8 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 20, 1994 Wolverine tumblers duel Broncos at Keen By JOSH KARP DAILY SPORTS WRITER Save men's gymnastics. This phrase is pasted all over cam- pus, as Coach Bob Darden and his team hope to keep a varsity sport which celebrates its 50th anniversary at the University this season. "Once you start chipping away at tradition, everybody suffers some- what," Darden explained. This weekend's meet vs. Western Michigan atCliff Keen Arena will show the importance of the men's gymnas- tics program, and may turn a few influencial heads as well. "We've extended an invitation to the regents and (President Duderstadt)," Darden said. "We want them to just get a feel for our sport. Beyond that, we want them to see the interest level of the spectators that come. We want them to know that there is an interest for the sport of gymnastics at Michigan." Besides the added pressure of hav- ing the eyes of the regents and president upon them, the gymnasts will have to go out and compete against a Western squad which should not be overlooked. "They have a pretty good strength in vault," Darden said. "It looks like they're doing higher difficulty vaults than the norm would have." "Western has Jeff Kraft who works all-around," Darden stated. "He is a super performer on pommel horse. John Hamilton (is also excellent) on pommel horse." Some members of the Michigan team are looking at the competition differently though. "We're (using this meet) to get our- selves geared up for Illinois (next week- end),"junior Rich Dopp said. "It's kind of atwo-week training session (forus)." "We're gonna have a good meet and beat Western Michigan," senior Seth Rubin added. "We're not taking Western lightly by any means, but we're gonna try a couple of new things in the lineup." One of the beneficiaries of this lineup fiddling could possibly be jun- ior Royce Toni, who has yet to com- pete this year due to back problems. Last year, the Wolverines beat the Broncos by a count of 267.65-261.60, and to continue their success against Western, Darden says his squad needs to score better in two particular events. "The events that really have his- torically given us problems have been parallel bars and rings," Darden, explained. "The strength of our rou- tines haven't been where we wanted them." "Our goal is to have our top three performers being the top three on each event," Darden added. "(We want) to win each of the events." In addition to prevailing in the events, the team hopes to capture the attention of those watching, because fifty years just isn't enough. Men's track travels to East Lansing for three way By ELISA SNEED DAILY SPORTS WRITER When is a 'quadrangular' really a 'triangular'? On Saturday, when the Michigan men's track team travels to East Lan- sing for the Michigan State Quadran- gular it will find out. The quadrangular was supposed to have been a four-team event, but due to the cancellation by Ohio State, only Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State will compete in the season's first scoring meet. Michigan will be trying to improve upon last year's third-place meet finish behind OSU and Penn State. Assistant coach Kent Bernard indicated that the absence of the Buckeyes - last year's winners - would be of some advan- tage to the Wolverines. "(We're looking forward to) win- ning," he said. "Ohio State would have been the toughest team there. We expect to do well." Head coach Jack Harvey agreed. " We're fairly sure we can beat Michigan State - we did last year - but it will be a tough matchup with Penn State," he said. If the teams are similar to last years squads, the Wolverines and the Nittany Lions will indeed be evenly matched. Penn State placed sixth in the confer- ence in the indoor season, and Michi- gan finished eighth. In the outdoor sea- son the teams tied for seventh. The Wolverines hope that their best will be better than the Nittany Lions'. "Penn State is a lot like us," Harvey said. "They've got a lot of decent people all over." Junior Tyrone Wheatley is still un- available to the track team for this meet. "Wheatley won't run this week- end," Bernard said. "Hopefully, he will before the Big Ten meet. "His former teammate Felman Malveaux should make a good ac- count of himself in the 55 meter though." Bernard said that he thoughtMichi- gan, as a team, would be strong all around. Sophomore Todd Burnham, who won the 400 meter at Eastern Michi- gan last weekend, agreed. "Practices have been like gaining momentum," he said. "Everyone is getting excited forthe upcoming meet." The Michgan gymnasts hope to impress the Broncos and possibly the regents Saturday at Cliff Keen Arena. BLUE Grapplers need more production AT TERS from 118, 126,134 weight classes By RYAN WHITE DAILY SPORTS WRITER If the last week is any indication, it's liable to be a bumpy road through the rest of season for the No. 4 Michigan wrestling team. After strong individual performances at the St. Louis and Northern Opens, a fourth place team finish at the Las Vegas Classic and a 3-0 start in dual meets, the Wolverines have lost two of their last three contests. These losses will almost definitely drop them in the polls when the new rankings come out Jan. 26. Last Saturday, Michigan lost to No. 7 Penn State, but re- bounded to defeat Lehigh on Sunday. Wednesday night the Wolverines lost to Michigan State. The loss was the first to the Spartans in nine years. The two losses exposed what's going to be the team's weakness all year - inexperience in its first three weight classes 118, 126, and 134 pounds. It's that inexperience that Michigan is going to have to counter if it is going to realize its hope of Big Ten and national championships. "I've been worried since Christmas about our first three," Coach Dale Bahr said."I look at those and I cross my fingers when we 'go out there to wrestle." The three wrestlers, Matt Stout (118), Andy Behm (126),. and Bryan Sosinski (134) all lost their matches against Michi- gan State and Penn State. As a result Michigan started the meet against the Nittany Lions down, 20-0, and against the Spartans, the Wolverines were down, 14-0, before they scored their first points. Stout has seen limited action the past two seasons due to both injury and sharing the duties with other wrestlers. Behm was redshirted last season and is wrestling now because Brandon Howe, the starter at 126, tore his anterior cruciate ligament earlier this month. Sosinski, after two years on the team, is also seeing his first action. "It's tough when you lose your first four matches," Bahr said after Wednesday night's loss to Michigan State. "It puts all the pressure on your last six wrestlers" While Michigan's lineup features some high caliber talent, Sean Bormet at 158 and heavyweight Steve King leading the way, it won't always be able to save the day for the team. This past week has proven that. The Wolverines also have another problem in that more experienced wrestlers are not winning matches that they are supposed to. Both Mike Ellsworth (142) and Jesse Rawls Jr. (177) have lost their last three matches. "Jesse is struggling," Bahr commented. "For some reason or another he's lost his confidence, and it shows out there. "I've seen him wrestle Bormet tooth and nail. They could go all night and be even, but right now that's not the case." Michigan has a lot of potential but the Wolverines are going have to get production from Ellsworth and Rawls, as well as improvement from the first three weight classes, if the season is to be a success. "We can't change anything now," Bahr said. "We just have to go with those guys, keep working hard, and see what we can do." Hopefully they can smooth the road ahead of them. ,memo NOW when you buy TWO pizzas with TWO toppings* for $m8m'.' Women gymnasts visit Bahamas By TIM SMITH DAILY SPORTS WRITER They're going to the Bahamas, but this won't just be a day at the beach. Although the Michigan women's gymnastics team is in the Bahamas this week in preparation for tomorrow's Bahama Sunshine Invitational, fun in the sun is not the main objective. Since the meet is the team's second of the season, it is primarily needed to get the kinks out and help the team get into the swing of things in time for the Big Ten season. "Really the first three meets of the season to me are like full blown intrasquads," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "They are able to give us indications of where we need work, and it gives the kids a little bit of experience so that they can build con- fidence." The Invitational is an event prima- rily for private club gymnasts between the ages of eight and 16 who want to showcase their talents. However, this year is the first year that college teams are invited to the competition. The Wolverines will square off against the Iowa Hawkeyes. The two teams will compete only against each other, so coach Plocki hopes that the Michigan gymnastics program will catch the attention of some aspiring young gymnasts. "All of those private club kids who are there competing in their private club meet will come and watch the University of Michigan compete against Iowa," Plocki said. "This is good for us from a recruiting stand- point." Although the team did pretty well in the first meet, according to Plocki, there are a few things that the coach would like to see ironed out in the Invitational. "Judging from out first competi- tion, I would say that we need to do more under pressure on the'balance beam and we need to do the same thing on the floor exercise," she said. "I think our vaulting and our bars went very well in the first meet, and the areas that we had mistakes weren't big mistakes. They were usually small mental er- rors." The team should be improved with the return of sophomore Diana Rinelli, who is back after a week off to recuperate from a minor knee injury. "Just having Diana in the lineup could make about a point and a half difference in our team scores," Plocki said. Junior Kelly Carfora said that the squad must do better, and feels that it could use new techniques to help en- sure victory. "We hope to improve upon last weekend's performance," Carfora said. "We're going to throw in some new skills, but with the new judging sys- tem, it will be a little bit more difficult this year." "I hope it's going to be a fun trip, because it's part of the reason we're doing it," Plocki added. "I will have restrictions on the amount of sun that they can get because it can fatigue you. Hopefully, we'll have some other ac- tivities and do some things that are fun, though." I Excludes e a cheese. Offer available at participating cony-ot stores. Bonus Pizza includes cheese and pepperoni and is available wih any medium or large Pizzol Pizzo purchase. Ask for details. 01993 LC. E., Inc. I 5 - mmmmmmmmlw SERVING U of M AT TWO LOCATIONS MICHIGAN UNION DINE-IN NORTH CAMPUS Lower Level COMMONS 6652034 OR- M BEST VA E COUPON mm wi eese anopping COMBO I IPANC! Cra CCrazyySauce !I ! S an a16oz SftDrn Volleyball searches for consistency in . weekend journey to Hoosier State By DAN McKENZIE and MELINDA ROCO DAILY SPORTS WRITERS Just win, baby. The Michigan men's volleyball team hopes that it can live up to that popular saying as it heads into a big weekend in Indiana. The Wolverines take on Tri-State tomorrow night in Angola and travel to Bloomington Sat- urday to play in the Indiana Tourna- ment. Despite beginning the season with lems with team unity and communica- tion. "Our brilliance came when things connected," Lee said. "But you may have noticed that a lot of players saw time in the Purdue match and that makes it difficult to create a team chemistry." Lee was not the only one who felt that the numerous substitutions caused some problems for Michigan., "Our consistency was incredibly weak,"outside hitter Mike Rubin said. "We need to hit the floor running in- the lineup changes occurring, what we want to do now is establish the middle hitters as a major part of the offense." Griffin scheduled an extra day of practice this week in preparation for the tournament. "This weekend is a good chance for the teams involved to get a first look at each other," Griffin said. "We'll be able to see all the teams in the Big Ten, except for Northwestern and Minne- sota, as well as Kentucky, Kansas and Virginia Tech.