The Michigan Daily/New Student Edition-Sports -Thursday, September 9, 1993 - Page 5 Michigan swimming takes home Big Ten Wouda leads men to eighth straight conference championship and second place fn y Brett Johnson level." conference, winning its eighth straight NCAA championship meet with high ended with Michigan winning a Daily Sports Writer The season went exactly according title.'TheWolverinesonly dropped three expectations. Things almost fell apart tional title in the 800 free relay. It w There was only one goal for the to plan. events the whole weekend. on the second day of competition, tremendousraceandtheteamofWa Michigan men's swimming and diving During the dual meet season, the Sophomore Marcel Wouda, com- though. After electing to not swim the Rodney VanTassell, Gunn and Ba team coming into last season. It was not Wolverines continued their dominance peting in his first Big Ten champion- 200-yard freestyle relay on Thursday gave the team a much needed boo a Big Ten title. That was already a overopponentsgoing 5-0intheBigTen ship, dominated the competition, win- due to the unlikelihood of making the foregone conclusion. No, the Wolver- and 7-1 overall. The undefeated Big ning three events en route to being final heats, Michigan needed as many ines set their goals much higher. The Ten season improved the school's con- named Big Ten Swimmer of the Year. points as it could get in order to defeat 'The best we can hop teamwaslooking foratopthree,prefer- ference record to 54-3 during Rookie Royce Sharp captured Big Ten Texas. However, the Wolverines dis- for is to challenge Te ably a top two, finish at the NCAA Urbanchek's 11-year coaching career. Freshman of the Year by winning two qualified their 200 medley relay team for second place. *championships. The team's only loss came in a tight events and finishing second in another. during the first heat of Friday's compe- Stanford is head and "The best we can hope for is to battle in Palo Alto to the eventual na- Sophomore Gustavo Borges was also a tition. challenge Texas for second place," tional champion, Stanford. three event winner, senior Eric "That was just one of those freak shoulders above Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek said. By the time March came around, Wunderlich won two events and senior mental errors," Urbanchek said. everybody else at the "Stanford is about head and shoulders Michigan was in top form. The team Brian Gunn took home one victory. Although the team was down, it was NCAA level.'' above everybody else at the NCAA continued its domination in the Big Ten The Wolverines headed into the certainly not out. The Friday session -Jon Urbanc ,"'. . 'w> 't' '. ' ""' . .. ".'ss . Michigan swimming co trophies ish at NCAAs na- was a ouda, rges ~st, e xas hek ach began to extend its lead. It was Wouda's second individual title at the meet. The team ended up finishing second, beat-' ing the Longhorns by 70 points. In addition toWouda's two individual titles and the relay title, Borges and Wunderlich also were crowned as indi- vidual national champions in the 100 freestyle and 200 breaststroke, respec- tively. Following the Big Ten season, some Michigan swimmers competed in the Phillips 66 National Swimming Cham- pionships in April. Sharp hit the water in his best event, the 200-meter backstroke. Sharp, the American record-holder in the 200 back, had finished third in the equivalentyard's eventatthe BigTen meet. Itwas-hisfirst meters swim since the summer he com- peted in the Barcelona Olympics, and he was victorius. Fellow Olympian Eric Namesnik also swam in his best event, the -400 IM -- and came home with a victory. After Friday's session, the Wolver- ines held a slight eight-point edge on Texas for second place, and they were just not going to let that lead go. In the firsteventon Saturday, Wouda won the 1,650 freestyle, and Michigan n4' Michigan sophomore Marcel Wouda swims freestyle at Michigan State. Wouda was named conference championship meet. I EAT Tr n LUWMANU i y Big Ten Swimmer of the Year in winning three events at the Women finish a surprising fifth nationally after taking Big Ten by Charlie Breitrose Daily Sports Writer Slow and steady - that's how the tortoise won its famed race with the hare, and that was also how the Michi- gap women's swimming and diving team achieveditshighest finish in school history at the NCAA championships. The Wolverines arrived in Minne- apolis, coming off their seventh con- Osecutive Big Ten championship, pre- dicted by most to finish tenth at the NCAA meet. However, Michigan out- distanced almost everyone's expecta- tions with the team's fifth place finish. Lara Hooiveld and Mindy Gehrs had much to do with the Wolverines' impressive finish. Hooiveld, who will enter her junior season this fall, won both the 100and200yard breaststrokes, Stting theU.S.OpenandNCAArecord in the 100. Gehrs, a 1993 graduate, triumphed in the 400 individual med- ley. The divers also made a valuable contribution at the NCAAs. Junior Cinamon Woods took second in the 10 meter platform event. All this did not look likely after the Wolverines' sluggish start. Coach Jim Richardson seemingly was the only person who would dare to predict the top five finish after his team dropped dual meets to Tennessee and Penn State in November. Things started to turn around at the beginning of December. Michigan won the Speedo Collegiate Cup, far outdis- tancing second-place Iowa. In the com- petition,Michigan qualified three swim- mers for the NCAA meet, thus taking the pressure off and starting them on the road to success. ButinRichardson's opinion, thekey to the Wolverinesperformance in March was the training trip to Hawaii during winter break. Richardson called it "the best two weeks of training we've ever had." Thne enture team endured grueling work- outs two times a day, and it paid off as the Wol- verines won the RainbowInvita- tional. conference meet by pounding North- western, who was expected to give the Wolverines a run fortheir money in the title chase. It was all down hill from there. Michi- gan glided through the remainder of its dual meet schedule in preparation for Big Tens. Northwestern came to Ann Arbor for the Big Ten meet, and showed people why many coaches had picked them to win the conference. The Wildcats be- gan strong, led by their sprint freestylers, and gave the Wolverines a run for their money. Michigan's depth in thebreaststroke, backstroke, IM's and diving was too much for Northwestern. Michigan won 10 events and current junior Alecia Humphrey was named Swimmer of the Meet. KRAZY JIM'S BL IMPY BURGER EST. 1953 CELEBRATING OUR 40TH YEAR! Voted "BestBur ger in Michigan Daly readership poll Open Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-lOp.m. 551 S. Division at Packard " 663-4590 DINE IN OR CARRY OUT . ,: Hooiveld The hard work also provided divi- dends when the team returned to the mainland. Michigan gave the confer- ence a taste of what to expect at the r# #. M -A l k i U of M'stop draft pick. O M Slp Imagine what you'd be doing this weekend if only you had a pilot's license. t: I I a' d p':o o rn JAMES C MORRISON Y.f} 'ICr'4. ,STAFF Q3difd AMTfCA 152 001 t AR 5 If you've always wanted to experience the thrill of flying. now's the time. Come get a taste of flying with the University of Michigan Flyers fir ing club. 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