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 -:a RCSTAURANT AND PUB~ 'MK ABOR, MI. - so 1 338 S. State -996-9191 The Fifth Jazz in January Featuring Local Jazz Musicians Your Choice for Jazz and Exclusive Draft Selections in Live Performances 6-8 pm -Presents- No Cover # Light Fare to Full Dinner Menu Available Warm Up with Jazz in January! Lanny Green defeated defending national champion Kevin Randleman of Ohio State, 4-3, at last weekend's Cliff Keen National Team Duals. 0 --ATTENTION JUNIORS -- 1993 SUMMER INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES with PROCTER & GAMBLE Juniors interested in summer internship opportunities in Sales and Marketing, are invited to attend an informative presentation: r ~ 4U - 'F --------- 1 tu' TRAVEL SMART! FROM CHICAGO Roundlrip One Way London $450"$225 Guatemala City $530 $265 Cosa ca $550 $265 Oslo/Stockholn/ Copenhagen $610 $305 Athens/Istanbul $650 $325 Tokyo $729 .$584 Bangkok $869 $680 Some tickets valid to one year. Most tickets allow changes.