10- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, December 4, 1996 Michigan harriers bow to sun gods Wolverines experience heat exhaustion, poor finishes at NCAA Championship By Jacob Wheeler Daily Sports Writer It's too bad the Michigan men's cross country team couldn't finish its season on a high note, on some cool Midwestern course closer to home. Instead, the college careers of seniors Scott MacDonald, Dave Barnett and Jeff Beuche were left in the Tucson, Ariz., desert heat like three lonely cacti. Circumstances might have been dif- ferent had last Monday's NCAA Championship been held in a climate more to Michigan's liking. Instead, the Wolverines were forced to run in 70 degree temperatures all day. Michigan was shooting for the top eight overall and hoping to land two run- ners in the top 10. But John Mortimer and Scott MacDonald both suffered from heat exhaustion, and ran their worst races of the season. After winning all but one race in the regular season, Mortimer fell to 116th last Monday. H ing the race. "At 2,000 m e t e r s, (Mortimer and MacDonald) were in the 20s, but John looked terri- ble," Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "H a l f way through the race he was still back there." Mortimer is only a sopho- more, howev- e almost passed out dur- the race" the senior co-captain said. "The heat and dry weather hindered The heat and dry weeather Hindered mee. I didn'T have my muwl e $ ng like I wanted therm to."f - Scott MacDonald Michigan cross country runner me. I didn't have my muscles firing like I wanted them to." But Monday's race wasn't MacDonald's last major event. He sees bigger things on the horizon. "I'll take a few years to run inter- nationally, but I don't feel I've hit my peak yet. The 2000 Olympics are a big goal of mine.' The last four have been held in tions was a mistake' Warhurst said. "They've got to be considerate of ath- letes coming from cooler weather." The top five finishers included teams like Stanford, Arkansas, Colorado and Oklahoma State, which are already used to dry conditions. "We would have needed a week to get adjusted to those conditions," MacDonald said. "But NCAA rules only let us arrive two days in advance.' Steve Lawrence was the only Michigan runner who ran up to Warhurst's expectations Monday. "Steve ran very well. He was the third or fourth freshman to finish," Warhurst said. Lawrence and freshman Jay Cantin were pleasant surprises all year. The Wolverines should have a solid squad next season with Cantin, Mortimer and Lawrence returning. Kevin Sullivan, who redshirted this season due to injury, will join Mortimer, Lawrence and Cantin next year. er, and has two more years to break the top 10 at nationals. MacDonald finished 43rd in Tucson, his last race as a Wolverine. "I just couldn't move up at the end of years, the NCAAs1 Bloomington; Lehigh, Penn.; Fayetville, Ark.; and Ames, Iowa: all towns with cooler temperatures. "Holding it under (Monday's) condi- DAMIAN PETRESCU!Daly The Michigan men's cross country team, hampered by extreme heat and desert conditions, suffered its worst performance of the season at NCAAs in Tucson, Ariz. .. GRAPPLERS Continued from Page 9 I have seen at any of our tourna- ments," Bahr said. "We knew he was extremely tal- ented when we recruited him, but to win two of your first three tourna- ments and finish second at the other is impressive." Among the other underclassmen who wrestled well for the Wolverines were freshman Otto Olson and sophomores Corey Grant and Jeff Reese. Grant finished fourth after plac- ing first and second, respectively, in the Wolverines' previous two meets. The lone champion for Michigan was junior Jeff Catrabone, who defeated Kevin Wilot, 4-0, to capture the 167-pound title. Catrabone is ranked third in the nation. He is unbeaten this season and needs only three more victories to amass 100 for his Michigan career. "No one has touched Jeff yet," Bahr said. "He has the tools to be one of the top wrestlers at 167 pounds." Junior Bill Lacure took second in the tournament despite wrestling up at 158 pounds. Lacure lost a close 5- 4 match to Matt Hughes of Eastern Illinois. "I kind of sat on my lead and lost control at the end of the match," he said. Lacure said it was possible that moving up a weight class put him at a disadvantage. "I don't want to make excuses, but it might have (played a part in the loss)," Lacure said. "He was big- ger than me." Lacure will move down to his reg- ular weight of 150 for the dual-meet season. Heavyweight Airron Richardson matched his second-place finish at the Michigan Open on Nov. 24. Richardson is ranked fifth in the nation and has lost only two matches this season. Bahr said the only disappointment of the tournament was that the' Wolverines only had one champion. "We wrestled really well all day, but then lost in the last match," Bahr said. "We've got to win in the finals." There was no team-scoring in the tournament, and the Wolverines were allowed to enter an unlimited number of wrestlers per weight class. The Wolverines travel to Lxs Vegas this weekend for their first team tournament. Read Daily Sports m m /' .