The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 29, 1993-- Page 7
In T he
aa
Error gives runner-up
finish more meaning
by Antoine Pitts
-Daily Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS - It almost fell apart for Michigan. Yes, the
Wolverine swimmers already knew that they were not going to catch
Stanford for first place. But a disastrous beginning to the Friday session
nearly cost the Wolverines second.
After deciding not to swim in the 200-yard freestyle relay, Michigan
knew it would need as many points as possible in the rest of the relay events
in order to hold off Texas. However, in the first preliminary heat of the
second day of competition, the unthinkable happened.
Gustavo Borges, poised and readied himself on the starting blocks to
swim the anchor leg of the 200 medley relay. Tom Hay touched the wall and
Borges took flight. But there was something dreadfully wrong. The ensuing
debate by the officials confirmed that Michigan had erred.
The Wolverines were disqualified because of a mental breakdown that
caused their anchorman to jump a fraction of a second too early. Hay
coasted in on the third leg with his eyes closed and mis-timed touching the
wall. This offset Borges' timing and caused the DQ.
"That was just one of those freak mental errors," Michigan coach Jon
Urbanchek said. "The guy on the block has to be in motion. Tommy
misjudged the wall coming in and when a big body like Gustavo is in
motion you can't reverse it."
You could sense a somber mood because for the Wolverines, it meant
that in two relays they had scored nothing out of 80 possible points.
Meanwhile, Stanford had picked up 74 while Texas scored 58 with the
relays.
Without the relays, the prospect of finishing second looked dim. The
Wolverines had all Friday afternoon to think over the mistake that could
cost them second place.
That evening the Wolverines were still smarting from the afternoon mis-
cue. Texas and Michigan remained close all night long on the scoreboard.
The Wolverines were two points ahead of the Longhorns with one more
event to go.
The 800 freestyle relay would be Michigan's last chance of the day to
put some room between'themselves and Texas. Marcel Wouda, Rodney
VanTassell, Brian Gunn, and Gustavo Borges had the last crack at keeping
the Wolverines on top.
Wouda got off to a quick start and VanTassell kept the lead. Gunn re-
tained the lead as well on his leg. The team began to anticipate Borges'
jump into the pool.
"GUS-TAV-O. GUS-TAV-O," the team serenaded him.
Borges' swim finished off a first-place finish .39 seconds ahead of Texas
and put the Wolverines up by eight. The relay swim was good enough to
break a Michigan and Big Ten record.
The Wolverines followed the lead of that relay into the third and final
day. Three first-place finishes, a second-place and a third- place finish gave
the Woeines an overwhelming victory over the Longhorns for second
place behind Stanford.
SWIMMNGNOTEBOOK:
Hude ohl's choice puts
Stanford over the edge
by Brett Johnson
and Antoine Pitts
Daily Sports Writers
INDIANAPOLIS - Last season, the Michigan and Stanford swimming
teams were hooked up in a recruiting war for Joe Hudepohl, the nation's
No. 1 recruit. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, Hudepohl decided to go to
Stanford. His decision did not cost the Wolverines the national title this
weekend at IUPUI Natatorium, but things would have been much closer.
"It was a tough call," Hudepohl said. "I just thought I needed a change to
go out to California. I would have liked to have swam for (Michigan coach)
Jon (Urbanchek). He's a great guy and Gustavo (Borges) is a great guy; the
guys on the team are good friends of mine from the Olympic team. So, it
was a tough call."
Hudepohl scored 41 individual points and also participated on four relay
teams. Three of those teams placed first and the fourth team finished third
behind the Wolverines and Texas. Hudepohl was a crowd favorite as the
Stanford fans and his hometown "box-heads" from St. Xavier high school in
Cincinnati had Hudepohl faces to wear during his races.
"I had mainly family and Stanford's crowd," Hudepohl said. "(The box
heads) were here but they weren't wearing their boxes."
RECORD SETTERS: Michigan swimmers set five new school records
and three new Big Ten conference records at the NCAA championships.
Marcel Wouda broke both the 500-yard and 1650 freestyle records. The
+1650 record was a five-year old record set by Scott Ryan, and Wouda broke
it by 18 seconds. However, neither of these were Big Ten records. The the
conference records were set by Royce Sharp in the 200 backstroke and the
400 medley and 800 freestyle relays. The 400 medley members were Sharp,
Eric Wunderlich, Tom Hay, and Gustavo Borges, and the 800 freestyle
members were Wouda, Rodney VanTassell, Brian Gunn, and Borges.
GOLD MEDALISTS, ANYONE?: In addition to the tremendous swim-
mers competing in the NCAA championships, the crowd this weekend was
*'also a star-studded group. Olympic gold medalists in the house included
former Michigan standout and 200-meter breaststroke world record holder
Mike Barrowman, 100-butterfly world record holder Pablo Morales
(Stanford), 100-backstroke world record holder and 400 medley relay gold
medalist Jeff Rouse (Stanford), 1984 and 1988 diving gold medalist in both
the springboard and platform events Greg Lougainis, and 1984 100
freestyle champion Rowdy Gaines (Auburn). Both Gaines and Lougainis
were working for CBS in the broadcast booth.
U TANKERS FINISH STRONG: Third-day surge cements second place for Blue
AP PHOTO
Sophomore Marcel Wouda swims the breaststroke during his 400-yard individual medley. Wouda won two races at the NCAA championships.
SWIMMING
Continued from page 1
freestyle. Marcel Wouda, who
had already claimed the 500 free
individual title and placed
second in the 400 individual
medley, put in a solid race
breaking the Michigan record by
more than 18 seconds. Texas'
Matt Hooper took the race out
quickly, but Wouda started to
catch him and eventually passed
Hooper in the final 250.
"It was a good race," Wouda
said. "Jon told me to swim not
for a time but for the win.
Hooper went out so fast that I
never thought I would be able to
catch him. I divided my race into
three 500's, and I tried to
accelerate each 500. After 6-700,
I felt that the gap was getting
smaller."
Wouda's performances left
him as the top individual swim-
ming scorer at the meet with 57
points. Miami diver Dean
Panaro, who was named Diver of
the Year, tied Wouda in
individual scoring.
The final night also saw
senior Eric Wunderlich and
sophomore Gustavo Borges take
individual titles. Wunderlich had
been battling an illness for the'
first two days of the meet but
came back to take the 200
breaststroke. It was a victory that
Wunderlich really wanted after
his second-place finish in the 100
breaststroke.
"It really didn't hit me until
after I was warming down,"
Wunderlich said. "I was excited
to turn around and see '1' next to
my name. I just didn't expect it; I
don't know why. I think part of it
was because of Olympic Trials
last year. I had to deal with
disappointment twice. Yesterday,
I thought I was coming down
with the flu. Mike (Barrowman)
really calmed me down."
In the 100 free, Borges was
able to defend his NCAA title.
He finished fifth in the 50 free,
and third in the 200 before
Saturday's 100. His 42.91 time
was .16 seconds faster than
individual event. I was a little
nervous going in. I didn't want to
have him to catch me and have
Brian go in down."
Both Gunn and VanTassell
provided Michigan with indiv-
idual points. Gunn finished
second in the 200 butterfly and
fifth in the 500 free. VanTassell
made the finals in the 200 free
and made the consolation finals
in the 500.
'It was a good race. (Michigan coach Jon
Urbanchek) told me to swim not for a time but
for the win. Hooper went out so fast that I
never thought I would be able to catch him. I
divided my race into three 500's, and I tried to
accelerate each 500. After 6-700, I felt that the
gap was getting smaller.'
- Marcel Wouda
Wolverines at the NCAAs,
finished fifth and sixth,
respectively.
"I thought they did a fantastic
job," Michigan diving coach
Dick Kimball said. "I'm really
pleased at what they did."
"It was my first time at
nationals and I just wanted to
final," Sanchez said. "I was kind
of disappointed with the prelims
but I was pleased with my final
three dives."
In the end, it Stanford's depth
allowed them to score a decisive
victory. The Cardinal won only
three individual titles, one fewer
than the Wolverines, but they had
enough depth in each event to get
multiple finalists. Their depth
also led them to three relay
victories.
The pressure of winning
back-to-back championships and
the fact that it was the year after
the Olympics had Stanford coach
Skip Kenney worried. However,
the victory was never in doubt.
"It's much harder to repeat,"
Kenney said. "I thought it would
be difficult to get these kids up
from an Olympic year. So this is
sweet."
The most impressive indiv-
idual performance of the meet
was put in by Florida's Greg
Burgess. Burgess, the silver
medalist in the 200-meter IM at
the Olympics, set American and
U.S. Open records in both the
200-yard IM (1:43.52) and the
400 IM (3:41.54).
"I just try to sit back on the
first half and let the other people
do the swimming for me,"
Burgess said. "After the 100,I do
my strategy which is doing the
breaststroke real hard and then
the freestyle. No one could keep
up with me."
David Fox of N.C. State, who set
the NCAA meet record in the
200.
"I wanted to win again,"
Borges said. "I wanted to race
again to win this year and I did
it."
The other Wolverine national
championship was in the 800 free
relay of Wouda, Rodney Van-
Tassell, Brian Gunn, and Borges.
The relay victory in the final
event on Friday night allowed the
Wolverines to regain their
confidence and make up for the
disqualification in Friday's 200
medley relay and the non-scoring
200 free relay.
"Gustavo and I have been
talking about this all year,"
VanTassell said. "I felt really
good. I had a little lead going in.
The guy I went in with was Dan
Kanner. He'd beaten me in the
Other Wolverines that pro-
vided points to the second place
finish were Royce Sharp, Eric
Namesnik, and Tom Hay. Sharp
finished third in the 200 back-
stroke, where he set a new Big
Ten record, and fourth in the 400
Individual medley (IM). Name-
snik finished third in the 400 IM.
"I was happy with (my 200
back)," Sharp said. "It was my
best time. I'm not that good of a
yard swimmer, so to be that close
to these guys who can swim
sprint and go 47 low in the 100
back. I go 48 low. It was good to
be in there. I was only .3 off."
The Michigan divers after two
days of subpar scores on
springboard came back with a
strong night on platform. Abel
Sanchez and Eric Lesser, the
only two divers for the
Here are the final top 20 team scores from this weekend:
1. Stanford
2. Michigan
3. Texas
4. Arizona
5. UCLA
6. Auburn
7. California
8. Tennessee
. Florida
°0. SMU
520.5
396
326
263
260
215
175
170
157.5
148.5
11. Minnesota
137.5
12. Miami
13. USC
135
129.5
14. North Carolina
96
15. Georgia
16. Kansas
17. Iowa
18. Alabama
92
83
79
71.5
19. Arizona State
20. Nebraska
71
69
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