12A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 4, 1996
'M' women's gymnastics bound for Baton Rouge
By Kevin Kasibors
Daily Sports Writer
The field for the
central-regional
championships,
to be held in Ba-
ton Rouge, La.,
April 13, has been
finalized. The top
seed is defending
regional cham-
pion Alabama.
Michigan, which
won its fifth
straight Big Ten
c ham p ionship
women's gymnastics
Notebook
rivals Michigan State and Minnesota, the
No. 3 and No. 5 seeds, respectively.
Fourth-seeded Iowa State, No. 6 Auburn
and the host, No.7 Louisiana State, round
out the field.
As the top seed, Alabama will have the
luxury of performing the four events in
Olympic order - vault, bars, beam and
then floor exercise. Most teams prefer
this order because they are familiar with
it - home teams use it during the regular
season.
The nation is divided into five regions.
The five regional champions and the next
seven highest-scoring teams, regardless
of region, will advance to the national
championship meet. The central region is
considered to be strong and will likely
send more than one team to nationals.
This is the fifth consecutive appear-
ance for the Wolverines in the regional
meet, but they have yet to win it. Michi-
gan finished second in 1992 and second
again when it hosted the meet last season.
Men's tennis
The Michigan men's tennis team
dropped to No. 22 ir the latest Intercolle-
giate Tennis Association's Rolex Colle-
giate Rankings released Tuesday.
The Wolverines(3-1 Big Ten,8-7 over-
all) lost a Big Ten dual match last Satur-
day to Penn State but rebounded to defeat
Wisconsin on Sunday.
Individually, Michigan's No. I singles
player Peter Pusztai retained his ranking,
staying at No.22 with a 30-10 record this
year. Pusztai is coming off four consecu-
tive victories at first singles after a sea-
son-high two-match losing streak.
At first doubles, Pusztai teams with
senior John Costanzo to form the No. 24
doubles tandem in the nation. The pair
split its last two matches and is 12-8 on the
season. Pusztai and Costanzo fell five
spots afterreaching a season-high No. 17.
Against the Big Ten, Pusztai is a per-
fect 12-0, and leads the Wolverines in
tournament victories with 20. Michigan
is in action this weekend with home games
against Purdue and Illinois.
- Richard Shin
Women's golf
The Michigan women's golfteam heads
into this weekend's Lady Buckeye Invi-
tational riding a wave of momentum, and
Katy Loy is a big reason why.
The freshman from Ann Arbor's Pio-
neer High School won the individual title
at the Saluki Invitational. Her two-round
score of 154 led the Wolverines to the
team title. Her first-place finish was a
dramatic improvement on her lasttourna-
mentin which sheplaced 15th. She shaved
nine strokes off her previous score to win
the invitational.
Loy has become the star on a strong
Wolverine squad that may qualify for the
NCAA regionals for the first time in the
20-year history of the program.
Loy won the Michigan State high school
title three times during her career and was
named Miss Golf in Michigan as ajunior
and a senior.
-John Friedberg
last weekend, qualified as the No. 2 seed.
Besides the Crimson Tide, the Wolver-
i nes willI have to contend with conference
Men's track
racing into
relays today
By Kim Hart
For the Daily
The Michigan men's track and field
team dashed off early this moming*
Williamsburg, Va., for the 34th running
of the Colonial Relays.
The College of William and Mary is
hosting the 178 participants in the three-
day event for high school, college and
club teams. The meet is mostly for relay
competitions, but there will be individual
and open categories.
The college events open tomorrow
morning, and the Wolverines can hardly
wait.
Coach Jack Harvey was pleased w
the performances at last weekend's
Gainesville Relays, but because of the
rain, only a few members actually ran.
Last weekend was supposed be a time for
younger runners to get some experience
outdoors, as well as practice time for
returning members.
"We just want to get outside and run,"
Harvey said before yesterday's practice.
"The weather just hasn't permitted u*
be out there, so we're going to take the
opportunity this weekend and see how we
do."
The team took advantage of the nice
weather and headed to Eastern Michigan
for their first practice outdoors.
Even though the majority ofthe meet is
dedicated to relays, and Michigan will be
represented in most of them, several men
will be participating in the individual
events as well.
Two runners are looking to place in
individual portion of the meet. Neil
Gardner, who is fighting off a cold, will
be running in the high and intermediate
hurdles, and freshman Todd Snyder will
be competingin the men's 5,000.
The coaches are also optimistic about
individual performances in the field
events. Stan Johanningwill bein Friday's
open javelin contest, and Brian Wildfong
will be in the shot put and discus conte
Jon Royce and Damon DeVasher
hoping to bound over the other competi-
tors in the high jump.
The 4 x 400- and the 4 x 100-meter
relay teams are taking the momentum
from last weekend's times and trying to
improve. The younger members of the
team are excited and hope for a chance to
finally compete.
Championship heats will start late to-
morrow afternoon and continue Satur-
day.
'M' golfers
driving for
NCAA bid
By Jennifer Hodulik
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's golf team has
never reached the NCAA regional tour-
nament in its 20-year history.
But a tournament win at the Saluki
Invitational last weekend placed the
Wolverines in an excel lentposition, head-
ing into the Lady Buckeye Invitational, to
take their talent to the next level.
The 15-team field at Columbus t
weekend will feature all of the Big Ten
teams (minus Penn State) including pe-
rennial conference powerhouses Indiana
and Ohio State. Highly regarded Arizona
will also be on hand, along with Iowa
State, another regional bubble team.
Michigan coach Kathy Teichert be-
lievesthatan upset ofone ofthe top teams
could be akey ingredient to a tournament
berth.
"We're awfully close (to makiW
regionals)," Teichert said. "We need to
pick off a high-caliber team such as Indi-
ana to meet our goal of a top-four finish."
A committee of coaches selecting the
regional field will choose the top three
teams out of Michigan's 30-team Mid-
west district. The criteria fortheir choices
will be head-to-head competition within
the district, individual and team finishes
in competition, and team stroke averages.
The Wolverines' first-place finish 1
weekend was an important step in meet-
ing qualification criteria and was high-
lighted by freshman Katy Loy's first-ever
collegiate medalist honor.
Joining Loy on the trip to Columbus
will be seniorcaptain Shannon McDonald,
who also has a first-place finish under her
belt on the season and leads the team in
stroke average with a 79.25.
Rounding outthis weekend's team w' I
be freshmen Sharon Park and Sa
Lindholm, sophomore Laura Tzakis and
junior Wendy Westfall.
"Our win at (the Saluki) put us in a
great position heading into this tourna-
ment," Tzakis said. "We hope to keep ou
momentum going for the rest of the sea-
Of.1VIN XI3 %t ~-TEMER NT.