12- The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 25, 1994 Blue tumblers roll into Big Tens Men look to end fifty years of varsity status with conference title JUD iHt:HKINS/Daily have to overcome a tough Ohio State squad The men's gymnastics team will tomorrow at Big Tens. 'M' track opens outdoor season at 'Bamra Relays By JOSH KARP DAILY SPORTS WRITER The No. 5 Michigan men's gym- nastics team is trying to get a 19-year- old monkey off its back. That's how long it has been since the squad won its last Big Ten title. Competing in what appears to be their final season as a program, the Wolverines wouldn't mind ending it with a bang. "(Winning the Big Ten title)would be a nice footnote for the whole tradi- tion of Michigan," coach Bob Darden said. "It would validate all our efforts for the last 50 years." This weekend, along with host No. 10 Penn State, Michigan will compete with second-ranked and de- fending Big Ten champ Ohio State, No. 7 Iowa, No. 12 Illinois, No. 14 Minnesota and No. 17 Michigan State. "The conference historically has been very competitive," Darden said. "Any time you compete in a Big Ten championship, you know you're competing (against the best)." Although the Wolverines finished fifth in the conference last year, they have certainly turned things around. The team is ranked in the top ten nationally in every event. Thanks to the performances of Bob Young, Raul Molina, Rich Dopp and Brian Winkler, Michigan has moved from an average squad to a contender. Young stands 16th nationally in all-around average with a score of 56.38 and sports a ranking of tenth in the still rings (9.72). Molina, a junior who holds eigh- teenth place on floor exercise (9.69), says the team is prepared. "We're extremely ready," Molina said. "At practice going through (our routines), it looks too easy." Dopp and Winkler, both juniors, are tied for thirteenth on floor exer- cise (9.72). Winkler also leads the nation on parallel bars with a 9.77 Favored women prepare for fight from Penn State average. Michigan needs strong efforts from these four and the rest of the squad to come out on top. Otherwise, beating the opposition, in particular Ohio State, will be a difficult task. After nine meets, the Buckeyes have scored lower than 280 once, and that was in their first contest of the season. With three of the top six all- around performers - No. 1 Blaine Wilson, No. 2 Kip Simons and No. 6 Drew Durbin - Ohio State is in great position to repeat as conference champs. "(Ohio State is) the top of the heap," Darden said. " To have three guys (like Blaine, Kip and Drew gives Ohio State) a lot of firepower." The Buckeyes may be the best team of the crop, but the Wolverines did score a school-record 282.25 against them March 5 in Columbus. With this added confidence on its shoulders, Michigan knows it can compete with the best. It's back to work for the Michi- gan women's track and field team. After the regular season finale three weeks ago and the NCAA indoor championships, the Wolverines begin the outdoor season Saturday at the Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Michigan is coming off its most successful indoor season in over ten years. The team captured the Big Ten title and came in seventh place in nationals, including a first place finish in the distance medley relay. The outstanding success the Wolverines had in the indoor season should help them out in this spring. "Our indoor performance gives us a lot of confidence," assistant coach Patty Davis said. "We expect to do well. There are more events added to the outdoor season, which makes us stronger." The Wolverines hope their increased confidence will help them achieve their goal of winning another outdoor conference title. The team also hopes to qualify as many athletes as possible for nationals in June. As for this weekend's meet, the team plans to use it as an opener to see how they do in such outdoor events as the discus, javelin and heptathlon. "It will be an experience," Davis said. "There will be a lot of good competition and we hope to see strong performances from our squad." - Brian Sklar Perhaps no one is more thankful for the recent days of sunny weather than men's track and field head coach Jack Harvey, whose team begins its outdoor season this weekend at the Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa, Ala. "We're probably a little better outside than we've been in the past," Harvey comments. "We'vegotten more outdoor practice than in years past." Michigan isn't expecting many real problems with the Alabama Relays after its Big Ten win and de- cent showing in the NCAAs. Many plan to use this meet as a chance to identify and improve upon their weak- est points. High jumpers Jon Royce and Ben Ludka plan to treat this meet as a learning experience. "Ben and I are trying to define our technique," said Royce, who won the Big Ten high jump. Junior Felman Malveaux is excited about racing, especially since a foot injury which weakened his Big Ten performance in the 4x400 relay has healed completely. "I can't wait to get out there and be able to give it my all without having to worry about injury," Mal veaux said. Neal Gardner has also fully recu- perated from earlier groin and ham- string injuries which somewhat ham- pered his Big Ten performances. "The injuries aren't bothering me anymore," he said. "Everything's OK." - Eugene Bowen By TOM BAUSANO DAILY SPORTS WRITER The women's gymnastics team enters tomorrow's Big Ten Champi- onship at Penn State as a heavy favor- ite to win a third consecutive confer- ence title. In spite of their status, the No. 3 Wolverines aren't taking the competition lightly. Host Penn State (No. 12) will have a large crowd of supporters helping it along. "You can't ever rest on the past meets in gymnastics," coach Bev Plocki said. "If we start to make mistakes we will open the door for everyone else." Many of the gymnasts competing tomorrow were in the lineup last year when Michigan set a Big Ten record of 192.925. Junior Beth Wymer had a record- setting triple-Big Ten Championship performance capturing the beam, bars 0 and all-around titles. Sophomore Wendy Marshall captured all-Big Ten honors as a fresh- man, placing sixth in the all-around. "I guess people look at women's gymnastics as any other sport here at Michigan," Marshall said. "We' re just trying to catch up to the football team who won (five conference titles) in a row." Despite all the past experience of this squad, Plocki has designed this week's workouts to simulate meet conditions. It is her hope that these simulations will help the team deal with the pressure ofa big competition. "We are having the team warm up in the lineup order and practicing like its acompetition," Plocki said. "We're practicing with crowd noise and anything else we can think of to simulate meet situations." At this point in the season the gymnasts have polished their routines and posses the stamina to compete all out, according to junior LiLi Leung. "Physically were set and capable of hitting all of our routines," she said. "It's all a mental game at this point." Sophomore Tina Miranda concurred with her teammate that the mental aspect of the competition will be a key factor in the outcome. "It's real important that we don't let anyone break our concentration," Miranda said. "I think being away and knowing Penn State is real hungry will motivate us." The coaching staff and team are adamant that the future success of the program depends on team unity. Individual performances make up the final score, but the focus always re- mains on the team. "We're not going to win unless we go out there as a team," Marshall said. "Keeping the team together is more important than individual goals." 0 NCAA Continued from page 1 said. "I could see (Dolan) all the way. I wasn't really expecting to be that fast. I thought he was going to fade, but he didn't go away." In addition to Dolan's second- place finish, John Piersma (third), Chris Rumley (fifth), Marcel Wouda (eighth) and Rodney Van Tassell (16th) all scored in the event, giving the Wolverines a temporary 59-47 lead after two events. Michigan garnered another sec- ond-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle. Junior Gustavo Borges stormed off of the block and came home in :19.50. Stanford's Brian Retterer, the top seed going into the finals, squeaked out the victory with a time of :19.45. Borges was pleased with his swim. "I wasn't too confident this morning, but now I feel a lot (bet- ter)," Borges said. "I swam a much better race ... it's my best 50 (free) ever." In the final event of the night, the 400 medley relay, Michigan finished with a season-best 3:13.71. However, the time was only good enough for a fourth-place finish. Michigan only finaled in three events, but there were some outstand- ing swims. In the 200 freestyle relay, Stanford topped its own American record set during the morning preliminaries. Sophomore Joe Hudepohl anchored therelaywithasplitof:19.01 en route to the 1:16.93. "There's no better way to start this meet than with an American record," said Tyler Mayfield, who swam the relay's third leg. In the 200 individual medley, Florida's Greg Burgess repeated his victory from last year's NCAAs. Bur- gess fell short of his NCAA record by less than two-tenths of a second. In the fifth event of the night, one- meter diving, no Michigan divers made the finals. BASEBALL Continued from page 11 Big Ten selection last season, is 3-1 on the season with a 2.70 earned run average. In the remaining games of the series the Wolverines will face Scott Mudd (4-1, 3.08 ERA), Brian Partenheimer (2-0, 2.08) and Brian Greene (2-0, 4.58), respectively. Michigan will counter with Heath Murray (1-2, 5.83), Ray Ricken (1-3, 3.82), Ron Hollis (0-3,7.13) and Chris Newton (0-0, 5.82) on the mound. Even though its numbers aren't great, Freehan believes thathis pitching staff has not been a team weakness. "I think our pitching has been good," he said. "Our infield defense is causing some problems, especially in key games and close games." After a red-hot start at the plate, the Wolverines' bats cooled off some last weekend against Arizona State. Michigan was shut out for the first time this season in last Friday's game against the Sun Devils. To this point in the season, Scott Weaver is tops on the team with a .395 batting average and 10 runs bat- ted in. "We have the capability of being a good baseball team," Freehan said. "But we need to pick the ball up in the infield, and we need to make plays when we have pressure on us." 9 HOCKEY Continued from page 11 statistics would be more impressive if it were not for struggles with the No. 1 ranked Boston University Terriers. The Huskies lost five of six to the Terriers, including 8-0 and 9-3 drubbings. The Lakers are led by Blaine Lacher, who recently set an NCAA record with 375:01 consecutive score- less minutes. That stretch included five consecutive shutouts. Lacher holds a record of 15-4-4, and has an incredible 1.86 GAA. "Michigan knows I can beat them," a dejected Lacher said after losing the CCHA championship game. If things go as planned, though, the Michigan seniors will extend their ca- reers by one week and the Wolverines will. pack their bags to take one more shot at reaching the promised land. 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