The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 25, 1993 - Page 9 'M' crews open spring season vs. Purdue by Brian Hiliburn Daily Sports Writer The men's and women's crew teams will row, row, row their boats quickly down the stream. More pre- cisely, the Wolverines will be row- ing down the Wabash River against Purdue in their first regatta of the spring season Saturday. The squads are anxious for the season to begin, as they have been training hard for several weeks. While many of their fellow students spent spring break relaxing on tropi- cal beaches, club members went to Tampa for training. Upon returning to Ann Arbor, the rowers were dis- appointed to find that the Huron River was frozen. "We've only been on the water for less than a week because the win- ter's been so bad," senior rower Fletcher Jones said. "It's really set us back as far as water time goes." Despite this misfortune, the team has been trying to make up for lost time by practicing twice on some days. "That's one of the benefits of be- ing a club," Program Director Will Brewster said. "We can do double days and not worry about the NCAA rules for only practicing 20 hours a week." Not that Brewster wouldn't jump at the chance to become a varsity sport. Varsity-status crew teams like Wisconsin and Harvard are the best around because they receive funding from their schools. Being a club sport, Michigan's budget of $140,000 is far less than Wisconsin's $500,000. The club's lack of funding has led to a high rate of attrition. The squad had approximately 200 rowers last fall, compared to the 95 now still rowing. "Those are the burdens of a club sport," women's varsity coach Mark Rothstein said. "Not many people stick around because of the money." The team's high rate of attrition has hindered the development of its rowers. Crew is a sport of experience and the rowers not only have to get into shape but also must perfect their rowing technique. "It's better to row well than work hard," Brewster said. "You can go a lot faster if everyone is rowing well. It takes a lot of coordination." The Wolverines hope that all of that preparation will pay off against Purdue. Because the Boilermakers are virtually even in ability with Michigan, the races should be close. "They're pretty strong in the Midwest," Brewster said. "It's pretty even year to year. Usually, they win early in the season and we win later. Their novice men are doing very well, and their varsity heavyweight men are doing well too." The Michigan teams are looking forward to the contest. The competi- tion will highlight the areas on which the Wolverines need to focus. "It's early in the season and we're still working out some of the glitches," Jones said. "But it's usu- ally a pretty good race. We're pretty evenly matched." Marcel Wouda will try to add to the medals he accumulated at the Big Tens when he competes in the NCAA Championships this weekend. SWIMMING Continued from page 1 eighth. Wouda is also qualified in the 500- (second) and 1650-yard freestyle (seventh) events. Namesnik, however, should pose a strong challenge to Wouda for the title. The 1992 Olympic silver medalist did not shave or taper for the conference meet and should swim a substantially faster time. Ad- ditionally, Namesnik will be a factor in the 200 IM and possibly the 200- yard butterfly. The Wolverines' other two No. 1 seeds are sophomore Gustavo Bor- ges in the 100 freestyle and senior Brian Gunn in the 200 butterfly. Both Borges and Gunn will be com- peting in other events as well. Borges is the third seed in the 200, freestyle and number seven in the 50 freestyle. Gunn is highly seeded in the 500 freestyle and will also com- pete in the 100 butterfly. "We are highly seeded," Ur- banchek said. "We're favored to win those events, and we should be able to." However, to challenge Stanford for the top spot and to hold off Texas, the Wolverines will need more than just their No. 1 seeds to hold their position. Other swimmers must move up in the field. In addi- tion to Sharp's third seed in the 400 IM, he is also a threat in the 200 IM as a fourth seed and should chal- lenge fellow Olympian and Ten- nessee swimmer Tripp Schwenk in the 200 backstroke, Sharp's best event. Sharp is seeded second and said he expects to swim much better at the NCAAs. "I didn't taper that much (at Big Tens)," Sharp said. "I was satisfied with (his performance). I think I can go a lot faster at NCAAs." Junior Rodney Van Tassell, in addition to his relay performances, will need to score points individu- ally. Van Tassell has qualified in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyles and should score in at least two of those events. Brice Kopas will be another Michigan swimmer competing in three events - the 400 IM as well as the 500 and 1650 freestyles - and has a chance to pick up some points, especially in the 1650. Tom Blake is also in a position to score in the 1650 and will be com- peting in the 200 and 500 freestyles as well. Other Wolverine swimmers competing will be Steve Duttenhof- fer, Shuichi Matsumoto, and Tom Hay. Eric Lesser and Abel Sanchez will compete for Michigan in the diving events. The divers are hoping to score well and pick up points. These will be keys to the Wolverines' ability to challenge Stanford. "Our divers will do better than Texas and Stanford," Urbanchek said. "They'll (especially) help us be competitive with Stanford." Lesser agrees with Urbanchek's assessment. "If we can perform well, perform where it counts, we can possibly win (the national championship)," Lesser said. "Stanford doesn't have any divers. We went out there in January and swept them, so that's a lot of points we can pick up." What Stanford does have are 16 swimmers, many of whom can chal- lenge for top spots. Freshman Joe Hudepohl, who will challenge for three individual titles, leads the Cardinal. Erik Maurer, Derek Weatherford, Trip Zedlitz, Bill Schell, Dan Kanner, Mayfield and Grote should all score points for Stanford. The Stanford relays return most of the cogs of last year's five national champion relays, making them almost unbeatable. Texas, the Wolverines' other toughest competition, has Josh Davis and Brad Bridgewater leading the way, both having earned All- American status in previous years. Other key Longhorn swimmers in- clude Matt Hooper and Johnathanf Jennings. "Florida is very good and will be there with UCLA and California for the next three spots," Urbanchek said. Sharper spikers to show up at Midwest tourney by Erin Hlmstodt said. eBudget Airfares ANYWHERE eInternational Student Airfares *Rallpasses Issued here *intermational Identity Cards eWorldwide Adventure Tours eTravel Gear and Guidebooks *Expert Travel Advice 1220 S. University Avenue STE 208 Ann Arbor, MI 48104. 313-998-0200 Call "o a FREE copy of teStudent TrahesMagazine Daily Sports Writer After a disappointing finish at the * Big Ten finals two weeks ago, the Michigan men's volleyball team will seek redemption in Angola, Ind. this weekend at the Midwest Intercolle- giate Volleyball Association (MIVA) championships. The Wolverines will compete with 23 teams for the title of "best in the Midwest." The spikers were stunned by their frustrating eighth-place finish at Big Tens, but say they have struggled to turn their disappointment into a valuable learning experience. "I think we expected to beat teams just because we beat them last year. We went into it with the wrong mental attitude," Michigan coach Pam Griffin said. "We have the tal- ent to play with everybody who was there. Now we understand the impor- tance of the mental game and not just the physical." Since that tournament, Griffin has implemented a more challenging practice regimen in an effort to rem- edy the general lack of mental toughness that was such a factor in the conference finals. She said she is encouraged by the results. "I think they're working a lot harder. After we came back, I made I practices harder. We're breaking down everybody's individual game, working on what they're doing at any given point, and hoping that they'll come together in games," she Another lingering effect of the. Big Ten tournament is the ankle in- jury sustained there by outside hitter Michael Rubin. The injury may cause Rubin to miss games this weekend, which would be a key loss to the team. The MIVA championship is an important landmark on the road to the national finals to be held in Austin, Texas in three weeks. Placement this weekend will deter- mine seeding in Austin. The MIVA finals are also an opportunity for teams to gauge each other in antici- pation of nationals. However, the tournament has lost some of its prestige this year due to the decreased number of participat- ing teams, down from 48 last year. Many respected teams, such as Pur- due and Indiana, are on a waiting list to compete. Having turned a disappointing Big Ten finish into a source of inspi- ration, this weekend will be a chance for the Wolverines to once again es- tablish themselves as a force in the conference. "We're putting pressure on our- selves to play at the level we know that we are capable of. We know we can play, we just have to get our minds to that level," sophomore Chad Engel said. "We all know that Big Tens was sort of a fluke. 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