10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 29, 1996 Silverston Invitational last chance for women's track NCAA hopefuls' +::g;.s. EA SE K EP W L ?CUA 0 M UNIVERSIITY HOUSING $0 Down. 8-Month lease. Spring undt Summer Terms Optional. By Jiten Ghelani Daily Sports Writer Final call for the flight to Indianapolis. Grab your spot now or wait until next year. Step on the accelerator or you'll never get there in sufficient time. Some of the runners on the Michigan women's track and field team face this scenario heading into the Silverston Invitational. The Invitational will be held Saturday at the Track and Tennis Building. Who will participate in the invitational? That is still up in the air. "(We) don't know who all will be attending," Michigan coach James Henry said. Numerous teams will send one or two runners to the invitational, Henry said. Each team will be represented by participants who are still.trying to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships. Scheduled for March 8-9 in India- napolis, the National Indoors are just over a week away. This meet is a bit different from a normal race. The major focus of this invitational is to race against the clock, not against other runners. In terms of atmosphere, the events will be less tactical, with the make-it-or-break-it attitude domi- nating. The runners, worrying solely about their own times, will only participate in one or two events each. "They will be fresh. (It's) how motivated they are," Henry said. The invitational will be somewhat laid-back, but don't expect any of the Wolverine runners to kick back and relax. Because the runners will not be preoccupied with placing, they will have to look elsewhere for motivation. Overall, this weekend will more or less be an opportunity for every individual to do her best and pick out the event she is strongest in, Henry said. Seniors Monika Black and Courtney Babcock are the only two from the Michigan squad who already have sopts waiting in Indianapolis. Babcock, a five-time All-American, will be sitting out this weekend. Black, on the other hand, will compete in the high jump even though she has already qualified. The only member left from the 1994 NCAA IndoorCham- pion distance-medley team, Babcock may be running the medley again in Indianapolis. It all depends upon how other teams do this weekend. Babcock is certain to run the 3,000- and 5,000-meter and mile events at the championships. Currently, Iwo Wolverine distance-medley teams are ranked. The ninth-place relay is run by Babcock, junior Lamika Harper, and freshmen Sarah Hamilton and Katie McGregor. The 10th-place team features the same mem* bers except sophomore Michelle Slater runs in place of McGregor. The top 10 ranked relays qualify for nationals, and as of rightnow one ofthe two teams wouldbe running. Michigan's medley, however, will be idle because no other medleys are expected to enter. One contender putting heat on Michigan will be Provi- dence, which will run the medley at a different site. If Providence runs a faster qualifying time than either Wol- verine tandem, the Michigan medley may be forced out of the top 10 by any other qualifying relay. All the Wolveriner can do is wait and hope they are still in the top 10 by the en of the weekend. Michigan has quite a few other runners on the bubble, hoping to achieve personal-best qualifying times. Senior Tearza Johnson will run the 60 and 200 sprints. Freshman Nicole Forrester has a chance to qualify in the high jump. Sophomore Tania Longe will compete in the hurdles and triple jump. Hamilton and fellow freshman Angela Stanifer will run in the 800. McGregor will try to qualify in the 3000 or the mile. Slater is looking for a good showing in the 3000. Also, the mile relay team of Harpeg1 Johnson, sophomore Brandy Taylor and freshman Sheryl Omar may be able to squeak in. Sophomore Pauline Arnill will not be able to compete due to a sore leg. The diagnosis is presently unclear. Arnill qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championship in the mile as a freshman. Her date of return has not been determined, but she probably will not be back before the outdoor season. The freshmen on the brink should be pleased with their progress and success whether their bubbles burst or not, said assistant coach Mike McGuire. The team as a whole expects only its best effort. "They know they are capable of running faster. (It'* time to put the pedal to the metal," McGuire said. I Men's track hosts weekend meet By Pranay Reddy Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's track team would just as soon forget last weekend in Columbus. After a lackluster sixth-place finish at the Big Ten Cham- pionships last weekend, the Wolverines end their indoor season quietly this Saturday at noon, when they host the Silverston Invitational. Nebraska, Eastern Michigan, Michigan State and Illinois will all be in town this weekend for the meet. "This should be a relatively low-key weekend," Wol- verine assistant coach Ron Warhurst said. "(Team mo- rale) is low for (us), just about as low as among the coaches." The Michigan coaches gave runners the option to not run. Therefore, most runners are using practice time to prepare for the upcoming outdoor season, rather than Saturday's invita- tional. This meet is primarily viewed as a last chance for teams to qualify for the NCAA Championships. "We have one goal this weekend -to qualify our distance medley team for the NCAAs," Warhurst said. The NCAA Championships will be held in Indianapolis on March 8 and 9. The Wolverines, defending national champions in the distance medley, are still preparing for this weekend's meet. Defending NCAA indoor mile champion Kevin Sullivan will run the mile leg, despite nursing an injured Achilles' tendon. Scott MacDonald will run the three-quarter mile leg, while Trinity Townsend runs the half-mile leg. Townsend was runner-up in the 800-meter race at the Big Ten Championships. The quarter-mile runner still has not been decided. The Wolverine distance medley runners aren't the only ones who have to perform well Saturday in order to qualify for the national championships. The invitational has special importance for high jumper Jon Royce as well. Royce hao outside shot at qualifying, and needs to do especially well in order to have any chance. "Jon Royce needs at least (a jump of) 7-foot-3 in order to qualify," Michigan head coach Jack Harvey said. Wolverine hurdler Neil Gardner also has a chance to qualify for the NCAAs. Gardner, though, will not be able to compete this weekend and bolster his chances of making the cut. Gardner is suffering from bronchitis, which he picked up while in Columbus. Nevertheless, Gardner feels his runner- up finish in the 55-meter high hurdles at the Big TensAt weekend is enough to earn him a spot at the national ch - pionships. "Right now all I'm concerned about is getting better," Gardner said. Gardner is not the only one with a difficult road ahead of him. Sullivan faces a deeper field than last year. The condi- tion of Sullivan's Achilles' tendon doesn't help his efforts to repeat, either. "(Sullivan's) not running as well as last year due to his Achilles' (tendon)," Harvey said. "(The tendon) has ham- pered his racing as well as his training." Currently, Sullivan's mile time of 4:03 is ninth-best na- tionally. George Mason University's Julius Achon and Ibrahim Aden, who ran the best two times of the year so fai (3:57 and 4:00 respectively), look to be the favorites. Six other runners ahead of Sullivan have run roughly 4:02, SWIMMERS Continued from Page 8A Natatorium competing at the Trials are Tom Dolan and John Piersma. First-time travelers on the Wolverine squad are not strangers to the pool; though. Mal chow and fellow freshmen John Reich and Andy Potts have competed in India- napolis at various national and qualifying meets. Also making the trip is junior Toby Booker. Unlike most people looking to slow down on their vacations and take time off from theirjobs, the swimmers are looking forward to speeding up. "(Indianapolis) is a fast pool, which is obvious from the way everyone swam last year (at NCAAs)," Reich said. But this week, the pool will have no memory of the Wolverines, or anyone, for that matter. The water is the same for all in Indianapolis. And like most vacation-goers, th swimmers will not travel with copies o1 their resumes. "When it comes down to the ra really don't care that the guy next t( - did this-that-andrthe-other-thing. But h( also doesn't care that I did this-that-and- the-other-thing," Lancaster said. "It's on of the few times that it doesn't matterwh plays, it's who wins that's important." 01 4 "We've got the erfect key for the 72-Month lease lock." RegistPation for the campus-wide drawing starts today. 01 S K m I