THE MICHIGAN DAILY NEW STUDENT EDITION SPORTS THURSDAY, SEPTEM .. :, Ors~***y .t ., ran sF-S '' , . ry w< f ti. {h . +3i(Fch !-r~$ avifi thf ~ r t> < y r F. > 5 fl'r"'4',J> BrianWiseman th Mihia hoke tea wr rane No. fo muc of th esnadwtoowntefirt CCApaofttlei.colhsoy Senirs fee weight cr ofr loin toF'F..$ La:.4 h I gues yo could sa the'r ou chle crer go to wa . hel, Stn said.;.in { > .(.:} 2 Bu ytm there he stod among.rw1"£f v-hoketolern ' man yea when th Lakrs tl an' ovrti m he$/FI a rt-°fy'ss ' l~'aate attebu"iei rae rmteWlei e65rn teCH MunnIce rena wathin ths famlia men , ing blue wit No onei nede to remin thi yerssnoso ItsSoeadhsseirRSNED 9 sason Mihia plye th Laerdos o anchrs n teirchets. AESN teireeknd srie inSaut Se. Mriein he 991 classmates~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ whaeteFl fFia ih n te odild 00 h etngt wegtoftewol nthi rem iciaotisreeg hat yearwhenLak Agin hosigaCH dow hi>at.Hsfc a ordfo cemn osst h aes he loke lie a asbo ty tat nvermad it- Thn a juior, th fie dd smethng hatthe Brasn satead inthe tunigne ihe teammatre sume iN a frmuow wondeino aeont wen everfrtCH lyf iteicolhsoy Andke probedd' esreiably thoughtg to himself, "I can't "(hbsnos)mdlacmientlvtse the Lak er,30 It wasn't uppsedv to e ale hsfo thee. eds Berenso.ad"Ooteytogt Duae t e rrantonesret, meebany ncing Ann Ineeltyd, the eniors cae outn ofeese But thxagtrtre o eroihgno Arovrinhout oth itladn't. Chnet2rprtd baing yandteWvrns sentan casfrouyeary mesg toe taSudyi M ar thatitne haderne scoredt they winnin goa onpth Lakerswt - itr o.5i al Stae h aeseth~leieweicutd wrap-aron'dsrv Maie And thisgh time thek senor do'thaeoiivtwthi Imte oul he belumoe fittin endng brandr wrmheLae Stateroled65 in te Ann Arbr oumr t it wasn't reality. TWiseman set off a mob celebration with an over- They have to live with it for the rest of their Reality featured Rob Valicevic rocketing a time goal, giving the Wolverines a 4-3 triumph. lives. slapshot from 10 feet inside the blue line past Michigan completed a season sweep the following "it's a hard end to a season," Wiseman said. senior goalie Steve Shields 2:31 into over- night, 5-2. "Especially when you're never going to put this time. But as the postseason approached, the Lakers jersey on again." Reality also featured Shields struggling to field started getting hot. A moment later, Wiseman stared up towards the press-conference questions like, "Did you see that And Michigan started worrying. ceiling and closed his eyes, fighting off tears. last shot?" or "Do you remember what happened "There's no doubt they're in the back of our It was all too much. on the third goal?" minds, especially the seniors," Oliver said the Because the Lakers have laughed last. "Nope," Shields answered to the latter, staring weekend before the CCHA finals. "They've Again. blankly into the crowd of reporters. He was prob- knocked us out three years in a row." WBER 8, 1994 r Page,7F Hockey Icers playoff champs for first time ever By MICHAEL ROSENBERG Daily Hockey Writer So. You're coming to Ann Arbor, You've probably heard all about Heisman Trophy candidate Tyrone Wheatley and the Fab Five (not to mention National Rifle Association Man of the Year candidate Shonte Peoples and drinking buddies Jimmy King and Ray Jackson). But you prob- ably haven't heard a peep about an- other Michigan team that spent most of the season at the top of the polls and came within a sneeze of winning the national title -- hockey. Yes, the Wolverines are a national hockey power and no, they don't play their game on the Diag, although at times people think they could. Actu- ally, Michigan competes in Yost Ice Arena, one of the oldest and largest college-owned hockey facilities in the nation with a capacity of 8,100 seats, Recent renovations have made Yost a top notch arena, as much. as recent improvements have made Michigan a top-notch team. Since former Wolver- ine Red Berenson took the coaching reins in 1984, Michigan has climbed from being a sub-.500 team to being a national powerhouse. In the past three years, Berenson's club has picked up enough honors to fill the Graduate Li- brary. During that time the Wolverines have won two Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) regular season titles and one CCHA postsea- son championship. Michigan has been ranked No. tin the nation during each of the past three seasons and reached the national semi- finals in 1992 and 1993. Michigan would have made it to a third straight national seminal this year had it been able to eke out a victory over archrival Lake Superior State in the quarterfinal's. But in a tightly con- tested thriller, the Wolverines fell, 5-4, in overtime. The Lakers went on to win the national championship. Still, it was a remarkable season for Berenson's troops. The Wolverines were supposed to be rebuilding after losing their entire first line and top four defensemen to graduation or the NHL. But, led by seniors Brian Wiseman, David Oliver, Mike Stone and Steve Shields along with nine talented freshmen, Michigan ex-* ceeded even Berenson 's expectations. After tying its CCHA opener at Bowl- ing Green, Michigan won 16 straight conference victories - a streak that was snapped on Jan. 21 by Michigan State, The Wolverines faced no seri- ous challenge in the CCHA race and wrapped up the regular season title Feb. 12 - the earliest any team had clinched the title'since 1985. With nothing left to play for,, Michigan dropped four of its last five games and also lost its grip on the nation's top ranking, which it had± held for over three months. The team, however, got back on" track in the CCHA tournament, win-' ning the first postseason conference title in school history. The victory was especially sweet because Michigan beat Lake State for the championship. The Lakers had knocked Michigan out of the last three CCHA tournaments. A week later in the NCAA tourna- ment, Lake State got its revenge. De- spite that disappointment the Wolver- ines garnered several awards-Oliver;' CCHA Player of the Year; Brendan' Morrison, CCHA Rookie of the Year; Stone, Defensive Player of the year;F and Shields, the conference's best goaltender. Wiseman, Shields and Oliver were also named first team all- conference. Top returnees for Michigan are se- nior Mike Knuble, and sophomores- Morrison and Jason Botterill. Th o v rn swl l oa d oeof the nation's top recruiting classes,'E led by goalie Marty Turco, the NHIL's Central Scouting Bureau's ninth- ranked player in Lhis year's NHL draft. Other recruits are forwards Robb Gordon, Matt Herr, Bill Muckalt, and defenseman Marty Turco, Swimming supreme By DARREN EVERSON Daily Sports Writer. As successful as Michigan athletics have been over the past decade, no sports program here has bee n as consistently dom inapt as the swimming and duving teams. The men's and women's squads have won 17 consecutive Big Ten championships between them, and their stranglehold over the rest of the conference is only getting tighter. Led by junior Alecia Humphrey and a trio of freshman All-Big Ten swimmers, the womnens team ran away with the conference drown in February. Humphrey, a seven time All-American,. has been named Big Ten Fema le Swimmer of the Yearthe last two years. All Rachel Gustin, Anne K~ampfe and Melisa Stone were asked to do was come in asfreshmen anid pickupo Women's Gymnastics Women hi grab best-( By TIM SMITH Daily Sports Writer While finishing fourth may not seem like a good consolation, for the 1993- 94 women's gymnastics team it was almost as good as winning the gold. The Wolverines, whose previous best national finish was ninth, had their best season ever which culminated in a fourth place finish in the "Super Six" at the NCAA championships. Michigan coach Bev Plocki knew ~he beginning of the year that the team had what it took to make it that far, and kept the goal of reaching the NCAA. Super Six as a motivator all year. "When Bev set that (reaching the Super Six) as our goal, I wasn't sure mblers win Big Ten, ever finish at NCAAs where the graduating seniors left off. Each won a race at Big Tens, and the Wolverines remained among the nation's elite, finishing eighth at the NCAA Championships. The Michigan men, meanwhile, came back from a few early season setbacks to win their ninth straight Big Ten title. The Wolverines, led all season by Gustavo Borges, Tom Dlolan end Royce Sharp, went on to place third at NCAAs. Borges, a 1992 Olympic silver medalist in the 100- meter freestyle, won that event and the 200-freestyle at nationals. The principals responsible forthe Wolverine dominance are coaches Jon Urbanchek and Jim Richardson. Richardson,the women's coach, has wone the conference title every year he's been here, while Urbanchektook the men's team close to national championship. Women -run their wa to 'triple crown' By EUGENE BOWEN Daily Sports Writer If the Michigan women's track and field team did anything this past sea-, son, it was break records, Under the guidance of their senior tri-captains, Richelle Webb, Laura Jerman and Jessica Kluge, the Wolver- ines seemed invincible during their in- door season. Eleven women qualified for the in- door NCAA's this year. The team won seventh place and had seven All-Ameri- cans -- both University records. One highlight was the distance medley team comprised of junior, Courtney Babcock, and seniors Webb, Molly McClimon and Kristine Westerby setting a United States all had that success. We always knew that we were one of the best, but now we proved it to ourselves and the coun- try." Along with Wymer, sophomore Wendy Marshall and junior All-Ameri- can Kelly Carfora were instrumental in the Wolverines success this year. Marshall turned in many excellent per- formances on the vault, while Carfora scored consistently high in the all- around this year. The team's road to the Super Six was full of many exciting and dominat- ing meets along the way. In mid-February, the Wolverines dominated a two meet weekend se- ries against Western Michigan and -T. x..1.. .1:,1. .. ......- L .L title. The team faced the tough chal- lenge of going in front of a large crowd in State College who were cheering for their second-seeded Nittany Lions. Michigan, however, came through with a high-pressure performance on the balance beam and narrowly defeated Penn State to claim its third-straight title. The Big Tens also marked the emergence of a future star in Michigan's Andrea McDonald, as she was voted Big Ten Rookie of the Year in a post- meet awards ceremony. Plocki also received some recognition by being voted Coach of the Year. Two weeks after Big Tens, the team was in Tuscaloosa, Ala. for the 'r r. a. . _ a_ -- x . -1_ 1 ::. _ .__ :.: