The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - April 5, 1993 - Page 9
Michigan crew braves icy conditions,
sees tepid results against Cincinnati
SUSAN iSAAKIDaily
The Michigan men's and women's crew teams competed this weekend against Cincinnati on the Huron River.
Women tumblers earn bid to nationals,
finish fourth in Central reonal quaifers
by Brian Hillburn
Daily Sports Writer
The Cincinnati crew team liter-
ally got an icy reception when they
drove up to Ann Arbor for last
Saturday's regatta against Michigan.
That's because the original site of
the meet, Ford Lake in Ypsilanti,
froze due to last week's inclement
weather.
Thus, the races had to be held on
the tiny Huron River, where neither
team was able to claim complete
victory. Since the Huron is not long
enough for the teams to race the
usual 2000 meters, each of the boats
had to race 1000 meters a few times
in a row. Therefore many of the
Wolverine and Bearcat boats won
some of the races, but also lost a few
others.
"The results from the day kind of
left an uneasy feeling," Michigan
women's varsity coach Mark
Rothstein said. "We didn't really
settle who was faster. The good
thing is that we'll see Cincinnati
three more times this year,"
The meet ended with Michigan's
varsity men winning one of its three
races, and the varsity women fin-
ished winning one, losing one, and
'The novices have
rowed very well, a
have improved sin
last week. The vai
crews got a lot ou
it since the racing
very intense. It wz
good workout if
nothing else.'
- Mark Rot
Michigan women'
sults, several of the races were close.
Michigan's varsity women generated
a lot of excitement with a great
and come-from-behind win.
ice "On the last set with about 10
rie strokes to go, we were down by
rsity about four seats," senior Karin Stork
it of said. "We sprinted through them and
was finished about four seats ahead. It
as a was probably the best sprint we've
had this season."
The Wolverines' varsity men
made their races interesting -as all
hstein were decided by less than half the
s Crew boat length.
coach "We lost the first by about two
seats," sophomore Pete Noordijk
Ssaid. "For the second, we won by a
length. For the last one, we had a
es. The really bad start and by the middle of
were the the race we brought it together. We
t, as both took it up for a pretty strong sprint
1's boats and for about the last 250 meters,
and we moved through them but
didn't quite catch them. The referee
ied very said that we lost by about half a
ince last foot."
e varsity Michigan will have another
since the chance to beat the Bearcats this
It was a weekend, when both teams go down
to Washington D.C. to race on the
en's and Potomac for the George Washington
mixed re- Invitational.
by Thom Holden
Daily Sports Writer
Flying into Baton Rouge on
Thursday, the Michigan women's
gymnastics team knew it had the
ability to earn an invitation to the
national meet. The only questions
that lingered were how would the
team be able to overcome an excep-
tionally talented region and due to
the invitation system the NCAA has
in place, would they be able to over-
come scoring differences from re-
gion to region.
"We did it!" said sophomore Li
Li Leung.
The Wolverines finished fourth
in the Central region and received,
the final "at-large" bid for the
NCAA National Championship meet
held on April 15-17 in Corvallis,
Ore.
Barely.
Michigan narrowly edged out
Brigham Young by .2 for the final
invitation. One more penalty and the
Wolverines would have fallen victim
to the invitation system for the sec-
ond yearinarow.,
Led by sophomore All-American
Beth Wymer, the Wolverines
notched several personal and school
records en route to their champi-
onship bid.
Wymer scored the only perfect
10 of the evening on the uneven bars
breaking the school record in the
process.
Other top scores for the
Wolverines included Wymer's 9.925
on the balance beam and 9.825 on
the floor. Sophomore Kelly Carfora
(9.825 on the uneven bars) and
sophomore Debbie Berman (9.800
on the balance beam) rounded out
the top scores for Michigan.
Berman's score was a personal best
for her.
"Coach (Bev Plocki) put me
fourth, which is a position that I am
really comfortable with," Berman
said. "I saw the team cheering me on
and I just went out and nailed (the
balance beam)."
Wymer's 39.125 in the all around
was good enough for fifth place at
the regional meet. The team set a
school record on the uneven bars
with a score of 49.025. The scores
ranged from 9.725 to 10.0.
"(Uneven) bars was our last event
and our team score on the bars ...
was just incredible," Plocki said
But the Wolverines did have
some problems.
The floor exercise and the vault
- normally strong events for
Michigan - provided problems for
the team.
"The vault was scored extremely
tightly for some reason," Plocki said.
Carfora's score of 9.725 was the
team high.
"We had a couple of breaks
(score deductions) on the floor."
Wymer said "We weren't at our
best."
Placing fourth in the region was
perhaps lower than the team ex-
pected, but its score was about what
Plocki felt her team needed in order
to obtain the much coveted invitation
to the national meet.
Placing first at the meet was
Alabama, scoring a 196.075. The
win gave the Crimson Tide an auto-
matic bid to the championship meet.
The two other teams earning bids
from the region were Louisiana State
(194.700) and Auburn (194.200).
Michigan State finished fifth at
the region, but fell victim to Penn
State who won their region, but
whose score was lower than
Michigan State's.
BYU also fell victim to Penn
State. BYU'S score of 192.800 was
just behind the Wolverines for the
final at-large bid. Because of where
they were placed (in the Midwest
Regional) they were excluded.
These were Michigan' s top
finishers in the Men's Gym-
nastics Regionals this week-
end in Champaign.
Floor
Raul Molina, 9.6*
Pommel
Mike Mott, 8.85
Chris Onuska, 8.05
Parallel Bars
Royce Toni, 9.3
Bob Young, 8.95
High Bars
Rich Dopp, 9.75*
Kris Klinger, 9.725
Bob Young, 9.5*
*qualified for nationals.
tying one of their rac
Wolverines' novice boatsv
only big winners at the meet
the men's and the women
won three races apiece.
"The novices have row
well, and have improved s
week," Rothstein said. "Th
crews got a lot out of it s
racing was very intense.I
good workout if nothing else
Although both the m
women's varsity boats hadn
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