The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, February 14, 1994 - 7
*Blue wrestlers fall to No. 1 Gophers
Injuries are main story as Wolverines continue downward slide
By BARRY SOLLENBERGER
'DAILY SPORTS WRITER
The injury-riddled No. 22 Michi-
Jan wrestling team dropped a 24-13
decision to top-ranked Minnesota Fri-
day in Minneapolis.
The Golden Gophers (7-0 Big Ten,
17-1 overall) figured to give Michi-
gan trouble. After all, they had al-
ready defeated No.6 Nebraska, No.2
Oklahoma State and No. 3 Iowa (the
Big Ten conference champions the
past 20 seasons).
Furthermore, the Wolverines (1-
6-7), once ranked No. 4, wrestled
without three starters. Freshman Bran-
don Howe (126 pounds) and junior
Jehad Hamdan (190) are out for the
season with kneeinjuries. Athird starter,
sophomore Jesse Rawls, Jr. (177), did
not wrestle due to an infected knee.
"Overall, I think that the kids
wrestled fairly well and, of course,
we had anticipated taking Jesse,"
coach Dale Bahr said.
Rawls injured his knee Jan. 18
againstMichigan State and has wrestled
sparingly ever since. Bahrexpected him
to be in the lineup against Minnesota
but his knee swelled up on Wednesday
and he is out of action indefinitely.
Friday night, Minnesota was able
to grab an early 11-0 lead by winning
the first three weight classes. At 118,
Brandon Paulson defeated Matt Stout,
8-3, to open the match. The Gophers
then were victorious in the next two
weight classes by major decision.
Tim Harris beat Andy Behm (126)
and Chris Berglin decisioned Bryan
Sosinski (134) by scores of 17-6 and
11-3 respectively.
Mike Ellsworth (142) finally got
Michigan on the board by narrowly
defeating Jeff Thompson, 3-2.
"Ellsworth helped turn the tide with
a win at 142," Bahr said. "I was happy
to see him wrestle well."
Michigan's success, however, was
short-lived. In one of the two feature
matches of the evening, Minnesota's
Willy Short, ranked No. 1 at 150
pounds, downed sixth-ranked Brian
Harper, 5-2. The victory gave the
Golden Gophers a 14-3 lead.
"I thought that Harper wrestled a
pretty good match, but Short is just a
really good wrestler," Bahr said. "He
hasn't lost yet this season."
Despite trailing by 11, the Wolver-
ines were not finished.
All-American Sean Bormet (158)
cut the Minnesota lead to 14-7 by
pounding Zac Taylor, 12-2. Though
Bormet is now 23-1 and second-ranked
in his weight class, he had struggled in
recentweeks.
"I was glad to see Bormet wrestle
like I know he is capable," Bahr said.
"I think he broke out of the funk that
he was in."
The two teams then split the next
two matches with Michigan's Chad
Biggert (167) dropping a 12-4 deci-
sion to Zac Taylor and the Wolver-
ines' Kevin Williams (177) winning
by injury default.
Going into the last two weight
classes, Michigan only trailed 18-13.
But at 190, Darren Andy nipped
LanreOlabisi, 5-4, effectively ending
the Wolverines' chances.
The Golden Gophers' Billy Pierce,
ranked third in the heavyweight divi-
sion, defeated No. 4 Steve King, 2-1,
in the meet's second feature match to
close out the scoring.
"The only difference in the King
match was apenalty point," Bahr said.
"In the heavyweight division it often
comes down to who pushes and shoves
the most and King just got pushed a
little more."
Despite the rash of injuries, Bahr
said he is looking forward to the
postseason.
"My goal is to get through the dual
meets to the Big Tens and Nationals
and I think the kids are starting to feel
this way also," Bahr said.
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
Chad Biggert and the injury-plagued Wolverines will face Wisconsin and
Indiana over the weekend.
SPORTS SHORTS
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
night in Minnepolis.
Michigan's Brian Harper and his teammates were overpowered by top-ranked Minnesota Friday1
0Harper himself lost to No. 1 Willy Short.
:Women's track team blows by Big Ten rivals
By BRIAN SKLAR
FOR THE DAILY
During the course of a season, there
are expected to be times where a team
runs into some trouble. But so far this
Oseason, the women's track and field
-team has not encountered any such prob-
lems. The team has displayed outstand-
ing performances since the season's
inception and is showing no signs of
slowing down, as evidenced by the
'Wolverines' victory in the Michigan
State quadrangular meet on Saturday in
East Lansing.
Michigan dominated nearly every
.event in the meet and finished with a
total score of 78 points. Finishing
second was Penn State with a score of
45,followed by Michigan State with
5, and Notre Dame with 15.
Highlighting the Michigan victory
was Courtney Babcock, who auto-
matically qualified for the NCAA in-
door championships later in the sea-
son. Babcock ran the 5,000 meter run
in 16:11.96 seconds. Babcock's vic-
tory added to her list of personal
achievement, having already earned
All-American status this year.
However, Babcock was not the
only bright spot for the Wolverines'
running corps. The runners finished
firstdr second in 10of the 11 possible
events, including eight first-place fin-
ishes.
Sprinter Richelle Webb won the
55-meter dash with a time of 7.17
seconds. Jessica Klunge and Kristine
Westerby also ran well, winning the
800-meter run and the 600-meter run,
respectively.
In the distance events, Molly
McClimon performed well, winning
both the mile run and the 3,000-meter
run. McClimon finished the mile in
4:44.47 seconds and the 3,000 with a
mark of 9:40.07 seconds. She has al-
ready qualified for the NCAAs in the
5,000-run and the 3,000-meter run.
McClimon said she was happy with
her performance, but has been disap-
pointed with the lack of competition the
team has faced this season.
"We've been racing the clock so far
this season," she said.
The Wolverines did not fare as
well in the field events. Shot putter
Rhonda Meyers was the only member
of the field team to win her event. She
threw a distance of 14.18 meters. Still,
Meyers was not completely satisfied
with her performance.
"My distance was pretty good but
my technique was bad," said Meyers.
"I'm missing an important part of my
throw where I need to lock my leg.
Once I get it right I should throw two
to three inches more."
Penn State's Holly Jones won the
high jump with a height of 5 feet, 8
inches. Michiganjumpers Linda Stuck
and Monica Black tied for second
place with jumps of 5 feet, 6 inches.
Tops in No-Hitters
HOUSTON (AP)- The Houston
Astros are the leaders in no-hit games
over the past three decades.
Since 1962, the Astro pitchers have
fired nine no-hitters, the latest being
Darryl Kile's no-hitter in 1993.
The California Angels and Los
Angeles Dodgers are tied for second
place. Each club has had eight no-
hitters by its pitchers.
Two New Fields
NEW YORK(AP)-This will be the
inaugural season fortwo new majorleague
ballparks, both with natural grass.
In Cleveland, the new stadium is
part of the $362 million Gateway
Sports-Entertainment Complex. The
ball park is replacing Municipal Sta-
dium, where the Cleveland Indians
played from 1933 to 1993. It will
have a seating capacity of 41,911.
Also scheduled to open this year is the
new parkin Arlington, Texas, adjacent to
Arlington Stadium where theTexas Rang-
ers have played their home games.
Known as "The Ballpark" it will
have a seating capacity of 48,100.
Brother Acts
NEW YORK (AP)-- There have
been 184 sets of brothers, including
five sets of twins, in the 74 years the
NFL has been in existence.
The brother combinations playing
in 1993 were the Sharpes, Sterling
and Shannon, who were wide receiv-
ers; and the Widells, Dave and Doug,
at offensive guard.
Shannon Sharpe and Dave Widell
played for the Denver Broncos. Ster-
ling Sharpe and Doug Widell were
with the Green Bay Packers.
The all-time family record belongs
to the Nessers of Columbus, Ohio,
who had six brothers at one time or
another in the NFL.
I. I
Eastern edges men's track by a point
By TOM SEELEY
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
When Michigan hosted the 14-
team, 68th Annual Central Colle-
giate Conference Championships Sat-
urday, sophomore high jumper Jon
Royce's achievement in his event
turned out to be a metaphor for the
rest of the Michigan indoor track
team's performance.
With the rhythmic claps of the home-
town crowd encouraging him, Royce
proceeded to leap a season-best 7 feet,
3.25 inches, in what Michigan coach
Jack Harvey called a "breakthrough"
performance. But in the end, as it is
bound to happen in the high jump,
Royce came up a little short on the three
attempts at his final height, a height that
would have automatically qualified him
for the NCAA Championships.
This scenario played itself out for
the entire Michigan team as, despite an
*effort that included six first-place fin-
ishes, in the end the squad fell one point
short to Eastern Michigan 138.5 -
137.5.
The two teams battled neck-and-
neck for the top spot throughout the
day, and Harvey was able to look past
the original disappointment of a close
second-place finish to express his plea-
sure with efforts put forth by his team.
"I thought we performed real well"
Harvey said."We had some areas where
we maybe expected a little more and
didn't get it, but overall it was a good
team effort.
Aside from Royce's performance,
which earned him athlete of the meet
honors, the highlight of the day was the
victory by the Wolverines 4 x 400-
meter relay team. In winning the race,
the team of sophomore Felman
Malveaux, freshman Ricky Turner,
sophomore Todd Burnham, and sopho-
more Trinity Townsend qualified for
the NCAA tournament.
The final leg matched Townsend
againstEastern'sAll-American Tommy
Asinga. The two took their batons at
almost exactly the same moment and
headed for the first turn. With Townsend
on Asinga's right shoulder, Asinga ap-
peared to elbow Townsend as they
rounded the turn,causing Townsend to
temporarily lose his stride, putting him
five meters back.
However, Townsend did not slow
down, and he outsprinted Asinga to
finish 0.2 seconds ahead. Townsend
said he was confident he could over-
take Asinga if it was close at the end.
"I knew my kick was better than his,"
Townsend said. "I just figured if I stuck
with him when we came out of the turn, I
could get him on the straight-away.
Townsend said that despite the loss,
the team is very upbeat going into the
Big Ten Championships which Michi-
gan is hosting in two weeks.
"It's a new Michigan. We're just
ready to beat everyone."
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