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 &~ ~ 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."