverines vying for a return trip to the NCAA Regionals. However, the going
will be a bit tougher for Michigan this year as it faces injuries and a reduced number of NCAA bids.
has improved from a team score of
256 at Minnesota to 259 at the
Windy City Invitational, to last
week's 268.05 against Ohio State.
Although the Wolverines lost both
meets with Minnesota and Ohio
State, they have a positive outlook
that the best is yet to come.
"We started off with high expect-
ations, and now we have even higher
expectations," Darden said. "We've
been competing against very good
teams and the guys have realized this
and competed up to this level.
"The performances that we've
had have been very good for our
team. So it's been just a good time."
A primary cause of Darden's en-
thusiasm is the nucleus of athletes he
has to work with in each of the six
events included in men's gymnas-
*
Schembechler notches
Hall-of-Fame accolades
flA A
A1) 1) 1) n1) AAA1) AA1)
from staff reports
Legendary Michigan football
coach Bo Schembechler was named
among the thirteen newest members
of the College Football Hall of
Fame.
Schembechler is one of two head
coaches to be inducted at the College
Hall of Fame's 36th Annual Dinner
Awards Dec. 7, 1993 in New York
City.
The National Football Founda-
tion selected Schembechler on the
basis of his 234-65-8 record in his
27 years of college coaching. His
234 career wins are sixth among all
Division I coaches, while his .775
career winning percentage is 18th on
the all-time list.
Schembechler graced the side-
lines of Michigan Stadium for 21
seasons (1969-89) and is Michigan's
all-time winningest coach with a
194-48-5 (.796) record.
Seventeen of his 21 Wolverine
teams were in the top ten in either
the AP or UPI final poll, and
Schembechler guided his teams to
seventeen bowl games. His only
other head coaching job was at his
alma mater, Miami (Ohio).
Schembechler compiled a 143-
24-3 Big Ten record, including 13
outright or shared Big Ten titles. He
was also named Big Ten Coach of
the Year four times and was the
1969 American Football Association
Division I Coach of the Year.
WRESTLING NOTEBOOK
by Michael Rosenberg
Daily Sports Writer
Sean Bormet's Most Outstanding Wrestler award at this weekend's
Cliff Keen Team Duals was the first individual award received by a
Wolverine in nearly four years. John Fisher won a similar award at the
1989 Virginia Team Duals, the predecessor of the Cliff Keens. Fisher is
currently an assistant to Michigan coach Dale Bahr.
Bormet (158 pounds) has been suffering from a bad back lately.
"My back is about 75 or 80 percent right now," Bormet said. "After the
first match, it was numb, and I just had to block it out of my mind. It will
probably be another two weeks before I'm totally healthy again."
Bahr was not surprised by the wrestler's performance.
"Sean's a competitor and he's an outstanding wrestler," Bahr said. "He
hates to lose more than anyone I've ever seen. He hardly ever loses when he
goes after somebody. He can win the national championship if he stays
healthy and doesn't put to much pressure on himself."
Heavyweight Steve King took Bahr one step further.
"I think he's the best in the country at 158," King said.
Bonnet will be honored at the annual dinner before the NCAA champi-
onships in March.
HE'S LIKE A BROKEN RECORD: Bormet's 28 points set a new record
for the Duals. He surpassed his own mark of 27, which he scored last year,
when the meet was held in Ann Arbor.
"I enjoy the competition (at the Duals)," Bormet said. "There's a pretty
Bormet' s award first
for Blue in four years
high level of intensity. It seems like I wrestle better as the matches go on."
Michigan also finished fifth last year.
RATTLED RANDLEMAN: Lanny Green (177) defeated defending na-
tional champion Kevin Randleman of Ohio State at the Duals. It was
Randleman's first loss since 1990-91. Last year, Randleman was 42-0-3.
Two of those ties came against Green.
"I think Randleman hates wrestling Lanny," Bahr said. "I think he fears
wrestling Lanny. For some reason, I would want Lanny to wrestle
Randleman rather than (Iowa State's Matt) Johnson." Johnson, currently
ranked second in the country, defeated Green, 7-4, in Lincoln.
KING DETHRONED: King was beaten twice this weekend. The first
loss, to N.C. State's Sylvester Terkay, was no great surprise, but the sec-
ond defeat, to Missouri's Jeremy Lay, disappointed King.
"I've beaten that guy before," King said. "I just fell behind early, and I
panicked. I have trouble coming from behind sometimes."
A
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0
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with
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