28 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, April 22, 1996
'M' nets split, ends Big Ten play
By etn Ghelani
Daily Sports Writer
In ahectic weekend full of change, the
Michigan women's tennis team found
some things remained the same.
The Wolverines defeated a struggling
Iowa squad on the road Saturday, 4-3,and
then hurried to Minnesota for an early
match the next day, but fell short, 5-2.
As usual, Michigan found itself in an
early hole and had a tough time crawl-
ingout. In both matches the Wolverines
lost the doubles point and put pressure
on the singles players to pull out a
victory.
Coach Bitsy Ritt had changed the
doubleslineup for this weekend to try and
claim the first point of the match. Ritt's
attempts were to no avail. Neither the No.
2 nor the No. 3 doubles tandems came up
with a win as Michigan's doubles prob-
lems continued.
The Hawkeyes had been tinkering with
theirdoubles lineup as well. On Saturday
it was quite clear that Iowa's No. 2 team
was better than its No. 1 team.
Though it could have been that Erin
Wolverton and Krissy Campbell had an
off day at the top spot, it is more likely that
Hawkeye coach Jenny Mainz decided to
put their better duo at No. 2 because
Michigan's Sarah Cyganiak and Sora
Moon seem unbeatable at No. 1. The
maneuver turned out to be a successful
one for Mainz.
Once again, it was up to the singles
players to take four matches out of six in
order for Michigan to win. The singles
have been able to bail the team out against
weaker teams, but they haven't had simi-
lar success against the stronger Big Ten
teams. This same trend held in this
weekend's matches.
Iowa went into the match winless in the
conference, and the Wolverines were able
to take advantage of the lesser team, with
the top four players winning in straight
sets.
"It was good to see the singles win their
matches against Iowa," Ritt said. "Each
ofthe top three players were down in their
match at one point or another."
Minnesota, on the other hand, is a
better team than the Hawkeyes and is tied
for fifth with Michigan.
The singles play of the Wolverines
wasn't enough to oust the Gophers. Min-
nesota prevailed in a close match by win-
ning two three-set matches at the third
and fifth spots. At No. 3, Michigan's
Tumeka Harris lost a close match to Jen-
nifer Hayes, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Sibyl Smith
won her first set but fell to Tarah Elkins,
1-6, 6-4, 6-0, at No. 5.
Michigan's most dependable players
didn't let the team down in either match.
Cyganiak and Moon posted two victories
and finished the Big Ten season with a
perfect 10-0 mark. The 26th-ranked duo
cruised past Erin Wolverton and Krissy
Campbell of Iowa, 8-2, and then won
against Dana Peterson and JenniferHayes
of Minnesota, 8-6.
Co-captains Cyganiak and Tara Graff
continued their solid singles play. Both
players won twice over the weekend.
Cyganiak, ranked No. 76, dropped the
first set to Minnesota's Peterson, but then
took command the rest of the way and
ousted the No. 75 player, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Graff, a senior, ended her final Big Ten
season on a positive note. She was victo-
rious in straight sets in both matches. She
was looking for revenge this past week-
end. Jenni Svehla of Minnesota and
Wolverton of Iowa had both defeated
Graff in the fall season.
Michigan's Sibyl Smith lost two matches this weekend against Iowa and Minnesota.
Tournament takes toll...
on Blue men's golfers
Despite taking 14th,'M' shines in third round t-x
Kansas detour can't
sidetrack runners
Men run well in late addition to schedule;
Wolverines also strong in field events
By John Friedberg
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's golf team fin-
ished the final round of the Kepler Invi-
tational with the best score - of the
round.
Unfortunately, their first two rounds
were too poor to overcome. The Wol-
verines finished the weekend in 14th
place out of the 18 teams.
Michigan's finish was deceiving,
however. It's 945 was only nine strokes
from seventh place
Tough wind, bad course conditions
and difficult pin placements contrib-
uted to the high scores in the tourna-
ment.
Michigan golfers were not only the
players who struggled. The leader after
the first two rounds was five over par,
andthe average score in the tournament
was 78.5 on the par-72 course.
Winningthe event was Matt Minister
ofOhio State, who shot a 224. Minister
was competing as a non-scoring player
for the Buckeyes. He edged Iowa's
Laine Bratner by a single stroke. The
two were even heading into the final
round before Minister squeaked out the
victory.
BigTengolferstookthetop sixplaces
over the weekend in this tightly con-
tested tournament. These six were sepa-
rated by a mere three strokes.
Despite not having Minister's total,
Ohio State still had enough to win the
ebent. Northwestern was right behind
tle Buckeyes finishing a single stroke
back. The Big Ten swept the top three
slots with Minnesota finishing third.
"This was the toughest course that
we played all season," Michigan coach
Jim Carras said. "We gained on Sun-
day,but unfortunately it was not enough
to move us out of 14th."
-There were many positives over the
v ieekend forthe Wolverines despite the
poor finish, most notably the play of
Ciris Brockway.
The senior captain, who had to play
his way into the lineup this week, shot
the best round of the tournament, firing
a one-under-par 71 yesterday.
Brockway was the. best finisher for
Michigan shooting a 232 for the week-
end to finish in a tie for 19th. Had
Brockway not shot an 84 in the second
round, his finish would have been much
higher.
"It was the Brockway of yesteryear
(yesterday)," Carras said. "We need
him to play like he did today."
The only other Wolverine golfer who
finished in the top 30 was David Jasper.
Jasper was very steady during the tour-
nament: He shot 80s in the first two
rounds and finished with a 75 yester-
day. His 75 was a key to Michigan's
strong finish.
Kyle Dobbs shot a 241 to finish in a
tie for 61st. The junior had a good
news-bad news weekend.
The good news was his consistency.
His best round was only three strokes
better than his worst round.
The bad news was his best round was
a 79. His 80 and 82 were too much to
overcome, but his scores were typical
of the weekend as the Wolverines aver-
aged an 80 over the tournament.
"Kyle Dobbs played respectably this
weekend and had his moments of good
play," Carras said.
Freshman Isaac Hinkle also had a
tough time this weekend, but showed
signs of coming around. The freshman
placed 66th in event, but also had a 78
in the second round. His first and third
rounds of 82 prevented him from fin-
ishing higher.
Keith Hinton was the fifth golfer for
the Wolverines this weekend. Hinton
had a weekend that was plagued by
inconsistency. In fact, his weekend mir-
rored the weekend for the whole team.
Hinton shot an 81 in the first round
when Michigan struggled to a 317 team
score. His 90 in the second round ac-
companied the team's jump to a 324.
Hinton saved his best for last as his 78
helped Michigan to their best round of
the weekend, 304.
By Kim Hart
Daily Sports Writer
The men's and women's track and
field teams sent a few good men and
women to Lawrence, Kan., for the
Kansas Relays.'The teams were origi-
nally scheduled to compete at home
this weekend, but because of an un-
finished track, the men made alterna-
tive plans about two weeks ago, and
the women made a decision to send a
few fielders late last week.
The Wolverines gave a strong per-
formance in Kansas in all of their
events. Stan Johanning opened the
weekend for the team on Friday by
finishing fifth in the javelin with a
throw of 63.36 meters. Also on Fri-
day were the preliminary heats of the
400-meter hurdles where junior
Damon DeVasher finished first in his
section with a time of 50.88 seconds.
Friday was also the opening day for
the women competing in Kansas. The
Wolverines gave a strong showing in
the shot put by finishing sixth, eighth
and 10th. Jayna Greiner was sixth
with a toss of 13.33, freshman
Stephanie Wigness eighth, tossing at
a distance of 12.86, and Nikki Keith,
another freshman, had a throw of 12.78
to finish 10th.
Amy Johnson competed in the jav-
elin contest and finished in seventh
place with a throw of 41.82, and Sarah
Clauw was 21st in the hammer throw
with a distance of 38.52 to close out
Friday's competition.
The second day of competition sent
most of the men to the track, and the rest
ofthe men and women to finish the field
events.
In individual running contests,
Neil Gardner finished first in the
110-high hurdles with a time of
13.95, and he finished second in the
400 hurdles with a time of 50.39.
Trinity Townsend finished fifth in
the 800 with a time of 1:53.10.
"I wasn't happy with myperformapcp
- I didn't run a smart race, but some-
times that happens," Townsend said.
In the relay portion of Saturday's
events, the 4 x 400 quartet of Brian
Renaldi, Jeff Wood, Todd Burnham
and Townsend finished in first place
with a time of 3:08.57, and the 4 x 100
relay team of Andy Schoelch, Ea
Gibson, DeVasher and Gardner posted
a time of 41.31 for a third-place finish.
"I think this was one of our better
meets, and by looking at how well the 4
x 400 did, we have a lot to look forward
to," Townsend said.
Back in the field, the Wolverine
women finished second and third in
the high jump with a leap of 1.80
meters from Nicole Forrester, and a
leap of 1.76 meters from Mo ia
Black. Wigness returned for the
cus contest and finished fifth with a
throw of 43.82.
DeVasher finished 10th in the high
jump with a leap of 2.04, and Brian
Wildfong finished 12th in the discus
contest with a throw of 47.58.
Part of the men's track team went to
Michigan State to run in the Spring
Sports Festival. The official results foi
the contest were unavailable late*1
night.
"As a whole, it was a really good
day (in East Lansing) for the team,'
sprinter Damon Hart said. "The 4 i
100 relay team finished in first place.
the mile relay finished in second, and
a lot of runners, individually, had goo
races."
Several members of both the team
spent the weekend in Ann Arbor prac-
ticing and relaxing in preparation foi
the Penn Relays, which begir
Thursday. This is a very importan
contest for the Wolverines, and the)
are looking for strong performances
in all events.
Chris Brockway and the Wolverines chipped into 14th place at the Kepler invite.
Although the Wolverines finished a
disappointing 14th, Carras saw some
good things.
"I feel that we are progressing and I
was encouraged by our last round,"
Carras said. "Our next tournament is
not until after finals, so hopefully we
can come back and have a good, solid
week of practice."
After finals conclude, Michigan trav-
els to East Lansing for the Spartan Invi-
tational on May 4-5. The Spartan Invi-
tational is the last regular season tour-
nament for the Wolverines.
I
Take The Eas
OutOf Co i
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U- .
- ri
Controversial
sportscaste?.
eshe
aireat
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS - Jimmy "The G k
Snyder, who parlayed oddsmaking l
and a gift for gab into national prom
nencebefore his television career cra she
over ill-advised remarks.about black ith
letes, died yesterday.
Snyder, 76, died of heart failuret
local hospital after a long illness,: sai
longtime friend Tommy Manakide$.
Snyder, who at his peak was a colorfi
and often-quotedCBS Sports commenti
tor, lived his late years in virtual obs t
after being fired by the network in 8
for saying that black athletes were supt
rior to whites.
"He really just went downhill afte
that," said longtime Las Vegas gambl
Lem Banker. "It was a shame. He was re;
bitter. He got a bum deal from them."